Feb 11 2008
Emergency Food Storage?
By admin
Freeze Dried Food – This type of food is usually stored in #10 can, but is also available in smaller pouches like MREs. Freeze dried foods taste great because the foods retain their taste, texture, and shape of fresh frozen foods. …
Feb 08 2008
MRE or “Meals Ready to eat” are military style food rations.
There are two categories of MRE, military MRE and commecial MRE.
Military meals ready to eat are made for the US military and the armed forces of other countries.
They are sometimes sold on eBay but there is risk there as the military considers this illegal as they want to discourage theft of their property. There is also risk as the age and storage conditions the MRE experienced before you bought it will be unknown perhaps even to the seller. Military MRE cased of 12 sell for as little as $40 on eBay ($3.33 per meal) which is less than $72 ($6 per meal) average case price of commercial MRE. Besides risk you should also consider shipping costs which online retailers may charge less than $15 where eBay sellers sometimes charge a lot more for shipping and “handling”.
The main difference between military and commercial MRE (that is good commercial MRE from main brands such as Sopakco, MRE Star, aPack) is calories and sodium levels.
This 2 minute video shows you the difference in contents between Military and Commercial MRE;
They choose an inferior commercial MRE package I do not recognize but the information is useful. The best source online for MRE information is mreinfo.com. There is great forum where people who love to talk about MRE exchange information and stories about MRE.
Military MRE has high sodium content as they are intended for short term on the go use. Military MRE has 1250 to 1300 calories whereas until recently commercial MREs had less. Some commercial MREs have only 700 calories. MRE Star’s commercial MREs now have average of 1,100-1,300 calories.
Some reasons why they are a popular choice for survival food;
Military MRE is often sold against government regulations on eBay. Also if you go to a local military surplus shop it is likely they will have some. However there is some risk as the seller likely does not know the history of how the MRE was stored. Even if the military MRE has a date code in last year you still don’t know if it spent a couple months in the desert which use up most of it’s shelf life. Commercial MRE can likely be found at your local camping and outdoors shop.
Commercial MRE is available in 12 meal cases online. There is also bulk MRE pricing for pallet loads of MRE.\
Here are some online site that sell MRE;
You can best use MRE for emergency situations where you “are on the go” . Also if you do not want to waste time cooking or do not want the hassle of bring cooking equipment with you. MRE’s are the most convenient survival food choice.
MRE cost is about $6 per meal plus shipping for a case of 12. You can get discounts if you buy larger quantities.
There are often periods where MREs become unavailable due to being bought up by relief agencies dealing with a disaster. The price increases for awhile then goes back to about $6 meal or $72 per case.
Shipping is not included with most supplier if you order one case, but some will offer free shipping if the order is more than $100.
For a food reserve for periods longer than a week however, a “freeze dried food” reserve is better in terms of space and cost per meal. You will need water for freeze dried food which, although hydrates quickly, is nevertheless is not as “ready to eat”.
Feb 07 2008
From wildfires to hurricanes or any number of other natural phenomena, disaster can strike no matter where you live. In some cases, you’ll be required to leave your home with only moments to spare. In other situations, you might have to take refuge inside your home and survive for days or weeks without essential services, such as water, gas and electricity. Because of this, emergency supplies are becoming mainstream commodities for disaster preparedness. In fact, the American Red Cross recommends assembling an emergency supplies kit containing water, MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) (http://www.campingsurvival.com/mreskits.html) , a first aid kit, clothing and bedding. They also suggest storing a tent, sleeping bags, mess kits, fire extinguisher, can opener, rain gear, and a map of the area for locating shelters.
“Nobody can forget the images of the people in New Orleans walking across the bridges to get away from the flooding,” said Tom Sciacca, President of Camping Survival.com. “More recently, we’ve seen the catastrophic effect of tornadoes. In a situation where you have to get out of your home quickly, an emergency supplies kit will be your best friend.”
The American Red Cross recommendations include a minimum three-day supply of food that requires no refrigeration or cooking. This can be ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, and vegetables. MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) – a staple of US military and rescue operations – is another popular way to provide food supplies. MRE is convenient for also, as it’s pre-cooked and ready to eat from the pouch.
