Survival Food – Freeze Dried & MRE

Tips For Buying Emergency Food Rations
By Timothy Dalton

If you’re looking to stock up on your food supplies for emergency situations, then congratulations are in order as you are taking responsibility for your well-being as well as those of your loved ones.

When purchasing emergency food rations, there are a few things one should consider: cost, shelf life, convenience and taste.

One particular type of emergency food that almost everyone has around the house is canned goods. The reason is because it’s cheap, good to eat, and readily available in grocery stores, and it is easy to prepare. But let me ask how one will eat such an item if there were no heat source available to warm the food? Would you be willing to eat it cold? Of course, if you’re hungry enough, it wouldn’t matter but it is always nice to have warm comfort food. Canned food items are usually meant to be eaten in two years. However, it does depend on the acidic level of the canned item. Lower acidic food like meats have a longer shelf life and higher acidic food like fruit and vegetables have a shorter shelf life. You can take a chance on eating expired canned goods but that is at your own discretion.

Another popular type of emergency food is the freeze dried food. The process takes all the water out of the food making it extremely lightweight to carry. This is why freeze dried food is particularly popular with hikers, campers and backpackers. Surprisingly, when the food is rehydrated with water, it keeps much of its original taste as well and can be quite delicious to eat. These packages are not cost prohibitive and can be found for as little as four to five dollars for an individual meal pouch. If you get a #10 can of freeze dried food, then the cost per person is even cheaper. The storage life on freeze dried food is great as well. It can last for as long as 25 years although some manufacturers say it is good for 40 years if stored in the right conditions which generally just means a dry and cool place. Freeze dried food really is a buy and forget type meal. However, just as with canned foods, you can eat it cold when hydrating it with cold water but warm water is always preferred to have a hot meal. The question is will you have hot water in an emergency?

The third type of emergency food ration is the MRE or meal ready to eat. Originally, the MRE meal was designed for the U.S. military but the demand proved strong enough that manufacturers sold civilian versions to the public as well. An MRE package is the most convenient of all the emergency foods discussed so far as it is a complete meal with a main entrée, side entree, dessert, beverage mix, crackers/bread and a spread mixture. To top it off, the package provides self warming flameless ration heater, something that is lacking from the other two options. Of course, all this convenience will cost more as a package will run around $6-$7 per bag. MREs also last on average 3 years before they expire. The taste of MRE is also quite good as well and some people eat this as they would a casual night indoors like they would a TV dinner.

All three options are good to have on hand in case of emergency situations. The type you decide to buy are up to your budget, preference and lifestyle.

Timothy Dalton is a freelance writer who is also an outdoor enthusiast. Timothy just loves MRE meals ready to eat as nutritious and tasty camping MRE meals.

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Food Preparedness has never been more essential.

As weather gets more unpredictable and extraordinary, people who thought they lived somewhere that they would never need a survival food reserve are thinking differently.

Having a food reserve for your family is now practical advice and no longer extreme.  However when you may need to have reserves of food available is hard to predict.

You can’t predict the unpredictable.

But you can be better prepared with a very long lasting food reserve that will be there when you need it.

How to Prepare a Survival Food Kit

By Timothy Dalton

There are several items that need to be considered when one is preparing survival food rations. A basic survival kit needs to include many items. Here we will discuss just the food portion of a survival kit that should be kept on hand in the home in case of an emergency of some sort.

A good way to store survival materials is to keep them in a cellar or basement area. Many homes do not have these areas so a designated meeting place somewhere near the center of the house will work just as well. Items can be placed into a large plastic, or water proof, containers and only opened to replace old items or in a state of emergency.

Protein is a staple that must be included in the kit. There are plenty of options from which to choose. It is best to have several small containers rather than one large one. Individual units of things like peanut butter, canned chicken or tuna, and beans are all good choices for proteins. These need to be canned items and not in plastic or paper containers. This will ensure the contents are safe from contamination. Individually packaged nuts are also a good protein choice to be included in the kit.

Small packages of crackers can be placed into metal containers and stored in the kit as well. These will need to be changed out every three months to keep them fresh though.

There are many types of dried fruits that can be stored in a survival kit. Several different types of fruits can be purchased so that there is a variety. Individual packages are good but mostly just try not to buy the very large bags. The smaller the bag the better as this will yield less waste.

These are a few staple items that should always be included in a survival kit. There are other types of packaging to choose from. The storage space must be considered and items purchased which will allow for the maximum amounts of key items to be stored in case there is an emergency situation.

MREs or meals ready to eat, are the perfect emergency survival food. First designed by the military, they are now available to civilians as well. To find MRE meals for sale and military grade MREs, visit the links.

