Starting an emergency food supply is one of the most important things you can do to get prepared.
Yet trying to figure out the best emergency food can be daunting.
There are plenty of options for long-term emergency food:
- Canned goods,
- Home freeze-dried foods
- Dry staples in sealed Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
In fact, your emergency food supply should consist of all these types of food.
But, for cost, convenience and reliability, it makes sense to buy some meals or kits from brands that specialize in emergency foods.
While there is no one “best” brand of emergency foods, I like some a lot better than others.
I’m going to review 5 of the top brands to help you make an informed decision.
(If you are on a restricted diet, these posts on gluten-free survival food and organic emergency food will also be helpful.)
Best Emergency Food Winners
- Best Overall: Valley Food Storage
- Best Tasting: Mountain House
- Best Low-Budget Option: Augason Farms
- Best Long-Term Kits: ReadyWise Food Storage
- Best For Maximum Calories: Legacy Food Storage
Best Emergency Food Comparison Table
Company | Shelf Life | Price (per serving) | Nutrition |
---|---|---|---|
Check Prices | Up to 25 Years | Approx $1.09 to $1.42 | Low protein, moderate sodium |
Check on Amazon | Up to 25 Years | Approx $2.01 to $2.50 | Moderate protein, very high sodium |
Check On Amazon | Up to 30 Years | Approx $0.65 to $1.80 | Low protein, low sodium |
Up to 25 Years | Approx $2.36 | High calorie, high protein, high sodium | |
Check On Amazon | Up to 30 Years | Approx $3.00 | High protein, moderate sodium, low calorie |
How to Compare Brands
Before we get into the emergency food brands, I want to discuss how I reviewed them.
I looked at the meal offerings and considered these factors:
1. Nutrition
The calories in emergency meals mainly come from carbohydrates and fats. Cheap, unhealthy emergency food brands don’t contain much more than this: they are usually just pasta or potatoes with a cheesy sauce thrown in for flavor.
By contrast, healthy emergency meals (or at least as healthy as you can reasonably expect with food that has a shelf life of 25 years) contain a good balance of carbs, fats, and proteins. They will also include some freeze-dried fruits and vegetables – usually corn and peas. These ingredients don’t have many calories but contain essential nutrients.
Tip: To quickly judge the quality of an emergency meal, look at the protein content. Anything above 10 grams per serving is generally pretty good. Then see if there is more than one vegetable in the meal.
2. Shelf Life
Anything less than 5 years is unacceptable for long-term food storage. Most brands have shelf lives of up to 25 or 30 years.
3. Packaging Material and Size
The packaging must be sturdy to withstand damage from disasters like hurricanes and flooding. The meals/foods should be packaged in smaller portions so you don’t end up throwing away food after opening the package.
4. Sodium
Most emergency meals are loaded with sodium. This much sodium could be disastrous for your health, especially while inactive and hunkering down.
5. Cooking Method
All of the brands listed here have products that are easy to prepare. Simply add hot or boiling water.
6. Convenience
Planning emergency foods can be confusing. Many brands make this easier by offering “kits.” For example, you might start with a 1-month food kit of freeze-dried meals and essentials. This is much easier than mixing and matching freeze-dried veggies, meats, and grains to make your meals.
7. Taste
Taste is important when choosing your survival food. Just be warned that many better-tasting emergency foods taste good because they are loaded with sodium and chemical flavoring.
8. Cost/Value
The cost is important – but not at the expense of the points already listed. I calculated the price per serving of their meals (taking calories and quality into consideration).
Don’t Get Swayed By….
- Weight: Some emergency food brands boast that they are the “cheapest per pound.” The weight of a kit isn’t that useful when comparing options. Many brands load up on bulky foods (such as pasta) and skimp on foods like freeze-dried meat, fruits, and veggies (which you need for micronutrients).
- Servings: When buying survival food kits, you can’t just look at the listed number of servings included. You need to pay attention to calories. Read closely, and you’ll see that a “serving size” is usually around 200-300 calories. Do the math, and you’ll find that the emergency kits only provide around 1000 calories per day.
Best Emergency Survival Food Brands Reviewed
Valley Food Storage
Learn more about Valley Food Storage
Valley Food Storage is a good balance between everything you’d want from emergency food. They are affordable, have decent nutrition, and have a great variety.
