Survival Food – Freeze Dried & MRE

The Importance of Freeze Dried Food For Emergency Preparedness
By Timothy Darwin Lee

No one knows when the next earthquake, hurricane or other natural disaster will hit. Civil unrest can occur in a very short period of time and require that you have the means to stay indoors for at least 72-hours, or perhaps even longer.

But what if you had to remain inside for a week? How about a month? While every household should have some type of emergency preparedness supplies, how many households have enough supplies to last one or two months in the event of an emergency? Many households stock extra pantry items such as canned foods along with emergency lights, batteries, blankets, first aid kits, and other emergency supplies. However, the most important items in your survival stash needs to be food and water.

When creating a food storage strategy, consider some of these benefits of freeze dried food:

1. Long-term shelf life

Purchasing #10 cans of freeze dried food will keep for 25 years depending on the storage temperature. All the major freeze dried manufacturers make #10 cans which is a standard method of food storage. Cans in storage can be rotated for backpacking and camping trips, or just rotated as part of your normal meal preparation. Even smaller containers such as #2 ? cans from AlpineAire have a 15-year shelf life, and small 2 and 4-person serving freeze dried food pouches last 7 years.

2. No cooking required – just add water

Many preppers underestimate the benefits of having freeze dried food that can be prepared quickly and easily by just adding water. While hot water is desirable for the best taste, in case of an emergency, cold water will provide the same nutritional benefits. The last thing you want to do in a survival scenario is to worry about different meal combinations as you want to dedicate all of your energy to keeping yourself or your family safe.

3. Food has intrinsic value

Food is a universal currency during a survival scenario. You can trade it for other necessities such as medicines, protection, or transportation. Your food value also never goes to waste as you can rotate the food that you purchase in and out of your food storage. Finally, buying food now with a long shelf-life locks in the cost of food now so in the event of severe price inflation, your supply of freeze dried food has already been paid for.

4. Other considerations

• Food storage gives you peace of mind knowing that you are prepared in the event of a disaster.
• You can supplement your freeze dried food supplies with canned foods and foods you use regularly but have 1-2 year shelf life so that it can function as both food storage and an extended pantry.
• Do not forget to stock up on your most favorite items such as coffees, teas, hot chocolate, candies, and whatever else you view as a luxury or comfort food. In times of crisis, these food items will help lift your spirits.
• Consider whether you need to have smaller, more portable food storage units if the types of disaster you are preparing for may require you to move quickly. A six month supply of food storage is great to have in your basement, but if you cannot stay at home during an emergency, you need the ability to collect your food and move quickly.

In summary, serious thinking about how an emergency scenario may affect you should lead you to consider, amongst everything else, that food is a key element to your disaster planning.

Timothy writes is an avid backpacker and writes on a variety of topics including freeze dried food and the impact of the recent spike in demand for popular freeze dried food brands such as Mountain House.

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In difficult times Thanksgiving takes on more meaning.

This year that meaning is much more stronger than it has been at any time in our lives.

Food may be at the heart of thanksgiving but the most important part really is family and community.

So to be prepared means to be prepared for your family and prepared for your community.

There is no preparedness for oneself that has meaning.

And it is meaning that sustains us, not food.

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This statement, in an American Red Cross press press release from August 2007 (below), tells you that there is a need to make things easier.

Otherwise, if it is not made easy as another statistic in the same press release indicates, 93% will continue to not be prepared.

You can order online an 72 hour emergency kit, with all the supplies the Red Cross recommends, in minutes.

You can order kits and long shelf life survival food from trusted online stores that existed for decades as real brick and mortar stores, not some fly-by-night “eBay store”.

The two main survival foods (after food bars in 72 hour kits) are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze dried food. You can order various food reserves that will be enough food for one week, one month, or even one year. It can be delivered to your house and then stored in less than an hour.

How easy is that?

MRE can last up to 5-7 years if stored in a cool place. Freeze dried food will last up to 30 years. You won’t need to replace these items every 6 months or every year. This is a key point if you want your food reserve to be ready when you need it, without having to replace parts of it often.

The challenge with completing the 72-hour kits will be the things that are custom to you and your family; maps, medications, etc that can’t be included in a general 72 hour kit. Other than these custom items, everything else is only few mouse clicks to your door.

Where can I buy kits and survival food?

