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.

Nalgene Tritan Wide Mouth BPA-Free Water Bottle, 1-Quart. I have two. If I leave enough space at the top, should that be enough to counter the freezing effects?

hikermor wrote:
<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 >

good advice, but remember to have food you can eat cold too. It might be lashing rain out there.

chaosmagnet wrote:
<For food I keep my favorite road snacks (beef jerky)>

More good advice and maybe it's just me; but pack some dental floss too, as the dried meat stuck between my teeth drives me mad!

qjs

It makes sense that this would work, but I haven't tried it with Nalgenes.

The Nalgenes will be fine with a little extra space to allow for freezing. Try one in your freezer to see just how much space you need.

The synthetic bottles do not freeze as quickly as metal ones, and they let sunlight through so they melt more quickly. They also do not feel so bad against the skin when frozen! I do like to carry a single walled stainless steel one for the ability to use it in a fire for boiling water or melting snow. Just a versatility thing.

Nalgenes withstand freezing really well, as long as you leave a little room at the top for the expansion of the water. I always have one in my car and have never had a problem with the bottle breaking in the cold. We use this method all the time in the summer too - freezing the bottles at home before heading out for a trek. Drink it as it thaws and it keeps your water colder longer.

Another tip, is to lay the bottle on it's side when freezing, leaving enough room so that the bottle opening is not completely covered with ice. This leaves you space to drink or pour the water before it's completely thawed, without the ice blocking the opening.

In the winter, when I expect the bottle to freeze, I keep it in a metal water bottle and also carry a camp stove to boil & melt it right in the bottle. A wider mouth bottle is easier for melting snow and a secondary cup will allow you to drink the water before the bottle has cooled so you avoid burning your lips or drinking luke-warm water.

EDIT: A water bottle cozy is a big help in both temperature extremes as well. Insulation in the winter and condensation control in the summer. It also keeps the bottle quieter.

Personally, I keep instant coffee, tea, apple cidar, hot chocolate, instant soup, etc. in the car, along with water, stove/fuel/flame to whip up a hot brew in case we get stuck.

Since I roll with kids, there's always snacks in my car, as well as in my purse, and they got rotated frequently.

I couldn't find that flavour but just tried the chocolate brownie Larabar, based on the thumbs up from you guys, and it's delicious! It's been in my pack for a couple of weeks and I don't taste anything but goodness. Maybe I'll risk it and include them in my weekly rotation.

I've sort of crossed over from 'taste better' to 'trunk food' but it all seems related. I've got a short trip to work/home in an urban environment so don't really think of water or anything substantial for the car unless a long trip is planned.

With that, the lifeboat rations go into the 'go-bag' that lives in the car and I've got an empty Nalgene water bottle attached to the bag so I can fill it when needed but don't carry water in the car. I may pay for that one day and should figure out a way to stash some H2O in the car too.

Paul -

I am an old desert rat that has been really thirsty a time or two so I really value water. Basically all of my canteens are filled all or most of the time. I can assure you that lousy water is much better than no water at all. it can almost always be treated so that survival will occur. There are some exceptions, of course, but they are rare....

I would be very cautious about drinking from a water source labeled as "Arsenic Spring" on my trusty topo map, for instance.

I carry water with me on a daily basis, so that's what gets used in the car (not stored in the car, but carried in fresh each day).

For food, I don't worry about that too much in my daily suburban life. But during winter I've been known to throw in an unopened box of saltine crackers and an unopened jar of peanut butter. Obviously that's emergency rations only, but they might get me by in a pinch. For "trunk food" (read: emergency only), anything that requires hydrating or heating is overkill for me. The object is not having to gnaw my arm off in hunger, as opposed to holding a first class banquet. I just can't see myself whipping out my stove and cooking up a can of beans in the library parking lot.

I would do more if I lived in a rural area or was heading off into remote areas where I could be stranded for a couple of days. But that's not typical for me any more.

For the sake of my dog, all year around I have long had a bit more than a gallon of water in the car (a Honda Element) -- in 48 oz and 32 oz Nalgene bottles and canteens. I keep those in a Coleman steel cooler, in case of leakage. I periodically switch out the water for fresh and before winter will begin leaving 3" or so of air at the top to accommodate freeze expansion.

My Samoyed, Gidget, recently died (at age 14 years, 2 months) and I'm currently dogless but will continue carrying water.

Food-wise, it's too hot half the year to keep any in the car but during winter I'll have some breakfast bars in there -- which I will eat and replace as needed. I do a lot of winter hiking and biking so like having a quick snack handy.

If I were going on a long roadtrip I'd have more.


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Dagny,
Sorry to hear about Gidget, I always enjoyed the pics of you two playing on the Mall.
Russ

I'm so sorry, Dagny.

Sorry, Dagny. Our furry buddies are very much a part of us, and when they leave us physically, the distance between the intimacy we continue to feel and where they are now can be difficult to bear.

Unless traveling, we do not store any food in our vehicles as it is rare that we out of our immediate living area. Even then, if there was ever a need to abandon the vehicle and walk, the longest would no more then 2-3 hours to home.

We do carry water though through all seasons but do not have to think about freezing temps unless we go up north into the interior in the winter. Even then, those small 500 ml to 1L water bottles and Gatorade type bottles can be frozen over and over again without any problems. In our freezer, we have some of these which have been frozen/thawed dozens of times over the years as they are used in place of buying ice for coolers when camping and traveling.

Regarding water in plastic bottles, and chemicals leaching from the plastic....

Anyone knows the kind of plastic used in electric kettles ?
Water boils in these and they are plastic !!

Mine is glass -- Capresso Glass Water Kettle

Well there is a recycle number on your plastic kettle, that tells you what kind of plastic it is.

I don't own a electic kettle, just a stainless kettle that goes on top of a stove. I don't think the plastic in a kettle is a real issue. Just never bought a electric one.

The plastic of bottled water seem to give a taste in the water when exposed to longer periodes of heat, but the is pretty long exposure compared to a reusable bottle or waterkettle.

Thank you, Russ. I sure miss her. Fortunately, I have many Samoyed "godpuppies" so will have more snow pics in the future. Right now I'm on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a few sammies -- another of Gidget's favorite hangouts.


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Thank you. It is comforting to know that she is remembered, fondly, by many.


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That is for sure, Bingley. I'd been through this a couple of times before so at least knew what I was in for this time. The first weeks are brutal. Am blessed with many dog friends and several Samoyed-owning friends so that has been very helpful. I periodically borrow friends dogs to go walking or bikejoring with.

Am also a popular dogsitter now.

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Being in the military, I always keep an MRE in my vehicle. They are designed to hold up under these conditions and come with their own heater, as long as you have a couple of ounces of water for the heater.

I noticed today that I am inclined to do the same thing. I've got a bucket in the back of my car with some emergency stuff, and today while checking it, I found a Mountain House meal (Chilie Mac, FWIW) and a complete MRE. (CDN Beef Ravioli, FWIW.) There was a pack of peanut M&Ms in the MRE, and since I wasn't sure of the date, I ate them. LOL! They were fine and are now replaced with a fresh Clif bar. S'mores flavour, my kids favourite.

Nice! I like MREs on occasion. They have gotten better over the years.