I have the staples covered, but who still has reasonable prices on long-term food storage? I'm looking for items to give variety to wheat, rice, potato flakes, beans, etc. We can live on those, but it will taste like crap after a while, to quote Dundee. My Patriot Supply and others could be good, or they could be gimmicks. I'm looking to spend $500-1k or so. Thanks!

quote:

I have the staples covered, but who still has reasonable prices on long-term food storage? I'm looking for items to give variety to wheat, rice, potato flakes, beans, etc. We can live on those, but it will taste like crap after a while, to quote Dundee. My Patriot Supply and others could be good, or they could be gimmicks. I'm looking to spend $500-1k or so. Thanks!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That guy in Kentucky has plenty of freezed dried strawberries and a million dollar underground shelter.

We have 2 years worth from My Patriot Supply. Tried a couple and it is well edible food.
If you call and talk to them on the phone they can set you up pretty well for substantially cheaper than the website advertises.

Mormon stores carry #10 cans of various foods; if you look at store.churchofchrist.org and go to "Food Storage" you will see what they have available: apple slices, carrots, onions, nonfat dry milk, pasta, dehydrated black and pinto beans.

We've started collecting grains, legumes, pulses: red winter wheat, rice, lentils, split peas.

We will put them in mylar bags with oxygen-absorbing packets, seal them, and put the sealed bags into 3.5-gallon food-grade plastic buckets with Gamma seals. Supposedly the oxygen absorbers will take foods like lentils from being good for one year to being good for many years.

For variety, freeze-dried foods are light and will keep for 25+ years in their original containers, but have become frightfully expensive.
For home use, canned foods are fine, and since protein is needed, canned meats (chicken, ham, spam) and fish (tuna, salmon) would be good choices. They can be used quite far beyond their "best by" date.

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Originally posted by sjtill:
Mormon stores carry #10 cans of various foods; if you look at store.churchofchrist.org and go to "Food Storage" you will see what they have available: apple slices, carrots, onions, nonfat dry milk, pasta, dehydrated black and pinto beans.

We've started collecting grains, legumes, pulses: red winter wheat, rice, lentils, split peas.

We will put them in mylar bags with oxygen-absorbing packets, seal them, and put the sealed bags into 3.5-gallon food-grade plastic buckets with Gamma seals. Supposedly the oxygen absorbers will take foods like lentils from being good for one year to being good for many years.

For variety, freeze-dried foods are light and will keep for 25+ years in their original containers, but have become frightfully expensive.
For home use, canned foods are fine, and since protein is needed, canned meats (chicken, ham, spam) and fish (tuna, salmon) would be good choices. They can be used quite far beyond their "best by" date.

That is a great suggestion for those who are looking to start food storage for an affordable price. I'm looking to supplement similar staples, so maybe once or twice a week we could have a treat.

I'm curious how far beyond the "best by" date canned meats like chicken, ham, and spam can be safely consumed. I've heard most are good for a year.

We have bought lots of things from www.thrivelife.com over the years. Excellent quality and Costco carried it from time to time.

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Originally posted by Ackks:

I'm curious how far beyond the "best by" date canned meats like chicken, ham, and spam can be safely consumed. I've heard most are good for a year.

Way longer than a year. Very recently I ate some beef stew that had a best by date of 2006 and lived to tell the tale.

#10 cans of Mountain House dehydrated food

30-35 year shelf life. I bought cases of this a dozen years ago, wasn't cheap like buying a 50lb bag of rice. Just another alternative.

The only complaint I have with Mountain House is the large amount of sodium in the food. I have some of the freeze-dried packages and ate one in the past year and really felt all the salt. Are all of the freeze-dried options like that?

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Originally posted by oddball:
#10 cans of Mountain House dehydrated food

30-35 year shelf life. I bought cases of this a dozen years ago, wasn't cheap like buying a 50lb bag of rice. Just another alternative.

Keep in mind that while #10 cans are handy for storage, they hold a lot of food and don't last long once opened, particularly in humid environments. So, if you're only looking at feeding 1-2 people, you're better off getting smaller portions.

Or, invest in a freeze dryer and do your own.

So, the Best By date thing is a requirement from the Feds - eg, ice cream now has a 1 year best by standard, which is absurd.

If kept below -35F, and doesn’t subliminate, it won’t degrade.

At higher temps, it can turn grainy long before 1 year, but it never spoils, if kept frozen.

