Hello everyone. I am looking at emergency food and water choices to be stored in my car trunk. Although I live in Tennessee, it does get below freezing and certainly can get pretty hot as well. I wanted to know good long term food/water options. Also, does anyone know how long water in a canteen will stay good? Thank you.

Water does not go bad by it self. In a closed container:
- The container material might leach in to water (plastics)
- The water might not have been clean at the start and germs might multiply or other things start to grow, especially with sun light.

Heat might cause issues with plastic bottles and what they release in the water.

Freezing temperature wil cause issues due to explanding.

Rotating some bottles of water seems to be most succesfull to me. Plastic seems to have enough expantion space. Store in the trunk where it's shaded from the heat. In winter i toss it in a cooler to reduce the temperature swings and act as a catch for any leakage.

Water in plastic water bottles seems to survive temperature extremes pretty well -- if you're concerned about chemicals leaching into your water you may want to do something different. All I do is cycle through it on a regular basis.

For food I keep my favorite road snacks (beef jerky) and Millennium bars on hand.

Clean water stored in clean containers in the dark stays good indefinitely. Exposure to light could create an environment for microorganisms to grow. With regard to a canteen, what kind of canteen is it?

I find Clif bars do pretty well in long term storage, although they are a bit dry after their "best by" date. Lara bars, on the other hand, noticeably degrade and should not be stored long term.

Most canned goods will do quite well stored in a vehicle,unless they show swelling or leakage. My favorite for this application is Dinty Moore beef stew.

Water in clean canteens should be fine for a very long time if kept away from sunlight. I have consumed canteen water stashed in this manner for over a year with no ill effects. I am not sure what you mean by "going bad," but if I saw green algae or something foreign in the water, I would filter through a bandanna or similar and than bring to a boil.

Storing food in a vehicle, in my opinion, means you should have some sort of stove and fuel as well. There are lots of light weight, stable alternatives available.

Nothing lasts forever. Periodically rotate through whatever you stash away. In that way, you can come to your own conclusions about what works best for you and yours.

Thanks for the info. I've had a few of these bars and I like them. It's good to know they are not for long-term storage.

Jeanette Isabelle

Yes, unfortunately, I would recommend consumption of Lara bars, especially the cherry pie variety, within 23 1/2 hours of purchase, lest they go stale on you. Do't want to take any unnecessary chances!

The only food that I know of that will last in a car's trunk in a high temperature environment are "lifeboat rations," which are supposed to remain good for, typically, five years. But if you are just storing a few days worth of food, you could also get pretty much whatever you want and replace those items every couple of months.

I have lifeboat rations in my trunk bag, along with some Gatorade, tea and small snacks that get rotated regularly. I also use the quart+ sized water jugs from the grocery store, rotated regularly.

When I lived in Dallas what I did was keep bottles of water in my car; food in my bag.

Jeanette Isabelle

I made a similar inquiry a few years ago. What's the purpose of the food? If it's for snacks, then as long as you remember to finish or cycle the food, you can have a variety of different things that can survive temperature extremes for a few weeks. However, if you want some sort of emergency food that stay edible for years on end, the solution I came up with is the emergency rations. Let me know if you need a brand recommendation.

You can probably do freeze-dried food + water + a way to heat the water + a way to cook the food in water. But that seems too complicated for the sort of emergency situation I envision.

Bags of nuts, especially Walmarts Cinnamon Toasted Almonds, and Target's cinnamon toasted pecans work well for me. Filling and relatively health. Vacumn sealed cans should work well too.
Our local Good Will store frequently has stainless steel water bottles (Kleen Kanteen or Yeti type) for sale for $1-2. A drop of bleach added to the water should keep it algae free indefinitely.
BPA free hard plastic water bottles (Nalgene and others) may just be advertising hype. Apparently BPA has been replaced by BPS, thought to be just as hazardous. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjnmsCfnNnPAhXIFT4KHdW7BawQFgglMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scientificamerican.com%2Farticle%2Fbpa-free-plastic-containers-may-be-just-as-hazardous%2F&usg=AFQjCNEhwexhk2ioxfqdDA4iSF0YYPqYjQ&bvm=bv.135475266,d.dmo
I stick with the stainless steel water bottles for that reason.