American Family Safety – Great Selection of 72 hour kits

Nitro-Pak – 72-hour kits MRE Freeze Dried Food

Below is the August 30, 2007 press release from the American Red Cross

*****************************************

Media Advisory:

September is National Preparedness Month: Only 7% of Americans Have Taken the Necessary Steps to Prepare for Disasters

Red Cross Survey Indicates 82% of Americans Would Get Prepared if it Was Easier to Do

WASHINGTON, Thursday, August 30, 2007

VIDEO FEEDS: Thursday, August 30, from 2:30 – 2:45 PM ET

September is National Preparedness Month yet only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared, according to the American Red Cross ¹ . Why? Many people just don’t have the time. In fact, an American Red Cross survey indicates that 82% of Americans say they would get prepared if it were easier to do ². Additionally, among Americans who had not put together a disaster kit, 65% agreed that they would be more likely to have a kit if one were available for sale and contained basic items to get them started ³.

The Red Cross is using National Preparedness Month to urge every family to “Be Red Cross Ready”: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. One way the American Red Cross has made it easier for families to get prepared is by offering a variety of first aid, health, safety, and emergency preparedness items.

“We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for everyone to get prepared,” said Laura Howe, spokes-person for the Red Cross. “In purchasing these items, the public can feel good about not only preparing their families but also supporting the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross.”

Red Cross items available to the public include first aid kits, disposable and heavy-duty work gloves, hand sanitizer, emergency preparedness kits, hand-crank radios, auto safety kits, and a variety of essential education guides. Additionally, the Red Cross has a line of infant health and wellness products that help par-ents get prepared, encouraging them to take Red Cross courses in infant first aid and CPR. These items are available online, at many Red Cross chapters, and at a variety of retail locations nationwide.

Proceeds from the sale of these items go directly back into supporting the mission of the organization. Over the last few months, the Red Cross has responded to meet the needs of thousands of disaster victims affected by severe summer floods in nine different states; every dollar helps.

The public is also invited to take a free online education module available at www.redcross.org/BeRedCrossReady, which walks visitors through the three simple preparedness actions: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

This story is provided by the American Red Cross.

Finally! A Government Agency that Gets it Right

The survival food message by Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Department of Emergency Management is right on the mark. Congratulations for your wisdom on the issue.

The message is right and more importantly the medium is right – YouTube (see videos couple survival preparedness interview, Governor Tim Kaine). By utilizing YouTube for their preparedness message, they will reach audiences that traditional media doesn’t.

The videos are a 16 second clip of the Governor and a 30 second spot featuring a couple and 2 children being interviewed on emergency preparedness.

At one point the husband turns to the wife and says “that’s really not survival food…tomato paste”. Hopefully this message will sink in. The American Red Cross stated in a August 30, 2007 press release that it estimates that  “only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared”.

The one thing more the Governor and department could do is not disable the YouTube embed feature (so that the video can’t be shared by embeding here and elsewhere). I guess expecting them to be Web 2.0 savvy, to know that hording content is passe and counterproductive is a still a stretch.

72 Hour Survival Kits

Having a good 72 hour survival kit ready at all times can be make a huge difference in the event of an emergency or disaster. One backpack can carry all you need if you pack the right items in it.

Rather than having one 2-person kit or one large four-person kit, I recommend getting 2-3 one person kits that you keep in each car and at home. You never know where you will be when you need them so I believe this is the best strategy.

The best one person kit I could find is the Executive 72 hour survival kit with solar radio upgrade.

This kit contains;

• Premium Quality Water Resistant Nylon Backpack
  with padded Shoulder Straps
• Heavy-Duty Tube Tent Shelter
• Deluxe Knucklemender™ 60 item First-Aid Kit
• 5 Year Shelf-Life Cookie Flavored Food Rations
• 5 Year U.S. Coast Guard Water Rations
• Emergency Space® Blankets
• 36 Hour Light/Heat Candle
• Protective Leather Gloves & Dust Masks
• Quality AM/FM Radio

CONTENTS INCLUDES:

Warmth & Shelter
• 2 – Compact Emergency USA Made Space® Blankets
• 1 – Deluxe Heavy-Duty Tube Tent
• 2 – Emergency Rain/Wind Ponchos

Cooking, Heating, & Light
• 1 – 36 hr. Emergency Candle
• 1 – Industrial “AA” Size Flashlight with Batteries
• 2 – Pair of Hand/Pocket Warmer Heat-Paks
• 1 – 12 hr. Instant Lightstick
• 1 – Box of Waterproof Matches (45 matches)