There are currently 12 different entrees that are tasty, albeit lacking in protein. They also have fruit, veggie, and “carnivore” buckets. You can also buy all meals and products individually to build your own kit.
Great price for freeze-dried foods and meals
Affordable kits
Decent nutrition
Good taste and texture
Gluten-free and dairy-free options
No bakery products
What They Offer:
Valley Food Storage sells meal kits, breakfast buckets, entree buckets, fruit and vegetable buckets, freeze-dried meat, and individual products. You can buy individual foods or kits from Valley Food Storage. Their 525-serving buckets offer an excellent variety for preppers just starting out.
Freeze-Dried Foods:
Dairy, Cheese & Eggs: 25-year shelf life, about 100 calories per serving
Meats: 25-year shelf life, about 130 calories per serving
Fruits and veggies: 14 different foods, 25-year shelf life, about 35-90 calories per serving
Emergency Meals:
Breakfasts: 6 breakfast options such as oatmeal and pancakes; 25-year shelf life, about 140-290 calories per serving
Entrees: 12 options such as chicken teriyaki and fettuccini alfredo; 25-year shelf life, about 210 calories per serving
Emergency Food Kits:
Kits with 175 up to 4200 servings
Breakfast kits
Entree kits
Fruit and veggie bucket
Carnivore bucket
Packaging:
Like most emergency food, Valley Food Storage packages its products in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. If you buy one of their long-term kits, these bags will be in a sturdy bucket. After opening, the packs can be resealed.
Nutrition and Quality:
Regarding sodium content, Valley Food Storage is one of the better emergency meal options. Each meal contains a lot of sodium (about 600-800mg for most entrees). However, this is still much less than you’ll see with other brands and will help you stay below the daily limit of 2300mg.
Of course, these low sodium amounts mean that Valley Food products don’t taste as good as their unhealthy counterparts. Luckily, the texture is still good on their products.
Be warned that the entrees don’t contain meat. Entrees like “Chicken and Rice Pilaf” have chicken broth and not actual chunks of chicken.
Price:
For freeze-dried meat, Valley Food Storage has some of the best deals. It comes out to about $2.50 per serving of meat. Their other freeze-dried foods are also affordable.
You can purchase entrees from Valley Foods individually. Bought by themselves, the cost is still reasonable at about $2.80 per serving. Once you buy kits, the costs get lower. Depending on the kit, the price is only $1.09 to $1.42 per serving.
Best For: People looking for value and variety
Valley Food Storage products are a great all-around value, though you might want to add some freeze-dried meat and veggies to the entrees to improve the nutrition.
Read our in-depth review of Valley Food Storage
Wise Company
ReadyWise (previously Wise) is one of the best-known emergency food brands and has been around for a long time.
They have a vast selection of emergency kits ranging from 72-hour starter kits to long-term kits. Most of the entrees contain real meat and are high-protein. You can also buy foods individually to create your meals; however, the prices aren’t as reasonable when purchasing products separately.
Key Facts
Kits are very affordable
High protein
Lots of variety in kits
Gluten-free and organic options
Most entrees contain real meat
Very high sodium
Individual meals and pouches are pricey
No freeze-dried cheese
Few fruit and veggie choices
What They Offer:
ReadyWise has a huge selection of freeze-dried foods that are packaged in pouches. For the best deals, you can buy assorted buckets of freeze-dried foods.
Freeze-Dried Foods:
Meats: Multiple options, 15-year shelf life, 50-180 calories per serving
Fruits: 4 options, 20-year shelf life, 15-45 calories per serving
Vegetables: 4 options, 25-year shelf life, 15-40 calories per serving
Dairy and eggs: 25-year shelf life, 80 calories per serving
Shakes: 10-year shelf life, 260-280 calories per serving
Emergency Meals:
Breakfasts: 4 options for granolas and cereals; 25-year shelf life, about 278 calories per serving
Entrees: 13 options such as chili mac and creamy pasta; 25-year shelf life, about 230 calories per serving
Emergency Food Kits:
ReadyWise is best known for its kits. They offer kits for:
72-hour kits
Long-term kits (120 to 4,320 servings)
Organic meal kits
Gluten-free meal kits
Fruit and vegetable buckets
Meat buckets
Breakfast buckets
Entree buckets
Packaging:
ReadyWise Food packages its products in Mylar bags, which are in buckets. Each Mylar bag has around 8 servings in it. The packaging is reliable and convenient for emergencies. Depending on the product, the shelf life is 10 to 25 years.
