Stocking up on food is crucial when preparing for a survival situation. Without a proper food supply, you could be at serious risk if an emergency were to happen. If disaster strikes, it’ll already be too late to stock up.
If we look at how bare shelves were when the global pandemic began, this is evident. You want to immediately invest in readymade survival food that can feed your family for months and even years to come.
Having food preparations other than readymade meals is equally as important. Stock up on meat you can freeze, canned goods, and shelf stable items like peanut butter, rice, beans, etc.
You should also learn how to grow a garden and start it as soon as you can, if your space and climate allows. Starting it when times are good means that if a survival situation were to happen, you’d already have or be closer to having thriving crops. Having a garden can provide you with fresh and healthy produce, so you and your family can have nutrient-dense food anytime.
Although these things are good for survival, readymade and packed survival food sources often have a much better shelf life, such as 10 to 30 years as opposed to only 2 years for grocery store canned goods. So let’s go over some of your options and figure out what the best pre-made packaged survival food is for your household.
Stock Up on Military MREs
MREs, also known as Meals Ready to Eat, are military grade pre-made meals that are designed to provide nutrition and energy to people in the most intense of situations, making them perfect for your survival stash.
The average MRE is over a thousand calories (usually 1,250 or so), and with three meals a day, that provides three thousand calories which is well over the daily recommended amount. This makes up for vigorous activity, such as running, building, etc. so that when you burn calories, you’ll still be getting your daily needs.
These meals have a variety of different entrees, some examples being beef stew, chili with beans, and meatballs in marinara sauce. There are a few MREs that are vegetarian as well, for those who prefer to not eat meat. The meals also come with a heat pack that only requires a small amount of water to work.
MREs also contain additional foods, such as crackers, drink mixes, sweets, and more. The variety in the meal options will allow you to prevent you or your family from getting bored with their food and eating the same thing every day.
These pre-made meals can have a very long shelf life and be safe to eat for years. The amount of time your MRE is safe for depends on the temperature you store them in. Storing these packs in hot temperatures will make their shelf life shorten significantly.
MRE cases that were produced after 1997 have a small, orange, rounded square shaped sticker on them that you can use to figure out whether it’s safe to eat or not. These stickers are called TTIs, as in time temperature indicator.
There is a symbol in the square that looks like a target, with a bigger circle on the outside and a smaller one on the inside. The smaller circle is supposed to be lighter than the bigger circle, if the MRE is safe to eat. If it’s gone bad, the smaller circle will be the same color or darker than the bigger circle. When purchasing MREs, make sure you’re buying ones that are good quality.
Emergency Food Variety Pack (104-Serving)
Buy a Variety of Survival Food Buckets
Survival food buckets are a great option for food to stock up on. They’re an easy way to provide you and your family with food that will help you meet your daily nutritional and caloric needs.
One great thing about these food buckets is the amount of options you have to choose from. While military grade MREs usually have a limited 24 options, these food sources have hundreds of different kinds.
Some of these emergency food supply buckets have one type of food, like brown rice. Buckets with one type of food would be a good option for families who know a specific type of dish they like.
For example, if you know your family loves a dish you make that contains pinto beans, it would be a good idea to buy an emergency bucket of those so that your family could still have that during a rough situation.
It’s important to be able to enjoy food during a survival event. Chances are, if you were in a situation where you had to rely on your survival food stash and couldn’t just get food from the store, you’d probably be stressed and anxious enough as it is.
To be able to enjoy your meals as a family would provide a much needed comfort in a time of such high stress. The many different kinds of foods you can find in survival food buckets can help you still provide tasty, non-repetitive food to you and your loved ones in any scenario.
Some of these buckets will have a mix of different entrees, some examples being things like pasta dishes, meat entrees, soups, oatmeal, etc. These are good to keep in storage because usually the mixture will cover all three meals – breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
There are also some buckets that solely focus on one meal of the day, like a bucket with 7 types of breakfast meals or 9 different dinner entrees. In a variety pack, you might get fewer options for each meal.
For example, there might only be two types of breakfast entrees to provide more space for other dishes. Sometimes buying individual meal-focused buckets can give you more options in one bucket.
The buckets these meals are stored in are usually watertight, making it a great option for survival events including natural disasters such as flooding. Most buckets also have handles to make transportation easier.
Some of these food supplies can have shelf lives of up to 25-30 years. This can vary from bucket to bucket, so make sure you read and plan accordingly to the directions stated on the container. It’ll most likely also have instructions on how to store it to maintain its long shelf life.
The food that comes in these packs are usually freeze dried. This means they’ll only require water and heat to give your family and yourself a warm meal. They can also be prepared quickly and easily, allowing you to conserve your energy and provide food quickly.
Fill Your Shelves with Survival Food Canisters
Survival food canisters are another long-lasting, space saving, easy way you can make meal time during a survival event easy. Typically, freeze dried foods will be packaged in this type of can.
Most of these canisters only consist of one type of food – meat, vegetables, fruits, drink mixes, etc. There are a few out there that will have one type of meal, which is usually a pasta/meat dish or a soup.
