Best Foods To Stockpile For Emergency

Natural disasters are more common than most of us think. Many of them are violent and destructive, so they force us to stay behind our doors for hours or even for days. Besides, they strike without warning, thus catching most of us totally unprepared. This is why it makes sense to stock up on food items and other things you may need in the event you can’t leave your house for a longer period of time.

There are two big problems when it comes about storing food items for relatively long periods of time. First of all, they need to be nonperishable. This limits the choices to a certain extent. Secondly, bulky foods require a lot of storage space. If you don’t have it, this could be a very big issue.

The first problem is easy to overcome by using the foods on a continuous basis and replacing it with fresh ones. If, for instance, you stock up on flour, canned beef, oil, sugar and various preserves, you need to use them up before they expire and refill your stocks with new supplies. This is how you can be good in case of an emergency and yet eat everything you want every day. In addition, for massive stocks, you should go for foods with longer shelf life.

The storage problem isn’t that easy to sort out. You need to choose food items that fill you up quickly, foods rich in calories and compact. Dried fruits are the ideal example. Dried apricots, for instance, take up less than half the space of fresh or frozen ones. You can also consider dried vegetables, as they can be used to prepare soups, stews and other dishes. Vegetables a re good for you, as they are full of vitamins and minerals, so you should have some in your emergency stock, in order to avoid sickness due to a lack in such nutrients.

Canned foods are good because they have a very long shelf life. Besides, they don’t require too much storage space or special conditions. You can simply store them in your pantry or in a special room in your house. You can get canned soup, vegetables, fruits, meat and sausages. Just organize your pantry well, so that you can always use the oldest cans first.

Frozen foods are also a good idea, but they require you to have a huge freezer. You can stockpile only as much as your freezer allows for. Besides, you can’t store these products for very long time. You may need to consume them within a few months time, so you are going to need careful planning. Besides, you should label everything carefully, because most frozen foods look very similar. If you don’t have labels, you are going to have a hard time knowing what’s in each pack.

Condensed milk and other similar things are also among the best foods to stockpile for emergency. Milk is good because it can provide you the needed protein intake, under the circumstances of a disaster. If you don’t have meat and cheese, drinking milk or using it in various dishes can be a good idea for supplying your body the daily dose of protein. Honey is also a food that allows for long term storage. You are going to be very happy to have it, especially if you need to make your supplies last for a very long time. You can use it in cookies, biscuits and other sweets. This may seem unimportant, but if you have children, you can’t deprive them of their sweets, as they may become depressed and grumpy.

When choosing your food items for emergency situations, always buy them in the biggest boxes, cans or packs you can find. This is going to save you some storage space. However, you need to be careful, as if you open such a container, you may need to consume the food inside within a certain number of days. If you have a lot of mouths to feed, that’s not a problem, but if you are alone, you may be better off with smaller packs. Anyway, be smart and organized, if you want to be able to face a natural disaster, a war or any other type of emergency…

P.S – below we also added a great video from YouTube that contains more tips on foods to stockpile for emergency…

Have a great day 🙂

Jason and Erin