Ok I am getting ready to purchase our food storage in a few weeks and need opinions on brands and places to purchase.

Who else to ask, but my friendly neighborhood, ETS members!

Ok, here are somethings I have learned by reading here and other places, asking questions, etc.

I need to get food storage for 2 adults, and 4 kids.

I don't want to get food storage that is all sodium and then some flavor. Some food that relatively healthy and tastes decent.

I would prefer to get food that only needs water to get eatable.

Having #10 cans makes sense from the purchasing of quantity vs, but I don't want to have cans opened everywhere. Even if they are good for a few months. Also having to worry about moving the unused portions to different containers is not something that is appealing, especially during a emergency situation.

Money is always an issue, but I understand it is not going to be cheap.

How about a help with forming a plan of both 'normal' food storage supply and also purchasing regular cans in cases at Sam's Club or Costco.

I formed a plan, but then when someone else in a thread replied about getting food that the children will eat, I had to rethink my 10 cases of MRE supply :P

Thanks.

With tongue slightly (but only slightly) in cheek, I will relate some valuable info I received years ago from a UC Bezerkly nutrition "expert" who was teaching a class at the LEO academy I was attending. She stated (for us single guys), that one can consume nothing but peanut butter and remain fairly healthy. Add to that some saltine crackers, Raman noodles (lotsa sodium there), Lipton pouch meals, a can or two of spam, some Bushes baked beans, chili, and you are good to go. Maybe a few cans of Noodle O's, or whatever the kids like too...

HMMM good thoughts....

Mountain House Pouches are not TOO expensive. But canned chili is good. Spam, corned beef hash, ramen, peanut butter all last long and are pretty cheap.

We have a TON of canned soup just because it's easy to rotate and stores a couple years alone.

I just bought a dehydrated food kit from HarmonyHouseFoods and I love it. I backpack and camp a lot and I pre-package my meals so all I have to do is add water. Actually, I've been using it at home for my regular meals too. Yes, you can dehydrate food yourself, but when its all said and done $50 for a variety of beans, vegetables, peppers, potato, etc, all wrapped in their own little baggies is a pretty good deal.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/mainhome.html

So if it is not too expensive, where are you purchasing it. I don't have a reference point to tell if stuff is expensive or not. Just comparing completely different packages.

Thanks

If you go here you will see the MSRP, that will give you a pretty good idea of what you should pay...

Lots of information. www.beprepared.com

Quite a few years ago when I was an impoverished college student, I used to rely heavily on peanut butter, canned tomato soup, and packaged macaroni & cheese. The budget didn't run to more than that (except for 2 beers every other Friday at the local pub, which was essential nourishment for the soul). As a diet it kept me healthy, but a 20-year-old is a pretty resilient beast. I'm not sure what it would do for/to me now.

Frank 2135

What is your goal?
72 hours?
SHTF?
TEOTWAWKI?

For the basic 72 hour scenario why not just stock up on canned items you already eat that only need heating?

For the longer term scenarios you probably need to go with freeze dried, dehydrated and MRE's.

Don't forget, peanut butter has a fairly short shelf life. If you look at the expiration date it is rarely a year out. Even sealed it has a tendency to go rancid over a fairly short period of time, certrainly not by the expiration date, but I would imaine 18-24 months. I stock a lot of pb... love it and it fits in the diet my doctor has me on. I store it in my spare fridge and keep 30-40lbs on hand. If you aren't going to cycle through it like a minature elephant though you might limit how much you store.

Buy what you eat as far as canned and dried goods go. Rice, pasta, canned soup.

I might shy away from MREs. My last experience with one was not pleasant.

Maybe MRE peanut butter packs???

My first thoughts are 72 hour...but we have enough in the house for that already.

My other main goal is the Long Term in 1-2 year supply.

In the past I preferred to get the Mountain House Packages...not the cans. Just so I can have a more controlled portion system, but that was before I had 4 kids. That was just when I had my wife and I.