Investing in these cannisters might be a better option for you if you’d rather have food options that you know your family would like. If a food supply option were to have a single dish with ingredients no one in the family likes, it’d be a waste of space.
Everyone’s stress would be high enough during a survival situation without having to force feed themselves meals they don’t like. With these cannisters, you can pick very specific ingredients like peas, milk powder mix, strawberries, and even cheese.
The only downside to these cans compared to the buckets is that most of them won’t be readymade meals, and there’s a lack of variety per can. Since these cans provide you with ingredients, you’ll usually still have to do mixing and your normal cooking regimen to create a meal.
However, it’s good to have things your family is familiar with so that mealtime can be a comfort in unprecedented times. This will give you more room to get creative with your meals. Unlike a premade entree, you can season things in different ways or cook them using different methods. You can also swap out and add new ingredients.
These cannisters are typically sealed very tightly and securely, giving them an extra long shelf life compared to normal canned goods. The shelf life of some can vary, but usually they’ll have a shelf life of anywhere from 10 years up to three decades.
The long shelf life makes these cans a perfect thing to use for survival storage, since you won’t have to swap them out very often when they expire. This is a problem many preppers face when stocking up on food, as your typical canned grocery store food has a short shelf life.
Having cannisters is one of the best ways to start your survival food supply. Take a look at these.
Freeze Dried Whole Foods for Emergency Food and Survival Kits
Have Plenty of Emergency Food Bars and Tabs
Emergency food bars and tabs are compact food options that are designed to be kind of a last resort option when it comes to survival food. They’re jam packed with calories and nutrients to sustain you.
Survival food bars are usually packed in a way where you’re supposed to eat multiple throughout the day to reach your daily caloric requirements. These bars can range in the amount of calories they have per one serving – some being around 400 calories,
They also provide essential vitamins. Vitamin A, Iron, and Vitamin D are just a few examples of the many nutrients that these bars typically provide. It’s important when purchasing to make sure you get the most nutritional value for your money.
These bars have different flavors you can choose from. There are bars that come in various fruit flavors such as lemon, coconut, blueberry, and more. There are also ones in typical dessert flavors such as cinnamon, vanilla, peanut butter, and chocolate. You can also find savory ones.
Survival tabs are smaller, less calorie dense foods that are also great sources for nutrition during a survival event. They’re chewable, small tabs that come in packs that can feed a person for days.
These tabs, like the bars, also come in a variety of flavors. However, most of the flavors of survival food tabs are sweet and not savory. These flavors are similar to the ones seen in the survival bars, modeled after fruit tastes and sweets flavors like vanilla and caramel.
These bars and tabs are very small compared to something like a food bucket or #10 cannister. They’re usually in a vacuum-sealed, watertight package that doesn’t take up much space. These foods are also very lightweight.
The lightweight nature of survival bars and tabs makes them amazing options when preparing a bug out bag. Their nutritious makeup makes them ideal as you won’t need to pack a bunch of heavy ingredients to get your daily nutritional needs in.
Survival food bars and tabs also have a very long shelf life if you take the proper precautions to make sure you store them correctly. Some could have a shelf life of 20 years if you read the directions and take care of your items. It’s also important when storing to make sure that the packaging the food comes in isn’t compromised, as this could lessen the shelf life of the product.
MRE meal replacement bars are an great way to have back up food supply. Check out this bar, it has great reviews.
REDCON1 MRE Protein Bar
Buy Pre-Made Survival Food in Bulk or Based on Time
Many of these long-lasting survival food options are sold in packs. These packs are typically based on either the amount of time it’ll serve you for three meals a day or the number of servings it’ll provide.
Buying in bulk can make it much easier to keep track of how much food you have per person, or how long your food stash will serve each family member. It’s very important when survival prepping to make sure you have enough food stored for everyone.
Depending on what the packaging tells you, you can keep track based on servings or time. For example, if you buy a bulk pack that will last someone 72 hours, but you already bought a pack that will last them 24 hours, add those together and make note that you now have 96 hours worth of food for them.
Survival bulk food can be sold in quantities that will guarantee you and your family nourishment for a long time. Some packs can range from 3 months, to 6 months, to even a year.
Deciding to buy in bulk can also be a great decision because it can save you money. Usually, a bulk pack of survival food buckets, for example, will cost less individually when you divide the cost by the amount of buckets than an actual individual bucket.
You can buy bulk portions of survival foods with a single ingredient, like beans or rice, or a bulk pack of survival meal buckets or cans. You can also find MREs sold in bulk packs online.
Don’t Forget Survival Food for Your Pets
One important thing you need to make sure you remember when stocking up on survival food is that your pets need to be fed. Your animals are a part of your family too, and they need to be provided for as well.
Most options are freeze dried or vacuum sealed foods, which can usually have a shelf life of 5 years. You can find different types of survival food for many types of household animals.
Some of these foods are made for meal-times, and some are bags of treats that you can give to your pets every so often. Just like with human survival food, different products may have different directions for storage to maintain their shelf life to the fullest extent. Make sure you follow these instructions so you can keep your critters well fed.
Pets need food too. This is a great option.
Mayday Emergency Dog Food (13 meal packs)