Nutrition and Quality:
ReadyWise has recently improved the nutrition of its meals. Of the 13 entrees, 7 now contain real freeze-dried meat. This helps increase the protein content of the meals (though the soups are still very low in protein).
However, the meals are still mostly pasta-based, and there are very few veggies, so the nutritional profile isn’t so great. Even their veggie buckets only contain 4 different foods. If you care about eating healthy, you might want to buy a fruit and veg bucket from another brand.
Do note that the sodium is VERY high for most entrees at about 1300mg per serving.
Price:
If you want to buy individual pouches or entrees from ReadyWise Food Storage, it is pricey. However, as you start buying in bulk, the food quickly becomes affordable.
Best For: Long term food storage
Because of how reasonably priced their food kits are and because they offer a lot of variety, these are great for preppers who want to quickly build a stockpile of 30+ days’ worth of food.
Read our in-depth review of ReadyWise Food Storage
Legacy Food Storage
Learn more about Legacy Food Storage
Legacy Food Storage boasts some impressive reasons to choose them over other emergency food brands.
They have the lowest cost per pound, their foods last 25 years, and their average calories per serving are high.
I still prefer brands like Augason or ReadyWise over Legacy. These brands don’t have as many calories per serving, but the ingredients are better.
However, if you don’t mind the high sodium and added sugars, you’ll find that Legacy is one of the best-tasting emergency foods out there.
Key Facts
Kits contain a good variety
Lots of bulk individual items to choose from
Non-GMO
High-calorie count per serving
High sodium
Can’t buy meals individually
Outdated website is hard to use
What They Offer:
Freeze-Dried Foods:
Meats and Proteins: 10-15 year shelf life; about 130 calories per serving
Fruits and Veggies: 12 options; 10-15 year shelf life; about 50 calories per serving
Dairy and Eggs: 10-15 year shelf life; about 100 calories per serving
Grains: 10-15 year shelf life; about 200 calories per serving
Emergency Meals:
Breakfasts: 4 options; 25-year shelf life; about 434 calories per serving
Entrees: 19 options; 25-year shelf life; about 348 calories per serving
Side dishes: 6 sides; 25-year shelf life; about 80 calories per serving
Emergency Kits:
Starter kits
Long-term kits (120 to 4,320 servings)
Gluten-free buckets
Entree buckets
Breakfast buckets
Meat bucket
Fruit pack
Veggie pack
Side dish pac
Packaging:
Regarding convenience, Legacy does an excellent job with its packaging.
The products are packaged in resealable bags, each with a small serving size.
If you don’t consume the entire bag immediately, many of the products will last up to a year after the bag has been opened. The bags are put into buckets, which are well-built.
Nutrition and Quality:
The main selling point of Legacy Food Storage is that their meals have a higher calorie count than most other brands. However, I’m concerned about where these additional calories come from.
Read the ingredients list of the meals, and you’ll see that they have added sugar (cane syrup). This is part of the reason that Legacy emergency foods taste so good.
Factor in the high sodium amount per serving (600-1000mg per serving), and you’ve got a tasty but unhealthy meal.
For a short-term emergency, all that sugar and sodium won’t matter. For a long-term crisis, it could take a toll. The sodium will stress you out. The sugar will cause your energy levels to spike and fall, leaving you tired and stressed.
Note all Legacy Food Storage products are vegetarian. If you add freeze-dried meat to the meals, the price per serving will increase dramatically.
Price:
When you buy one of their emergency meal kits, the price per serving comes to approximately $2.36 per serving. This is on par with most other emergency food brands. The only difference is that Legacy meals have many more calories per serving.
Best For: Those looking for the most calories
Legacy Food Storage offers some of the best value for emergency food if you go by calorie count.
These calories mainly come from starches and sugars – but at least this means that their meals taste great and are surprisingly high in protein.
Augason Farms
Editors Note: Nov 2022 Please note Augason Farms have suspended direct sales through their website due to supply shortages. Their food is still available on Amazon.