“The modern MRE is light years beyond the old military rations,” Sciacca explained. “The MRE we carry at CampingSurvival.com are available in a variety of flavors, including Beef Ranchero Meat Loaf, Jamaican Pork Chop, Chicken with Cavatelli and Black Bean and Rice Burrito. The MRE are not just entrees, but full meals, including side dishes, dessert, crackers, spread and coffee. MRE will ensure you and your family are fed while others are stampeding supermarket shelves in the aftermath of a disaster.”
The Red Cross guidelines also call for a minimum of a three-day supply of water available for each person. The recommend you compile a first aid kit (http://www.campingsurvival.com/firstaidkits.html) with bandages, antiseptic wipes, small scissors and latex gloves. Keep the most crucial items you are likely to need during an evacuation in an easy-to carry container like a large, covered trash container, camping backpack, or duffle bag.
“In an emergency, you can never count on being able to find safe, drinkable water,” said Sciacca. “Bottled water is fine until you run out – will you be able to find more A water filter system (http://www.campingsurvival.com/watpur.html) is a long-term way to ensure safe water for your family.
With all the emergency supplies you could conceivably put into your emergency kit, you could spend an eternity shopping for the necessary items. Sciacca says that the easiest way is to purchase a high quality ”
Camping Survival.com Now Offers Over 20K Products Including MRE and Emergency Survival Kits
Feb 05 2008
With the economic situation becoming worse and worse every week, many are looking at survival food options. Survival food reserves, traditionally for major disaster preparedness, also serve as great way to prepare for family hardships resulting from an economic depression.
Most everyone agrees that we shouldn’t depend on government emergency support. But only 7% of have taken action to be prepared, according to the American Red Cross.
I have sorted through the pros and cons of four survival food options below with these needs in mind.
Two survival specific options, other than bulk canned foods and grains that you may not be as familiar with are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze Dried Food. MRE is what the military uses for mobile activities, but it is available from the same manufacturers as civilian MRE. Freeze dried food is a more longer storing type of food reserve that is also used by the military and government agencies as well as campers and backpackers. Freeze dried food has 98% of water removed and in sealed cans it can store for 25 years.
Freeze dried food and MRE have long to very long storage life for emergency food reserves and most importantly require little or no preparation, water, and no cooking equipment.
Here are some commercial examples of MRE & freeze dried food;
See Examples of;
Family & One Year Food Reserves
MRE (meals ready to eat) Reserves
If you take just a few minutes to read below about the advantages and disadvantages of survival food options to make a wiser more well informed choice.
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The conventional wisdom offered by our governments and dedicated survivalists is to go to your local supermarket or big box store and buy canned food and dry grains and carefully store them. There are limitations to this survival food strategy that are highlighted below.
Buy the canned foods, dehydrated foods and grains, and bottled water as many government agencies recommend. Store in your house or apartment.
Advantages
Disadvantages
See Examples of Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves
Advantages
See Examples of Various MRE (meals ready to eat) Reserves
Advantages
Disadvantages
Same strategy as the first option, except you actively manage storing and ‘cycle’ inventory of goods. As you buy new food you use up the old canned food so that the food store is less than the expiry date of the canned food.
Advantages
Disadvantages
As you can see there are a lot of benefits to Freeze Dried Food over the other options making it the superior choice as a bulk survival food.
Besides survival food it is also necessary to have a good water storage plan to be prepared. See more information on water storage and filter products.