With four kids and a spouse, buying mountain house in the cans might be cheaper than the individual packages. I would think that with six people you could go through a can before the food would spoil. There's just my wife and me in our household, we might not be able to get through the can fast enough (before spoilage or food boredom).

If you do go with MH foods, you might want to include them as part of your regular meal plan (perhaps 1 or 2 times per week). Then your family will be used to them and switching to Mountain House won't be an additional stressor during a disaster.

You also may want to look at buying beans, rice and noodles in bulk (say in 25 pound bags). You could then repackage these items into smaller vacuum sealed bags. If you toss in some freeze-dried vegetables with beans and rice, you'd end up with a simple meal that's nutritious.

The last recommendation that I can make is to store some general multi-vitamins. Your diet doesn't have to be perfect, but if thinking long term the multi-vitamins would cover scurvy and other diseases related to vitamin deficiences.

Best of luck. Let us know what your plans are, because I might want to borrow some ideas.

- Brian

ps - The word "toasters" also refers to the old cylons in "Battlestar Galactica" (1978 - 1979)

This site seems to have alot of info also:

http://survivalacres.com/

Yeah I know, alot of people think I got it from that.

I actually got it from a Terminator novel a few years ago.

Ok, look at this page:

http://survivalacres.com/mountainhouse/nutrition.html

Look at the Sodium content of the Mountain House food. Is this alot? I just don't know.

If a year or more is your goal, you might want to look here . Maybe not the most convenient, since just about everything comes in #10 cans, but I suspect (but have never compared) that it will be cheaper than Mountain House, or anything similar...

For something that can be stored forever, which is sounds like you want, you're going to have two choices:

The red wheat/dried corn/dried legume/beef jerky diet, packed in nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

Or

Elevated sodium content- it is a preservative and desiccant. But your dehydrated stuff isn't as bad some of the other options that don't last as long. So long as your seal is good, the mountain house cans supposedly last forever.

What I want is food storage I can leave to my children when I die :P

Just kidding. My question is this.

Is that alot of sodium content per meal for adults and children, or is that normal?

I wouldn't consider it horrible. It's less than fast food.

Good point....very good point

I don't know if your family prefers nuts but I imagine you could vacuum seal them to last quite a while. Great source of energy, and pretty cheap to buy in bulk. Or, if you're lucky, you've got a pecan, almond, or walnut tree in your yard.

In regards to the sodium content, it seems equivalent or slightly lower than most canned goods. It wouldn't be a sensible diet during regular times. However, I think that in a survial situation eating with that much sodium is better than not eating at all.

In the 80's and 90's I was concerned about sodium intake and my blood pressure. There are quite a few products (soups, vegetables) that are canned with less sodium. Also, foods like oatmeal, rice and pasta usually don't have a lot of sodium in them (it's usually the sauces that load up on it).

I haven't seen any freeze-dried or dehydrated conterparts. Do you have space for a garden? I'm assuming that you're keeping this food around for a "dig in" situation. Keeping a small garden, and a store of non-hybrid seeds, may be another option for supplimenting your diet.

Please do tell.

For the record, I've stocked MREs since 1990, and never had a bad experience.

I keep 3 months worth for 3 people on hand, in a cool basement.

regarding sodium content FDA says:

"American adults, on average, eat too much sodium--between 4 to 6 grams (4,000 mg to 6,000 mg) daily"

"Under FDA's food labeling rules, the Daily Value for sodium is 2,400 mg. (Daily Values are a new label reference tool. See Daily Values' Encourage Healthy Diet in the FDA Consumer Special Report "Focus on Food Labeling.") FDA established this value because it is consistent with recommendations and government reports that encourage reduced sodium intakes."

Those "rules" are based on the theory that you are "average" (sedentary) in activity with an "average" metabolism. I have a friend who is a fellow console jockey who eats a lot more than I do and is about half as big around as I am- and I eat less than most people do becuase I'm just not that big of an eater.

