Trunk Food

Hi all,

I think I may have made a post in the the past but if not I will re introduce myself. Hi all from Algo, Southeast US. I read this site frequently but rarely cant find info on a subject. finally I have a question that I can not find much info on. I live in the southeast U.S. and temperature fluctuations can go from the low 100's during the summer and the low teens in the winter. These kind of temperature fluctuations have to dramatically decrease the shelf life of emergency food in your trunk. Currently I have a stack of power bars and a few MRE's in my trunk. I have been contemplating changing over to Mountain House or Mainstay bars. I don't like either one of those options though. I need water for mountain house and Mainstay bars are.......a last resort. What are your recommendation on long term food storage in a vehicle. Thanks in advance for advice.

Algo1911

I am in the tropics of south Florida and this has always been an issue. I do not have time to look it up right now (maybe someone else will), but someone on this board or a related board did a scientific study using food packed in Igloo-type coolers in southwest Texas inside their car to determine if the temperature issues could be managed. In short, they could not without judicious application of electricity and expensive technology.

I do not believe it is so much the temperature fluctuations as it is the high heat that you should be concerned with. So during the winter months, this should not be a problem.

Of course, the other thing that you can do is rotate out the food that may have been exposed to heat much more often.

In short, any food I keep in the car gets carried in and out of where I cam going which substantially reduces the amount I keep around. If I am planning on going off the grid, that amount changes substantially.

Mainstay probably has the best resistance to heat of the non-dehydrated foods, but like you say, not a preferred option.

I rely on normal foods, mostly canned, which are periodically rotated into normal consumption. These are mostly items that are heat and serve or eat right out of the container (Spam, anyone?).

Even when the climate is moderate, interior vehicle temperatures can really spike. Automobiles make excellent solar cookers.

I've settled on Mainstay bars, myself. At least I don't eat 'em when I'm feeling too lazy to go to the store :-).

Thanks for the input. I like the idea of having one cooler for water in case of a leak and another for food to regulate temps. I think I may just go with mountain house and Mainstay for my pack and keep a couple of cans of food in the cooler and rotate each season.

AG

A real issue that I've whined about plenty in the past (and as recently as today to DW). Simply no easy and practical answer. These EDV (vehicle) bags in our case are really just GHBs. In my case, I don't *need* any food in mine, so it's essentially snackage that I rotate by consumption.

In DW's case... she's potentially got 30+ miles more-or-less cross country; not going into more detail on that other than to say Plan A for her is SiP at work until we pick her up. So it's an issue.

1. I came to the same conclusion as hikermor - canned hi-calorie stuff is best bang-for-the-buck.
2. A few TOTMs (We buy a new case each time we open a case) - these get rotated via lunchroom consumption 1 per month.
3. Water is a PITN in the wintertime. USUALLY it does not freeze solid very often stored in her trunk, but it can get that way; our vehicles live outside. Have a sensible plan (and try it out) to deal with that - which may wind up being empty or mostly empty containers.

YMMV...

lol. With a recommendation like that, I think I need to pick up a case or two.

I typically keep some canned goods and DATREX (if I spelled that right) in the trunk. Not sure the DATREX is any better than mainstay, but in a pinch...

Cans seem to last pretty well, but rotation probably is key.

HJ

I keep a few cans of Chunky brand soup in various flavors in my company van. But I also eat it for lunch every day so I rotate through them quickly.

You could always keep something like this in there for a week or two, move those to the pantry to eat, and replace with the same amount back into the trunk.

A bag of dry dog food works pretty well. Hey, it's for emergencies, right?! When I was a scout leader we used to suggest dog bones for emergency food. Anything else was always eaten by the scouts on a routine basis, leaving nothing left for emergencies. Those dog bones were always still there, ready, waiting and available though...

I could eat Datrex bars every day. For some weird reason I just love those things!

When my youngest brother was in HS the rage was for them to eat Milk Bones as a snack.

I don't know if it was to try and gross people out or because they actually liked them. Maybe both.

I am in my car A LOT for my job as we drive to client sites across 3 states.

As previously stated it can be difficult to find foodstuffs that can withstand the temp swings (110+ to -20) of the seasons in MO/KS.

Currently what I am using is granola bars (the hard crunchy kind). They are prepackaged, can be thrown into a pack easily, and hold up to temps very well. I eat them for "lunch" often enough on the road that they get rotated pretty often, but even if they didn't I think they would be viable for quite a long stretch.

As a friend of mine stated, they are the modern day equivalent of hardtack only they taste better.

YMMV,

Greg

I keep a cooler in the back of the truck. It helps moderate temperature extremes. It's under a white tonneau cover so is not exposed to direct sun or the elements.

Decades ago I kept snacks in my car.

I never had much trouble with things. Candy would sometimes melt if it got real hot, but it was still edible.

It never lasted more then a few months anyway, so it got changed out before it had a chance to go stale.