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What’s the Point of Survival Food Storage in a Modern World?

By Lance Esondi

In a modern world to most having something like a survival food storage seems a bit silly. The idea of having access to food and goods at all times seems normal because most of our lives that’s exactly how it has been. There are situations that having a survival food storage is a good option to have.

There are some situations where access to goods or ability to buy goods could be limited. Having a good 30 or 60 day supply on hand isn’t a bad idea.

Job loss – For most people at any time their jobs can be lost. This normally isn’t thought of as a survival situation but in a modern world it is. Having extra food and supplies will just make the period of job loss a bit easier.

Natural disaster – Some natural disasters you will have to evacuate the city like a major hurricane. But for some you might be stuck at home because it’s too difficult to leave the city. Having this food supply gives you something to rely on.

Pandemics – Pandemics can happen. Luckily there is some security out there where things are done to control them, but a sickness or virus could get out of control. The strategy in an area if one of these sicknesses is too far out of control is to quarantine everyone. While you are quarantined having some supplies will make this time much easier.

When you make your survival food storage, store food that you currently eat. Stock up on items that you already enjoy and just rotate your supply. Put the new one you just purchased into your storage bin and take the oldest one out to use next. This way you don’t have to worry as much about the food spoiling. Also you aren’t going to be left with old freeze dried meals that you may never actually eat if they go bad.

Do you have a plan for natural disasters or pandemics?

Click and learn Urban Survival Skills to properly prepare and be ready for these situations.

Discover Food Storage Secrets that let you have a good supply of food without constant worry about expiration dates.

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Buying a survival food reserve bulk package can save cost if you make the right choice.

But most of that savings can be wasted if you do not get the right balance of food groups in the reserve and you have to buy more to balance it.

Nito-pak’s reserves have a good proportion of vegetables, grains, and meat, spread out over complete breakfast lunch and dinner choices. It is important that you maintain routines of your lifestyle in a disaster situation. Having regular meals can bring a lot of calm to tense situations.

Nitro-Pak has one of the best selections of survival food reserve packages for time ranges and purposes (home or office);

		***Ultimate Family Preparedness PakTM
		**Mtn. House Ultimate-Pak Food Reserve Year Supply
		**Platinum Food Reserve 4 People for 3 Mo.
		**Six Month “Gold Food Reserve”
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply – 18 Main Course Entrees
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply Entrees #2 NEW
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply Vegetable-Pak
		-Year’s Supply Food Unit, Platinum Reserve

		Group Emergency Food Reserve #1 (10 Person)
		Group Emergency Food Reserve #2 (20 Person)
		Group Emergency Food Reserve #3 (50 Person)

**”Easy Meal Security-Pak™” Food Reserve

Utah State University has a classic food storage  advice document on it’s website.

The document titled “Food Storage in the Home” set the standard for food storage advice for years to come. Published by  Charlotte P. Brennand, PhD, and Deloy G. Hendricks, PhD of the Department of Nutrition & Food Sciences, “Food Storage in the Home”  focuses on “Reducing Waste and Maintaining the Quality of Stored Food”

They analyzed over 10,000 food storage systems in Utah in their research.

The concise 20 page pdf file covers what food to store, the storage area, and storage life.  A surprising observation I found in this document regarding how much food to store was;

If you were to sample most Utah family food storage programs in November, about 45 percent would have adequate stores of food for one year. If the same families were resampled in May only 20 percent would still have a years supply on hand. Families which did not have a years supply in May had used food from storage and had no garden or orchard to replenish the supply during the winter months.

They go on to recommend you have a long term food storage that has a peak 18 months supply if you are planning to always have a years supply. This makes sense if you are utilizing a garden approach to supplement your food supply.

What was even more shocking though was this finding on page six;

Families that were resampled and still had a years supply in May did so because they never used food from their storage system. We have analyzed over 10,000 food storage systems in Utah and found that many people are under the illusion that food lasts forever. Their food storage systems are designed so that a years supply is purchased and stored until needed. Consequently they have some stored food that is 10, 20, and 25 years old. In view of what is known about shelf-life, these systems are quite wasteful and inefficient.

Under this illusion what people thought they had, a years supply, disappeared when they went to use it.  Not a comforting thought. They had solved the problem by not drawing on their reserve but in the end they had no reserve, the food was inedible.

This would not be the case with freeze dried food however. Having freeze dried food that is 10, 20, and 25 years old in a food storage area means the food is still good and delicious to eat.

How many people who start something are able to follow thru and stick to the plan for months or years to come?