Augason Farms isn’t as well-known as the other emergency food brands. However, they are one of the best picks for people who want to build their own stockpile.
They have much more variety than most other emergency food brands. Their foods are sold individually or in smaller-sized kits. It will take some more planning to build your stockpile this way, but you’ll be able to choose which foods and meals you want and save money.
Key Facts
Long shelf life
Low sodium
Very good price
Huge variety of freeze-dried foods, meals and kits
Low protein
No long-term kits
What They Offer:
Augason Farms offers a wide variety of freeze-dried products. They have options that you won’t find from other emergency food brands. Great for foodies!
I like that their foods are packaged in cans. Each can contains 3-4 pouches for 12-16 servings per can.
Freeze-Dried Foods:
Dairy and Eggs: 20+ year shelf life, about 80 calories per serving
Bakery: 10+ year shelf life, about 160 calories per serving
Meats and Protein: 30-year shelf life, about 180 calories per serving
Grains and beans: 30-year shelf life, about 150 calories per serving
Fruits and veggies: 14 products, 30-year shelf life, about 115 calories per serving
Emergency Meals:
Breakfasts: 4 breakfast options such as granola and omelets; 25-year shelf life, about 278 calories per serving
Entrees: 10 options such as chili macaroni with beef and chicken alfredo; 25-year shelf life, about 270 calories per serving
Emergency Food Kits:
72-hour kit
1-week pack
2-week pail
30-day pail
Lunch and dinner pail
Breakfast pail
Variety pail
Turkey feast pail
Italian pail
Egg and dairy bucket
Various bundles of individual products
Note that some food kits do NOT contain many ready-made meals. Instead, they include “essentials” that you’d need to create your meals. Make sure you carefully read through what’s included in the kit before buying.
Packaging:
Most Augason Farms products come in #10 cans with a shelf life of up to 30 years. You’ll find smaller pouches with 4 servings when you open the can. This makes it convenient to use the foods – you can open a can without worrying about using everything at once.
Augason also offers some food buckets, but most of their emergency food kits contain the #10 cans.
Nutrition and Quality:
Meals by Augason Farm tend to have more calories than other brands (about 240-300 calories per serving). There is a lot less sodium in their meals than you’ll find in other brands.
The meals also have more vegetables than you’d find in other brands. They aren’t just loaded with starches and cheese. However, the protein is very low. Even the “chicken” meals usually don’t contain any chicken (just chicken flavoring).
Price:
At $199 (for 307 servings, 56,600 calories), Augason Farms has one of the cheapest 1-month food supply kits you can buy.
Just note that many “servings” are low-calorie sides like cheese powder or mashed potatoes.
Best For: People who want more choice
Ideal for people who want to save money by building their own kits using freeze-dried foods instead of meals.
Read our in-depth review of Augason Farms.
Mountain House
Learn more about Mountain House
Mountain House Foods is well known in the backpacking and thru-hiking community. Over the past several years, they have branched out to include emergency preparedness food kits.
Note that Mountain House does NOT offer much in terms of freeze-dried foods or bulk foods (they only have a few cans of meat and crackers). They do have a great selection of freeze-dried entrees, breakfasts, and desserts.
Key Facts
Meals actually contain meat
Quality ingredients
High protein content
30 year shelf life
Lots of variety
Expensive
Low-calorie count per serving
No freeze-dried fruits, veggies, or dairy
No long-term kits available
What They Offer:
Freeze-Dried Foods:
Meats: 30-year shelf-life; 100-230 calories per serving
Emergency Meals:
Breakfasts: 6 options; 30-year shelf life; about 300 calories per serving
Entrees: 21 options; 30-year shelf life; about 260 calories per serving
Desserts: 5 options; 2-year shelf life; about 170-260 calories per serving
Emergency Food Kits:
The emergency food kits by Mountain House are disappointing. They are basically a way to get a slightly better deal on breakfasts and entrees.
2 day
3 day
4 day
5 day
14 day
Classic Assortment Bucket
Essential Assortment Bucket
Breakfast Bucket
Packaging:
Mountain House products come in either pouches (with 2-4 servings each) or #10 cans (with 10 servings). There are also “Pro Paks,” packaged to reduce weight and take up less space in your backpack.