Water & Hygiene Items
• 24 – Purified Drinking Water Pouches (4.2 ounces each)
• 18 – Wet-Wipe Packets
• 2 – Compact Sanitation/Toilet Toilet Rolls
• 2 – Disposable Sanitation Bags

First-Aid
• 1 – 60 Item Knuckle Mender II™ First Aid Kit w/ Instruction Book

Food Items
• 2 – 3600 Calorie Cookie Tasting Ration Bars
• 1 – Bag of Survival Candy
• 6 – E-mer’gen-C® Energy Drink Packets

Miscellaneous
• 1 – Premium Heavy Duty Nylon Backpack
• 1 – 15-Function Swiss Army Style Pocket Knife
• 1 – Deluxe AM/FM Radio Flashlight w/ Batteries
• 1 – Emergency Survival Whistle
• 1 – 50′ Nylon Cord
• 1 – Pair of Leather Gloves (for digging through or clearing debris)
  or hand warming in cold weather
• 1 – Writing Pad, Pencil, and Ink Pen
• 1 – Deck of Playing Cards (time occupier for kids & adult at shelter or
  if stuck at work or school. Helps time pass much faster).
• 2 – N95 Hospital Grade Dust Masks

This is kit is available at Nitro-pak for $154.99 at the time of this post.

* Emergency Indentification Cards

Here is a good idea that is recommended by the American Safety and Health Institute;
EMERGENCY Preparedness Notification Cards – EMERGENCY Notification Cards for emergency preparedness and peace of mind.

I thought it would be a good time review some MRE Brands.

The first Brand I will review is MRE Star.

Located in Hollywood, Florida MRE Star’s maker is International Meals Supply has been in the food industry for over 30 years.

All of their MREs are US made and their plants are USDA/FSIS, as well as FDA approved. They are a certified supplier of emergency rations for the DoD/DLA, Defense Supply Center Philadelphia.

They use fully automated equipment to produce a wide variety meal recipes. They operate 24/7 in emergency situations.

Their “M-018 12-MRE Full Case” has 12 complete MRE meals with an entree, side dish and more. There are is six different MRE entree varieties, 2 of each in each case. The six varieties are;

1. Beef Stroganoff with Egg Noodles
2. Beef Stew with Potatoes and Vegetables
3. BBQ Chicken with Black Beans and Potatoes
4. Chicken Noodle Stew with Vegetables
5. Cheese Tortellini with Marinara Sauce
6. Vegetarian Chili with Beans

In addition to the Entree, each MRE meal comes with;

• 4.5 oz Side Dish (Apple sauce or fruit cocktail)
• 2 oz Raisins & Mix Nuts
• 2 oz Oatmeal Cookie
• Drink Mix (orange flavor)
• Accessory Pack (spoon, coffee, sugar, creamer, salt, pepper, napkin, moist towel
• Optional: 12 flameless heaters individually packed

According to MRE Star’s website, “Each MRE has an average of 1,100-1,300 calories, which replicates the calorie count of a complete meal. There is no need to add water to an MRE.”

You can purchase MRE Star 12 meal MRE cases at Nitro-Pak. You can also get bulk order discounts there.

What is the better choice for survival food? How do MRE, Freeze Dried Food (FDF), or storing canned food and bulk grains from the super market compare?

Below I have scored the options for disaster survival food against these factors;

• storage life
• storage space
• preparation time
• taste
• cost (per meal).

The scoring goal is to have an objective calculation. However the ratings are my subjective opinions, and are based on the facts and information I have been reporting in this blog. I have also added a second level score with a weight for each factor. Again, this is my opinion about the factor’s relative importance to a survival food strategy.

The weighted score total for the survival food options is out of 10.

It is also important to note that the scoring was based on a required food supply that will last 6 weeks to 3 months.

MRE would rate better in a 72 hour survival kit comparison with mobility and easy to heat as factors.

Here are the scores;

You can see that based on the way I have scored and weighted Freeze Dried Food is the superior choice especially for longer term preparedness of 6 weeks to 3 months. Since you may have different opinions you can evaluate the score and weight outlined here. I will add a poll shortly to get everyone’s opinion on the ratings for each of the factors and the factor weights. Then we can look at the results.