Nutritionally there is not much difference between the average granola bar, a Cliff bar, or a Snickers bar, so grab a few extra bars of whatever you eat anyway and keep them in the car, and rotate them.

Granola bars (no chocolate) have an advantage in not melting if that bothers you.

chia seeds (fat, fiber, protein)
peanut butter
energy bars
miso soup packets
ramen noodles
drink mix packets, gatorade, etc.
coffee, tea, sugar, powdered creamer
Mountain House beans and rice meal
hard candy
sugarless gum


I try and rotate out once every 4 months to keep it fresh and eat the stuff before it spoils.

Round these parts, anything not protected by an all-metal container will eventually be found and destroyed by mice, even in a "closed" car. I hate mice.

Ammo cans work well. Another alternative is new metal paint cans of various sizes - buy them from the paint store.

Brown rice, bulghur, instant mashed potatoes, oatmeal and dried onions are heat tolerant, easily prepared, and not tempting as snacks.Packaged in ziplocks and recycled coffee/mayo/pb containers, they are durable, cheap, and easy to store.

Me too !

Have a look at these 5 gallon mouse traps.
They trap mice by the bucket, so to speak.


http://www.youtube.com/results?search_qu...c.1.C3yiaxhXmW8

I live in Texas. I keep bottled water in my trunk but not food. Instead, I have emergency food in my purse. Twenty-four hour’s worth is normally what I carry unless I have a reason to stuff as much as I can.

Jeanette Isabelle

Almonds and dry currants in the glove box, Mayday 1200's in the trunk. Water in SS container the summer, stove and pot for melting snow in the winter. A lot more when venturing North.

I'm of the use your survival gear regularly and replace it school of thought. I don't currently have a car, but I keep a couple of Clifbars in my school bag and eat about one a week when I get peckish during class or wandering around town. I keep more in my room, so every time I eat one I just grab another and replace it.

When I had a car, I did something similar. I had a bag with about two days of packaged food that I enjoyed eating, and I just used it up when I felt like eating it. I'd never eat all of it at once, and I figured the day or so I had less than two days food between when I ate something and when I replaced it wasn't a big risk.

I did a lot of research on military rations from around the world and adapted things from all over especially the American First Strike Ration (http://nsrdec.natick.army.mil/media/fact/food/fsr.htm) and the British 12 hour ration (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/british-army-new-menu) both of which are heavily reliant on commercial snack food. Then I hunted around a lot and found some good packaged single serving foods. Everything I carried was straight from the grocery store, nothing exotic or hard to find so it was easy to replace. I also packaged things in quart and gallon ziplock bags to make one day rations. If I opened a ration, I replaced the whole thing. I used the same kind of rations for day hikes and replaced them then too. I don't remember the exact mix and quantities, here are some of the things I carried:

Clifbars/granola bars
Single serving pouches of nuts
Retort pouches of applesauce
Pouches of sardines/pouches of tuna
Peanut butter or almond butter
Pop tarts
Jerky
Candy, usually peanut M&Ms
Dry fruit/fruit leather
Pouches of olives

MRE=s in a trunk isn't the best ides during the warmer months if you check the shelf life charts on them. I rather like Mainstay, but then I also like Mre's. Millenium bars have fared well with the field testers fpr my site, which still under construction. I think I might get it up and sort of running sometime in the next fifty years. Not a computer savvy person. The milleniums are advertised with a five year life and store under extreme conditions. Also there are survival tabs. And jerky. The real, homemade jerky, not the greasy commercial stuff. Dried fruit, granola bars, etc. Hop this helps.

I found these in the local Walmart yesterday and my sweet tooth started humming:

http://www.heinz.co.uk/ourfood/pasta/tas...ed-dick-pudding

Canned goods are heavy but you don't have the same weight concerns in your trunk as you do on foot. I also like that canned goods are crush resistant. That can come in handy in the trunk.

Freezing is an issue here though, so I don't keep canned goods in the vehicles regularly. I take them for roadtrips but usually keep a box of cliff bars and peanut m&Ms in my trunk kit, because they're more versatile.

Added some new stuff:

Oatmeal

Pure Maple Syrup Crystals (Just found it in Trader Joes. I use maple syrup as my primary sweetener in coffee, tea, and oatmeal so this is perfect.)

Can of tuna

Hot Chocolate

3 in 1 instant coffee packets (Trader Joes)

Thanks for the tip; maple syrup is a very good sweetener.

I picked up some Harvest Food works Maple Syrup Crystals last week. They were well received in our taste test. (I didn't tell them I substituted during Sunday morning breakfast and nobody seemed to notice.) I've been wanting to find a light weight way to bring maple syrup to have with bannock and this will do the trick.

It's pretty easy to make - just add a half cup of boiling water to the crystals in the mixing bag. I'm going to try adding them straight into the bannock too.

MEC sells them for $4.25 and I found them at Sail for $3.99. I've learned not to count on Sail inventory so bought a couple of packs.