Previously, Mountain House said the shelf life of pouches was 7 years. However, they now offer a “Shelf Life Taste Guarantee” of 30 years on all their pouches and cans (except for some desserts).
I like the Mountain House pouches and Pro Paks. However, their #10 cans don’t contain any pouches. This makes them impractical to use during an emergency: you’ve got to use up all 10 servings within a week of opening the can.
Nutrition and Quality:
Unlike other emergency food brands, Mountain House focuses on the quality of ingredients.
Their entrees contain meat and not just textured vegetable protein. They are one of the best-tasting emergency food brands without adding tons of salt and chemical flavoring).
The overall calorie count of meals might be low, but there is a lot of protein and nutrition in each serving. This is why thru-hikers love Mountain House.
Price:
Mountain House is one of the pricier options for emergency food. Individual meal pouches cost about $10 for 2.5 servings, which puts the cost at $4 per serving. The cans are more affordable at about $3.5 per serving.
The best deal is their 14-day emergency food kit. It contains 42 pouches for a total of 100 servings. At $300, this comes to $3 per serving.
Yes, $3.00 per serving is a lot compared to other emergency meals. However, remember that Mountain House is one of the few brands to use quality ingredients and include real meat.
The price isn’t bad if quality and protein content is important to you.
Best For: Bug out bags and for people who have a large budget
The high protein content and quality ingredients make Mountain House meals ideal for bugging out. This quality comes at a price, so I’d only recommend their meals for long-term emergency planning if you have a larger budget.
Read our in-depth review of Mountain House
Wrap Up
Every brand featured offers a decent product, and their kits will provide a practical and convenient long-term food storage solution for most people.
The differences come down to the following:
- Price
- Nutrition
- Amount of Calories
Decide which combination of these is important to you, and you should be able to make the right choice with the information provided in this article.
Check out the links below to investigate each company further.
Company | Shelf Life | Price (per serving) | Nutrition |
---|---|---|---|
Check Prices | Up to 25 Years | Approx $1.09 to $1.42 | Low protein, moderate sodium |
Check on Amazon | Up to 25 Years | Approx $2.01 to $2.50 | Moderate protein, very high sodium |
Check On Amazon | Up to 30 Years | Approx $0.65 to $1.80 | Low protein, low sodium |
Up to 25 Years | Approx $2.36 | High calorie, high protein, high sodium | |
Check On Amazon | Up to 30 Years | Approx $3.00 | High protein, moderate sodium, low calorie |
locally grown grain and legumes, at harvest season, directly from the farmer. 3000 calories for $1. Add your own spices, oils, etc, to make it palatable. As much as possible, go with bulk, cause you’ll need a year’s supply. Make most of it stuff that lasts at least a decade. Get that buried near your BOL, and along your bugout route. Keep near you the expensive stuff that needs to be replaced often (spices and oils/fats)
Good tips Balisong – if you are going this route it is imperative that the grains\legumes are stored correctly – see this post on storing food in mylar bags.
I started looking around for emergency food supplies and found your web page. I went to each of these “five best” suppliers, as well as some others on your list. I have no doubt, generally, about the quality of the ingredients they use, or the shelf life, or their packaging. My “beef”(pun intended) is that the advertising of their products, based on what the average consumer may be looking for, is, in my humble opinion, very misleading, and disingenuous.
Keeping in mind that they say things like “3 month food supply”, one would expect that the package would have enough for 3 months. Like ‘what the definition of ‘is’ is”, I suppose it is how you define “enough”.
One product I looked at (and it is similar for other products I looked at) provided 360 servings which, at 3 servings per say would give you 120 days for one individual, or 60 days for a couple. So far so good. The 360 servings of a relatively wide variety of products all came in at a range of 180 to 260 calories per serving. A package of one entre was said to contain 4 servings at 240 calories per serving. So if you were to consume 3 servings per day, those three servings would provide only 720 calories!! That’s less than half what an average person needs in their diet, and thus the product IS NOT a full 3 month supply.
I spoke to a company rep and his reply was
“The serving size and calorie counts are outlined by the FDA, We follow the guidelines, Many people eat more than one serving of a casserole, so you adjust your eating with the servings we provide. I have customers who buy multiple servings because they eat more than others.”
