Hi Guys,

I am considering adding a couple of day's emergency food to my in car kit. I keep plenty of food at home for any emergency but a third of my day is spent far enough from home that I would want some thing closer at hand. However, here in Iowa during the summer the inside of my car gets very hot and in the winter it freezes. I looked at MRE but at elevated temps the shelf life goes down dramatically and they recommend not exposing the packaging to repeated freeze/thaw cycles.

Any ideas on a food that could handle being left in a car for a long time?

Or alternatively, I have considered packing the food in a Styrofoam cooler. The Styrofoam would help to insolate the food moderate temps rises during the hottest part of the day.

The only option for long term food storage in cars is:

Mainstay Food Rations or other brands.
Dehydrated foods vacum sealed.

Anything else will go bad over time.

Styrofoam interior "will" get as hot as the car trunk it just takes longer.

Mike

Food storage should be rotated regularly to ensure maximum freshness. Leaving a food stash in a hostile environment (like the inside of car) means that it's not going to last very long, no matter what you do.

Food in my car never lasts long, anyway...because I eat it when I forget to eat before I leave home, and I'm on the road a lot. I just have to try to remember to replenish it frequently, which is a good thing, as it keeps the topic fresh in my mind.

I have kept food in my car routinely for a long time. If you think it gets hot in Iowa, try Arizona or California. I have always used common supermarket stuff for this purpose - canned goods, foil wrapped bars, etc - nothing fancy or particularly expensive. It is true the heat will degrade them over time. The solution is simple - switch them out on a periodic basis - about every six months seems to work for the situations I have experienced. If you carry water (far more important) it should be changed regularly as well.

I always carry some food in my car, usually from a supermarket. But I do not usually cook on the coutryside, therefore my food is already prepared. Usually I have different sorts of canned fish, Brazilian, French or Russian canned beef (preferably easy opening without using can openers- advice given to me by Afgan war veterans), a few litres of water- some to drink and some to wash hands, dried bread and chocholade. These products have relatively long shelf life. Only bear in mind- if you carry petrol inside the car, dried bread adsorbs the smell of petrol. You still can eat it, but "modern men" usually get disgusted.
Regards,