Harvest Foodworks Maple Syrup Crystals

I keep hearing that, but I have to say, I've eaten 15 year old MRE's that were stored in the garage when I lived in So Cal. Some weren't all that palatable (are they ever?) but no ill effects. I have a few in my car that are probably pushing the 5 year "shelf life."

I keep peanut butter packets, Tanka bars, Almonds, those nasty bright orange cheese crackers (a weird thing that I just happen to like) & hard candies. I do eat them regularly as well so they're not "long term." They're often my lunch or breakfast if I'm running late or just feeling hungry. Of course, then I replace them.

Definitely recommend the Tanka Bars, especially the spicy ones!

http://www.amazon.com/Justins-Natural-Cl...+butter+packets

http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf/public/main.cvw

Second the recommendation for Tanka bars. Unlike many of the packaged bar products, these pack a lot of protein, and I have a hankering for buffalo - real tasty stuff. Only drawback is that they are pricey, currently listing at $3 a bar. I just ordered a box from REI - in quantity I get a 20% discount. They do have a "best by" date,but i have consumed several that were years past their date,and they were excellent, still.

I am concerned about the heat in a trunk and its affect on lifespan of any food stored there, this relates to MREs since they are known to be heat affected.
Though I am unsure about everything ...most things are adversely affected by heat. Anyone know if freeze dried stuff is as sensitive as MREs ?
One answer would be to rotate it out frequently.... another would be maybe storing food in an insulated container like an empty ice chest ... that might slow things down, but eventually the heat will "soak in".

Aside from not storing lots of food ... and going with rotation and things like Mainstay bars ... I'm not sure what else to do.
-KW

Freeze dried food makes sense in applications where weight is critical - typically when backpacking or use in a plane, etc. Other wise, FD is expensive and requires extra time to prepare. Since it lacks moisture, it is probably more resistant to some degree to the high heat of a car interior. I don't really know; I keep my stash of FD stored in ideal, cool conditions. My car has tasty supermarket items that I rotate from time to time. Remember, in a real tight situation, gourmet standards will lower considerably.

I keep a couple Datrex packs and some canned soup in a cooler in the back of my truck. It's under a tonneau cover to keep it all secure, Being under something other than glass or a steel lid attached to the solarium cuts a few degrees and keeps the temps more stable.

I keep plenty of bottled water in my trunk; only some food in my purse.

Jeanette Isabelle

I think Clif bars are the ultimate in temp resistance. some years ago, within a one-week period I had some along for snacks on a snowshoe hike north of Anchorage with some pals. at -25, I could still bite into them, while my buds discovered that their blocks of cheese and pepperoni had converted to concrete. a few days later, I was on a trip in Costa Rica hiking. after 6 hours in the luggage area of a bus, my Clif bars were unchanged, while energy bars and candy bars in other peoples' packs had liquified.
Clif bars even taste almost OK, though some kayaking buddies insist on calling them turd "bars." I do admit that they do look a lot like dog output, but no effect on flavor.

The durable packaging is one of the reasons they are so resilient and hardy. You can drop one into the nether regions of your pack and retrieve it years later when needed. Their "carrot cake" is actually tasty.

I agree. Clif bars are on my list. Have carried the same one in my travel luggage (always travel with small found stash and a few bottles of water) for a couple years until one day I decided I should just eat it and put a new one in the bag. It seemed unaffected for being kicked around all that time and tasted fine. I think in the future I'll find a nice sized plastic container for my snack, instant food & beverage stash.
I bet a small kit packed into a small insulated cooler could weather the trunk nicely for at least a year or so.
--KW

IMO a cooler is the way to go for any trunk food. I keep all my truck food in a cooler, even a couple MRE's and coffee. It's summer in SOCAL and things get HOT everywhere, not just in the desert.

Those cheap styrofoam coolers they sell in supermarkets are just fine for a trunk as long as you take care to not crush them.

Interesting observation. Purina rabbit chow looks a lot like rabbit output, and dog food in genera is indistinguishable from the metabolites thereof. There is a doctoral dissertation topic in this thread...

OTOH, dogs on a raw food (uncooked meat, fish, chicken) have excrement that is not at all like the food they eat -- and much less of it. Maybe the excrement we see/smell from dogs eating purina dog food has more to do with the undigestible fillers...

lets keep it clean here people .

Wally World's Great Value brand Cinnamon Roasted Almonds keep long past their "use by . . ." date due to the coating, travel well and taste AMAZING; much better IMO than any and all of the other nut brand competitors. Zip-locked bags prevent spillage, but admit my hand for "blind" extraction of a handful while driving. I couldn't find a picture on their web-site, so apparently only available in their stores. Almonds provide the healthy kind of fats, protein, fiber, and some carbs. Everyone I've shared them with becomes a convert. When empty, the very tough bag can become a serviceable water carrier.