We on this forum have divergent opinions and survival strategies, and there is no perfect answer, as we all are dealing with different facts, assumptions, needs, and scenarios.

In our household we shun hydrogenated shortening, as we aggressively avoid trans-fats. There's nothing wrong with ghee, but it's very expensive, we don't use it in our daily diet, and so we feel that we don't need it in a survival situation. Any food oil will do in an emergency.

Having heard about the results of long term static food storage from the 'bomb shelter' days, we select standard dry and canned foods with long shelf lives of 1 to 3 years and store those in sufficient quantities to survive for thirty days or more. For example, Skippy Natural peanut butter; No trans-fats, shelf is a year or more and it requires no refrigeration when opened. Dense in food energy, it is a great survival food. We maintain a full year's supply of it. Add par-boiled rice, dry pasta, honey, canned meats, dry and canned beans, oil and flour, and any variety of canned veggies and you have a full survival pantry. The trick is to use it daily by freshness date, and replenish it in quantity when you see it on sale. We also maintain a 100 roll supply of toilet paper; use some, and buy more. An added advantage is that you can replenish everything at sale prices, as you never have to 'run to the store' for the things you have in your cache.

A word on 'expiration dates". Those dates are 'freshness dates'. The 'human consumption dates' are much longer and vary by food type.

We feel that the best food to have on hand is the food we eat anyway. We calculate that based on our location and the risks that we perceive and plan for, it is most likely that we would 'shelter in place' (80%) as opposed to 'bug out' (20%). The one concession we make to 'bug out' scenarios is that we keep half of our water in five - 7 seven gallon totes for portability, and we have the means to transport our entire food supply if we had to.