If you are active, you do need more salt. And to be perfectly honest, most preservation methods use salt to create an environment hostile to microscopic life. The other option is to completely and total dry something, but it doesn't have the same ease of use or long term performance, or to freeze it. (Yes, Chris, I know about the 200 year old pemmican. All I can say is, you eat it. :P That's like a thirty year old fruit cake.)

For the scenario that Toasters is talking about, your sodium intake, honestly, is pretty far down the list of concerns.

Also on the salt issue, a lot of other cultures eat a WHOLE lot more sodium in their diets than americans... hmmm, maybe it's not such a problem.

The Japanese eat roughly twice as much salt in an average year as do residents of the US...but their diet also tends to be lower in saturated fats and overall calories. IMHO you can't easily look at just one component of a diet and pronounce it good or bad.

Frank2135

Well it seems from all this information, I am not so concerned about the sodium content.

I will also purchase regular canned products, that we normally eat anyway.

Is there an average amount of time that veggies in a sealed can (supermarket, Sam's Club, Costco) are good for? I thought I read that the actual dates stamped on the can are not totally accurate.

ok I havent read all the responses, but there is a place called www.beprepared.com has diff. food for sale.

I never really think about this stuff.

I`m always several months ahead on most food items anyway, except fresh fruits and veggies, offcourse.

If the electricity in the freezer should go out for a long time, there isn`t really an issue as long as I got enough salt around.

My wife bought me this book for Father's Day. It's got a lot of good information and will help you think through how much food you'll need and ways to store it.
Also includes info on other preparedness topics, but the most extensive coverage is on food requirements and storage solutions.

http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Preparednes...3861&sr=8-1

HTH
-phil

A lot of Mormons have been storing up 1-5 years of emergency food supplies for generations and have a Emergency Preparedness Manuel that has good recommendations.

For storing dry grains like wheat and rice as well as dried beans, peas, etc., give some thought to using home canning jars and a jar adapter for a vacuum sealer. I know the FoodSaver home vacuume sealer has one. Vacuumed sealed dry grains and such should outlast you by several generations eliminating the need for rotation on some items. (I'm sure most people here have heard of 2,000 year old seeds and grains found in Egyptian tombs germinating.)

An advantage to using glass canning jars for storage is that they are reusable, (you just need a supply of new lids, inexpensive and easily stored, and a few other canning supplies) in case things go long term and you need to home preserve food from a garden or other sources.

Doing a little home canning now is also a money saver, healthier and allows you to take advantage of low seasonal prices for bulk fresh veggies and meat at local farmers markets and discount places like Sam's Club or Costco. Plus you can preserve preprepared meals that you know your kidlings will eat.

There is lots of good literature available on home preservation of food and I find it an enjoyable hobby as well as an essential survival skill. Your mileage may vary.

Edited to add: A link to Freshpreserving.com , one source for canning supplies and info.

Another link, National Center for Home Food Preservation that's pretty comprehensive.

From the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nutrition/factsheets/sodium.html

"Requirements - The Food and Nutrition Board recommended a sodium intake of less than 2,400 mg/day for adults."

They say that athelete who are exercising more than 2 hrs a day would need more due to excessive sweat losses.

And "hypertensive individuals are recommended to limit their sodium intake to less than 2,400 mg daily..."

"Toxicity - Excessive consumption of sodium on a regular basis is often associated with hypertension and edema. High intakes of sodium can also lead to osteoporosis because sodium can increase urinary calcium losses.

"No upper safety limits for sodium have been established because the body generally excretes excess sodium through the kidneys. But health organizations recommend daily consumption of sodium < 2,400 mg per day (about half of that found in the typical American diet)."

I just picked three random meals from the Mtn House choices and all were over 5,000 mg. If you're a young adult in good health, with no hypertensive issues, you could probably get away with it. But it would be like eating fast food all day, every day.

If you're middle-aged or so, it wouldn't be very good.

If you only ate one MH meal per day (say dinner), and ate more regular stuff for your other meals, it would be better. Say a double portion of quick-cooking oatmeal with milk (reconstituted dry) and two tablespoons of brown sugar would have about 125 mg of sodium.

Balance is probably the key.

Sue