KT
Freeze Dried Food
Family One year Food Reserves
Group Food Reserve 50 people X 7 days or 10 people X 35 days
45 day – 6 weeks Freeze Dried Food
MRE
Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)
Nitro-pak has Free Shipping to contiguous US on orders over $100 and a 120-Day ‘No-Risk’ Guarantee
TheReadyStore has Free Shipping to contiguous US on orders over $100
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Jan 30 2008
Myths about Disasters – Emergency Preparedness Survival Food …
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We provide disaster nutrition expert advice and resources on food storage, long shelf-life food, organic whole food nutrition, food packs, healthy MREs, and disaster meals. We are committed to helping you get prepared for natural …
Emergency Disaster Preparedness… – http://emergencydisastersurvivalfood.blogspot.com/
Jan 28 2008
Preparing Mentally – Emergency Disaster Preparedness Survival Food …
By Josiah Friberg(Josiah Friberg)
We provide disaster nutrition expert advice and resources on food storage, long shelf-life food, organic whole food nutrition, food packs, healthy MREs, and disaster meals. We are committed to helping you get prepared for natural …
Emergency Disaster Preparedness… – http://emergencydisastersurvivalfood.blogspot.com/
Jan 23 2008
Perma Pak Emergency Food Storage preparedness foods, food storage …
Prepare for the future – with our low moisture food storage products. These high quality, easy to prepare foods can be used in place of or along with the …
Jan 23 2008
Worth Repeating
Survival and the Next Big Disaster: Rely on Yourself, Not the Government
Emergency kits and first aid supplies can keep your family alive when food, water, gas, electricity, or medical services are disrupted by disaster
(PRWEB) November 29, 2005 — Think you can rely on the government for your family’s survival after a disaster? Consider the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and the Kashmir earthquake in the last year alone. While governments strive to help, downed gas, water, electric, phone, and medical services, not to mention roads, may delay help for days or weeks. And government services may be overwhelmed. Meanwhile, you and your family must fend for yourselves. Will you be ready?
“The country is really just not prepared for a major catastrophic event,” said Dr. Irwin E. Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in a recent BusinessWeek cover story. “Whatever it is — the Big One in San Francisco, a terrorist attack — it doesn’t matter. The unfortunate truth is our ability to imagine and plan for catastrophic disasters is woefully inadequate.”
A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) brochure puts the burden of preparedness on individuals. “It’s 2:00 a.m. and a flash flood forces you to evacuate your home — fast. There’s no time to gather food from the kitchen, fill bottles with water, grab a first-aid kit from the closet and snatch a flashlight and a portable radio from the bedroom. You need to have these items packed and ready in one place before disaster hits.”
While most disasters can’t be avoided, you can prepare for them. According to FEMA, there are six essentials you should stock in your home: food, water, first aid supplies, emergency supplies, tools, special items, clothing and bedding.” FEMA suggests at least a three-day supply of food and water, adding that food requiring no refrigeration, preparation, or cooking is best.
MRE, or “Meals Ready to Eat” — a staple of US military and rescue operations for decades — are a popular way to provide survival food supplies. “Because the MRE are pre-cooked, they’re ready to eat right from the pouch,” says Thomas Sciacca, a former marine, outdoorsman, and President of CampingSurvival.com. “Unlike freeze dried alternatives, the MRE are designed to retain moisture, gravy, and sauces with maximum nutrition, variety, and a five to ten year shelf life.”
Since evacuation or travel may be necessary, it’s also wise to include emergency kits or survival supplies in each car, as well as the office, school, or wherever significant time is spent, suggests Sciacca. The best kits are lightweight, avoid duplication, and suited to the users and environment used in.
While emergency kits and survival supplies can be assembled one item at a time, Sciacca understands that few people set aside the time to do an adequate job of it. “Important items get left out, items get scattered or get old and need to be replaced,” he explains.
Sciacca designed CampingSurvival.com as a one stop shop for survival supplies and emergency supplies — from pocket sized kits to The SuperArk, from family first aid supplies to organization-sized trauma kits, from rain ponchos to solar powered wind up radio. For free Disaster Analysis and promotional pricing, visit the CampingSurvival website at www.campingsurvival.com.
For More Information Contact:
Tom Sciacca
Phone: (800) 537-1339 ext. 222
Fax: 315-592-4796
28 W First St South
Fulton, NY 13069
sales@campingsurvival.com
www.campingsurvival.com
Jan 23 2008
Disaster Survival Solutions Announces One-Stop Earthquake Relief Kits So Bay Area Families Can Be Ready and Safe For the Next Big One — With Just One Click
The QR Center is a customized, comprehensive personal Earthquake Relief Center. Minutes after a natural disaster occurs, an entire family can have a secure, warm, lit shelter with a week of food and water.
San Fransisco (Vocus/PRWEB ) January 22, 2008 — As California recovers from the year’s first big storms, residents might be readying for the next big weather event. One thing they should be more concerned about is whether they are properly prepared today for the next big earthquake, which could happen tomorrow — even during a major storm. Disaster Survival Solutions, a company located just miles from the epicenter of the 1906 earthquake, has taken all the guesswork out of earthquake preparedness and is now delivering and installing the QR Center for Bay Area residents.