In the meantime I have also posted a link to the original excel file so you can change the weights and scoring your self as you wish and see the results. Here is the file link;

Excel File with Survival Food Scoring Calculations

I have done some research and have some further comments of my own and clarifications on water storage. Thanks for the excellent article on water storage by Terry Fitzroy of Survival Solutions published in a previous post here on Bulk Survival Food.

There was a suggestion in that article that you should drink 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water a day. This is a myth so pervasive medical professionals sometimes say it. Medical journals found no research supports this anywhere and have traced the myth back to a mis-interpretation of a 1945 medical report.

The fact is most of the 64 ounces of water is contained in the food we eat. That is if what you are eating is a healthy well balanced diet. Read this British Medical Journal article that quotes the 1945 report “One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods“.

Over time it appears most people, even doctors, have forgotten the key second sentence in bold above.

If you are eating MRE food reserve in a disaster, most of the 64 ounces (~2.5 liters) of the water is already in the food. If you use a Freeze Dried Food food reserve , you need store more water to hydrate the food when you eat, but the water you use to hydrate the food all ends up in your body when you eat it.

That said, then what is the real amount water storage needed for emergency preparedness?

The Red Cross and FEMA say one gallon of water per day in their “Preparing for Disaster” pdf (on page 8), but this for a “3 day supply kit”. So perhaps this does not include water requirements for hygiene? Does it assume you have also included in your 3 day kit mostly canned food that has water in the food as opposed dry grains and cereals which will need a lot more clean drinkable water to cook?

www.72hours.org offered this advice on water “Store one gallon of water, per person, per day. This amount will be adequate for general drinking purposes. Three gallons per person per day will give you enough to cook and for limited personal hygiene.”

They also advised to replace unopened stored bottled water once a year.

Perhaps you can plan to replace the water each year the day before or the day after your birthday so you will remember to do it. Or Perhaps we should have a “Preparedness Day” holiday so that we can do once a year whatever needs to be done that year like throwing out the canned food and bottled water and replace it with a new supply for another year. I am sure the food industry will be all for this holiday, they should take the cue from the chocolate and flower people for what they did to create Valentine’s day. Let’s move on.

So the answer, in terms of clean water storage for consumption, appears to be 1 to 3 gallons per person per day depending on whether you are using water for cooking.

If your survival food store is MRE then your requirement will be closer to 1 gallon per day, and 1.5 gallons if you use Freeze Dried Food.

You may think there is an advantage to MRE here but you will need the same if not more storage space for the same period of food support for MRE due to package density of MRE. As well you will always have more options in terms of water resource allocation as the additional water you store for Freeze Dried Food can be used for other purposes if it makes sense, while with MRE the water that is already in the food can’t be practically extracted out.

The best way to safely store water is in food grade containers like the ones below. With stabilizer applied and containers properly sealed water will be good to drink for 5 years. Click on the pictures of the containers to get more information on them;

30 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

55 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

What if you did not prepare water before an emergency?

Here is some excellent information from Public Heath of Seattle and King county on “How to prepare safe water after a disaster”.

Real-time Survival Food News Updates From Google

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What is an FRH, a Flameless Ration Heater?

Convenience is the best advantage MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) has as a survival food.

This convenience is important in a crisis or mobile “on the go” situation. As the name implies MREs are really “ready to eat” no preparation or cooking required. However you may prefer to eat your main course hot as most people prefer a hot meal.

This is where MRE really shines. The military for years has included an FRH or Flameless Ration Heater with their MRE.

It is a plastic pouch that you can put your MRE into and heat in ten minutes by adding a little water.

How do Flameless Heaters work?

When iron rusts it is oxidizing, that is oxygen in the air is reacting with the metal to form an oxide commonly referred to as rust. This process produces heat. It is a slow process so you will not be able to fry an egg on the rusting hood of a car in the winter.

However if you have iron in the form of a fine grain powder and mix it with sodium, magnesium and then add a little water you have a fast reaction producing lots of heat in a small space. This will heat your MRE main course in 10 minutes.

It is important to note that you should not heat you MRE over an open flame as this will melt the container into the contents. The best way to heat MREs is with the flameless heaters.

Most distributors include the flameless heaters with the MRE they sell but check carefully that they are included. You can still eat MREs cold as they are already cooked and ready to eat, but there is nothing like a hot meal when you may be cold, wet, or injured. It will really lift the spirits of you and your family.