According to the US Dept of Agriculture a “moderately active” person, aged 46 to 50 requires 2,400 calories for men, and 2,000 calories for women. here’s their web site:
https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_patterns/EstimatedCalorieNeedsPerDayTable.pdf
It galls me to know that Emergency Food companies are promoting their products as “3 month supply”, 6 month supply”, “one year supply” and the like when THEY KNOW they are only providing about 1/3rd of what is necessary.
Needless to say this leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth, and makes it very hard to trust any of these companies. And did I say the entrees are loaded up with fat and calories from fat?
Hi John – yes we do mention this in the article, you must look at the calories not the “serving size”and base your decisions on this. If you are ever in a survival or SHTF situation you will need to ration accordingly or buy extra supplies (we recommend supplementing your bought emergency supplies with other dried staples an some canned food.
Regarding the meals being loaded with fat, we also mention this in the article, in a short term situation you won’t care where the calories come from. For long term sustenance you will want to supplement from other sources to ensure you are getting enough nutrients and vitamins.
I’ve heard that Wise Foods has had a judgement rendered against them in a court in California. They were, in effect, cheating their buyers and one guy sued them and won.
Do you not know of this judgement? If you do, how can you say they have a good reputation among preppers, because on the few prepper sites I go to, Wise foods have been flamed! If you don’t know about it, then you are not doing your research.
Also, in regards to transparency, I note that you do reveal the fact that you make a small amount if a customer buys from a company that you recommend. I have no problem with this, but it would be interesting to see if the suppliers you have highly recommended pay you more than the ones who scored lower.
I agree with John Gregory’s comments above, especially in regards to the calories contained in the various companies “serving size”. If SHTF the puny sizes in terms of calories offered will, as he says, cut down by about two thirds what all the companies claim in their advertising.
It is a certainty that people will be needing much more than a thousand calories per day if SHTF.
As you say repeatedly in your article, each of us must do our own research on methods of storing food for the long term and make the best decisions for ourselves. Thanks for an interesting and informative article and I learned some things about a few of the companies I didn’t know before.
Hi Caliche Kid,
Some great questions which we will attempt to answer satisfactorily:
Wise Foods: Yes we are aware of this judgement. In our opinion Wise are no better or worse than any of the other survival food companies. As stated in the article number of servings or weight is not a useful way to think about this type of food. You must look at the number of calories and make a judgement on what you would need in an emergency situation. Obviously each individual will have a different requirement based on age, gender, physical activity etc.
Transparency: Yes we make a commission on sales. Each suppliers commission structure is publicly available information. A simple Google search will reveal all! Hint: The commission level does not affect our reviews. Also if you read the reviews you will see that we recommend different brands for different scenarios so be sure check the individual reviews to get a feel for each companies strengths and weaknesses.
Remember: This food is generally assumed to be for emergency situations, it is not designed to be a full replacement for what you would normally consume. We recommend having other types of bulk food stockpiled to provide nutritional balance and extra calories.
Hope that helps clarify things and let us know if you have any further questions.
Thanks for the heads up on the commission structure. I never knew that the companies publicized the info.
I did read the reviews and noted the differences in the various scenarios presented and you did a good job of that. Especially with to pros and cons of each food supplier.
Its clear to me that about the only way to judge these long life foods is in the calorie count per serving. I’ve gotten sample packs from a few and realized that its not going to be fun trying to survive if SHTF!
Thanks for responding to my comment so quickly.
I loved this article, I buy most of my food from Augason Farms. So far, they are the only company that allows you to pay overtime and that really sold me out. I can’t afford $4000 on food supply but I don’t mind paying a fixed smaller amount overtime. Emergency Food is pricey as you noted but AF allows me to pay $90 monthly for and order I made over 7 months ago that included over 20 buckets of food supplies. I do buy from Wise Company and Mountain House as well, but only when they have limited time deals, otherwise it is just too pricey. The best policy is to subscribe to all those companies and you get emails with deals and discounts.
Hi Celia – yes Augason Farms are a solid choice., We usually send a monthly email with a roundup of all the current deals so get on our email list if you are interested in that.
Hi,
I’d be interested in this monthly email of current deals. I’m on your regular email list, but haven’t seen anything on deals for others’ products. So please add me if this is a different list.