T
he Quake Relief Center is a complete earthquake kit, housed in a durable weatherproof deck box, and designed to be located directly outside the home. It contains everything needed to be self-sufficient after a big quake, along with a personalized disaster action plan. Also available is a yearly maintenance service that includes an annual inspection, refresh of all perishable items in the kit, and an update of the personal disaster action plan. With QR Center, just minutes after a natural disaster occurs, Bay Area residents can be sure they will have a secure, warm, sheltered environment with lighting, hygiene essentials, and a week’s supply of food and water. The QR Center offers one-stop, comprehensive disaster relief not available elsewhere.
“When the next big earthquake hits, our customers will be heading out the back door to open their QR Center, assured that everything they will need for at least seven days’ survival is ready and waiting. Meanwhile, those without the resources included in a QR Center will be heading out their front door in search of shelter, supplies, water and food,” says Chris McCloy, founder of Disaster Survival Solutions. “The QR Center is available for immediate delivery and provides complete peace of mind. It provides assurance that a family of up to seven people, plus pets, will have the food, water, shelter, sanitation and hygiene essentials, communication tools, and first-aid supplies they need to be self-sufficient until other resources become available.”
The QR Center is sold in various sizes from 2-person through 7-person. All kits include everything needed to survive outside the home for up to a week as well as the Quake Relief Plan — comprehensive binders that contain step-by-step instructions for before, during and after an earthquake. One binder is stored inside the box, and a second binder is kept inside the home. Copies of vital emergency contact information are printed on small cards that can be stored in wallets, purses, and children’s backpacks. Survival kits for cats and dogs are also available.
After a significant earthquake, McCloy says that many houses will still be standing and possibly even structurally sound. “But they will resemble a shoe box filled with broken glass, debris, broken plaster and slippery liquids. And that box will be shaken again with each aftershock, causing even more damage. You won’t want to be living inside that house for hours, let alone a week — and it will be days to a week before vital services such as water, electricity, and gas service are restored.”
About Disaster Survival Solutions
Disaster Survival Solutions provides the resources families need to sustain themselves for a week or more during a major disaster. The company delivers, installs, and maintains customized QR Centers supplied with the highest-quality provisions. Company experts also provide customers quarterly enewsletters full of timely information about how to protect their families during a catastrophic event. Disaster Survival Solutions is committed to its customers’ safety and wellbeing, and is 100% focused on ensuring its customers and their families get prepared and stay prepared in earthquake country. On the web at www.qrcenter.com.
Jan 21 2008
Emergency Food – What are the options?
Emergency Food Option 1) Buy the can goods, grains, and bottled water as many government agencies recommend. Store in your house or apartment.
- Good, can be done in 2 hours or less
- Bad, most will forget or not store it properly so it will be useless when it is needed
- Bad, Goods are heavy, space is often limited people will not be able to store much
- Bad, grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
- Bad, you will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
- Bad, can goods can destroy appetites after awhile
Emergency Food Option 2) Same as 1 except be more careful in storing and ‘cycle’ inventory of goods buying new food so that food store is always edible.
- Good, food will not be bad when you need it
- Bad, most people do not have the time, space, or inclination to do this
- Bad, grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
- Bad, you will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
-Bad, can goods can destroy appetites after awhile
Emergency Food Option 3) Buy MRE’s (military style – Meals Ready to Eat)
- Good, easy to store and lasts upto 5-7 years in a cool dry place.
- Good, fastest preparation time possible and can be heated fast with “MRE heaters”
- Good, can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
- Bad, relatively expensive per meal and for extended reserve of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year a lot space required to store.
- Bad, lasts only 5-7 years so you will need to buy a replacement reserve
- Bad, tastes like can food which can destroy appetites after awhile
Emergency Food Option 4) Buy Freeze Dried Food
- Good, easy to store and lasts up to 30 years.
- Good, fast simple preparation – just add water. But only water that is needed to hydrate the food, much less than cooking.
- Good, once hydrated, freeze dried food taste is very close to original food taste.
- Good, light weight easy to store large qty (Mountain house #10 cans) of food for reserves of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year. A 6 week food reserve can fit under a bed!
- Good, can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