Most people find it overwhelming to take action to have a long term food storage to be prepared for disasters and economic uncertainty.

They read lots of information online that tells them they have to radically change their lifestyle to support food storage. The people who write these food storage advice articles are often already in a lifestyle suited to what they preach.

There is nothing wrong with their advice, it simply doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us urban dwelling working parents with kids who have tons of activities and school projects to do every week.

How to Get Started With Your Food Storage is one of those interview articles where the person has a lot of home time to bake bread, use milk powder, and spend tons of time cooking from scratch. This is great if you are in a lifestyle that supports it but for most of us that is not the case.

Answering the question about how often the food storage is used the person replies;

Now it’s natural. But I would say every meal. I make my own bread so at lunch we have that, at breakfast if we have cereal or something then it has the powdered milk. And then dinner would have usually milk or onions or something. I use it all the time.

Further they are asked on advice to those getting started in food storage since it is “a hard step” ;

So what I would say is just pick one thing that you’re going to start with. And one of the things I think is easiest to start with is powdered milk

Okay, so I want to be prepared and I start with powered milk. How many months or years go by before we are ready? How long before most of us just give up?

On the other hand you can order a freeze dried food storage family unit and be ready in a week when it arrives.

You will have 3 months worth of ready to eat meals for your family that costs about the same as the average American family pays now for the same meals in groceries. The food will store for 25 years so if you don’t need it this year or next, it will still be there for you whenever you need it.

Those who are supporting their families with a traditional food storage lifestyle are inspirations to us all.

Those who want to be prepared next week and buy a freeze dried food storage have also done a great thing for their family and friends.

There is a need and great value of having a food reserve for tough economic times. The chances of a depression have increased greatly since I wrote about it on September 15th, and many will experience hardships for sure.

Some are stating that if there is a depression it will not be as severe as the “Great depression” that occurred last century. Of course the same people were saying just a few weeks ago the worst of the bank troubles were behind us.

So is there need for a food reserve? What type of food reserve is the best value?

First, the need for a food reserve is greater now than in the past. At the worst part of the great depression unemployment reached a high of 25%. Anyone who read John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” will have a feel for what it was like for people in rural areas trying to survive.

However there is a big difference between now and then.  Then much of the population was rural and able to revert to a sustenance economy to get food to just barely survive the crisis. Now most of our population is urban. Most people will be totally dependent on food supplied in markets. Adding to this is the fact many foods are imported. Further, even non-perishable food is managed with tightly controlled “just in time” inventory to maximize profits. In a global crisis food imports are likely to dwindle as nations focus on self preservation. Food stock-outs will be more common. There may difficulty in getting food and prices will rise.

What food reserve is the best value?

For the same reasons that I strongly recommend freeze dried food for disasters, it is also the best value for hard economic times. It is easy to store, only needs water, no preparation or cooking required, and has long storage of up to 25 years. It can provide food insurance protection for a long time.

It is also better from a community perspective because when you buy freeze dried food you are actually increasing the future food supply for all by utilizing food available now before there is a shortage.

By having a food reserve to draw from in hard times with food shortages,  you will be able to leave food on the store shelf for those who do not have a food reserve.

A lesson from “The Grapes of Wrath” is that we all do better as a community helping each other.

Having a food reserve will enable you to make a contribution when the time comes, either by leaving food for others at the supermarket and also by sharing the reserves you have with those most in need.

An important final note is that freeze dried food while readily available now, has earlier this year experienced long lead times of 6-8 weeks, during heightened concern about high oil prices and related food price increases.

Here are a list of some of the more popular posts about MRE, freeze dried food, long term food storage, water storage, and other prepareness topics. These posts were chosen based on number of visitors and average time that you as visitors spent reading them.

Choosing Survival Food

Survival Food Options – Scored Comparison

Review – The “Ultimate-Pak™” Years Supply Food Reserve

Is Precious Time in a Disaster Worth More than $5.63 per Hour?

Why Popular Survivalist Food Advice is a Disaster

MRE Case Price Comparision – September 2008 Update

Mountain House #10 Cans Versus Pouches

Survival Water Storage – Update

Top 10 Freeze Dried Food & MRE Sites

MRE’s and Flameless Ration Heaters (FRH)

How Freeze Dried Food is Made

Factory Tour – Mountain House #10 cans

Freezing MRE – Don’t do it

Survival Food – Short and Long Term Planning

Freeze Dried Food, MRE, versus bulk food and canned Food

“Stored food and water should be cycled out every six months”

Dehydrated Food Versus Freeze Dried Food

“82% of Americans Would Get Prepared if it Was Easier to Do”