Thanks,
Pat
Dear Primal, We would like to be on your mailing list please. Thank you, F&B
I enjoyed the wealth of info along with pros and cons. I was interested in Valley Food Storage and I checked their web site. I wanted to get a “Free Sample,” to try and figured it would cost me for S&H. I got a shock when 1 Free Sample of oatmeal would cost me $8.00 for shipping costs. Holy cow that’s high! Naturally at that cost for a “Free Sample,” I passed it up. I’ll stick with the company I’ve been using! At least they only charged $4.00 for shipping 1 free sample………
Yes prices and offers fluctuate a lot. Keep a close on the various websites and you should be able to snag a bargain. Would also recommend signing up to our mailing list as we send a regular monthly roundup of the best food offers.
There are so many brands we could have covered. Here we focused on the top 5. Thrive has some good meals, but I don’t like that they don’t provide much info about shelf life and they also don’t have many options when it comes to meals. Maybe once the company has grown they will make it to our top 5 list.
The comparison I try to use is # of calories per $ rather than the other way around. Of course you have to select comparable products for it to mean anything.
Other than that…There are really two scenarios here, first is long term survival measured in weeks, or months, the second is getting to that place or destination on foot or otherwise. for the first: Your supposition that you should select a variety of types of food is spot on. That you can prepack your own foods for long term storage utilizing Mylar bags and O2 scavengers is excellent advice. No reason to pay big money for lentils, rice, oatmeal, etc.. especially if you flush the packs with O2 free Nitrogen or CO2… I assume that these will be stored wherever the permanent camp is to be located.
As far as the second where BOB is concerned… Proteins, Carbs, and especially FATS need to be considered. You need the Maximum amount of calories for the minimum amount of weight and space. I also would advocate a supply of electrolyte supplement, powdered of course, to mix with water on the go.
I say this from practical experience gained from field testing BOB and tactics. Allowing a lb a day for a 3 day outing, I still lost weight and found my performance flagging…
What stops me are the companies that charge your credit card upon ordering when “legally” companies are not supposed to charge your credit card until an order ships! To ensure no problem, I ordered ONLY in stock items…and then waited, and waited, and waited. A month and a half later, I told the company to refund my credit card…and after a week or so, they did. The thing is, during that time they had use of my money…now times that by ALL the people ordering daily and you can see why “legally” a company can’t charge the card until an items ships.
Sorry that happened. This pandemic has caused such a massive surge in orders (for food plus other emergency gear) that I’ve heard of many people waiting months for their orders. Agree they shouldn’t be able to charge you until it ships though.
Surprised you never mentioned the LDS church store. They sell things at cost. Also, if you live near a store house then there is no chipping costs and will be cheaper than what is posted at the online store. Everything they sell is already packed perfectly to last up to 30 years. I have tried other methods and this was not only way easier but cheaper when you figure you do not need mylar, O2 packets, and buckets.
Google: LDS food storage
Thanks,
Howdy.
In general it seems the pre packaged foods depend more on fats and carbs and less on protein. What about using whey or soy protein to fill the gap? You could sprinkle it on the meal you’re going to eat and get a protein boost. Any thoughts or experience on long term storage of powdered proteins?
Regards.
I don’t know much about whey protein but do have lots of TVP (textured vegetable protein) and TSP (textured soy protein) in my preps. It’s really easy to use in recipes like pasta sauce, taco filling, chili, veggie burgers, etc. It probably will last 20+ years since there is basically no fat in it. Whey does have a small amount of fat in it.
Thank you for a solid comparison of emergency food. Your advice on adding additional products to fill out your total stash is very good also. My personal plan is to hunker down in place, so I am able to do that easily. By purchasing a combination of Augason Farms egg, cheese, peanut butter and fruits/vegetable products and Mountain House meat-only products I feel I have the best of both worlds on hand. Of course my pantries are full of canned foods and Mylar bags of rice, dried beans, etc. One commenter mentioned LDS church store. A few years ago I was able to go to their store site and shop (wish I had bought some!), but recently the site asks for a church membership number to continue. Do you know anything about this?
This may help: https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12307
Thank you for the overview of what is available for emergency food supply and the vendors. Are the check prices links on your site current YTD?
Yes, the links are current – they got to the food company’s websites.
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