I think canning in jars would be good for a very long time.

Sitting at Midway Airport the last few hours and came across this thread. Got me thinking, Does a person really need to store food for more than 2-3 years. It would seem rotating stored food in for consumption and replacing it would be the best way to go.

Yes it would be a bit more effort but not much. The idea of keeping food more than a few years, if things get that bad you couldn't resupply in under a year... I would think food would be the least concern. At some point, what would be the point?

Look Here and see if you have a location near you. Not sure how supplies are now but many years ago I secured a one year supply of food for me and my wife from them. I bought in bulk, bought the cans, oxygen absorbers, and they lent me the canning machine to do it myself. I have a huge variety of goods stored that will last at least 30 years. I have onions, carrots, salt, sugar, dried milk, potatoes, rice, hard wheat, oats, meat, beans, pasta, and I am sure other things I can’t remember off the top of my head.

I created an Excel spreadsheet and did the math on servings per container to know how much to buy to be the one year supply for me and my wife. It fills a large part of a spare bedroom, but we have the space for it.

Of course I also have a lot of freeze dried food, MREs, and canned goods.

quote:

Originally posted by SOTAR:
Sitting at Midway Airport the last few hours and came across this thread. Got me thinking, Does a person really need to store food for more than 2-3 years. It would seem rotating stored food in for consumption and replacing it would be the best way to go.

Yes it would be a bit more effort but not much. The idea of keeping food more than a few years, if things get that bad you couldn't resupply in under a year... I would think food would be the least concern. At some point, what would be the point?

To me I believe in being prepared for anything in layers:

Short term: rotate canned goods
Mid term: MRE’s
Long term: Freeze dried food and dried canned food.

Each have advantages. Some require no water, little water, or water.

Make sure you have an ability to purify water.

Having anything is better than nothing.

quote:

Originally posted by SOTAR:
Sitting at Midway Airport the last few hours and came across this thread. Got me thinking, Does a person really need to store food for more than 2-3 years. It would seem rotating stored food in for consumption and replacing it would be the best way to go.

Yes it would be a bit more effort but not much. The idea of keeping food more than a few years, if things get that bad you couldn't resupply in under a year... I would think food would be the least concern. At some point, what would be the point?

Most people can't realistically rotate food enough. I know I certainly can't. Most of my mid term emergency supplies end up getting up into about 3-5 years past their expiration date and then I am forced to toss it. I just can't incorporate enough canned, jarred, or dried foods into my cooking when I have high quality meat in the freezer and fresh veggies in the fridge running against that same clock.

30 year and 10 year shelf stable dehydrated foods have their place. I have cases of the vacuum sealed mountain house pouches that get used up on hiking trips, and I split up the #10 cans into self sealed pouches for friends when we go hiking together.

Between keeping a rotating stock of canned goods on the shelf for 2 years or a stock of 30 year stable dried foods, my real world experience is that the freeze dried stuff actually gets used and rotated and the canned stuff ends up getting wasted. The only thing I can keep in the pantry in easy rotation is Spam, tomato sauce or tomatoes, dry pasta, or rice. Things like tuna, canned soups and chilis, dry potatoes, canned vegetables, never get eaten before expiration. But that's my experience based on my own eating/cooking habits. If you are the type of guy that is okay with bringing a can of spaghetti O's to work for lunch, then a pantry rotation system would probably work well.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by SOTAR:
Sitting at Midway Airport the last few hours and came across this thread. Got me thinking, Does a person really need to store food for more than 2-3 years. It would seem rotating stored food in for consumption and replacing it would be the best way to go.

Yes it would be a bit more effort but not much. The idea of keeping food more than a few years, if things get that bad you couldn't resupply in under a year... I would think food would be the least concern. At some point, what would be the point?

Most people can't realistically rotate food enough. I know I certainly can't. Most of my mid term emergency supplies end up getting up into about 3-5 years past their expiration date and then I am forced to toss it. I just can't incorporate enough canned, jarred, or dried foods into my cooking when I have high quality meat in the freezer and fresh veggies in the fridge running against that same clock.

30 year and 10 year shelf stable dehydrated foods have their place. I have cases of the vacuum sealed mountain house pouches that get used up on hiking trips, and I split up the #10 cans into self sealed pouches for friends when we go hiking together.

Between keeping a rotating stock of canned goods on the shelf for 2 years or a stock of 30 year stable dried foods, my real world experience is that the freeze dried stuff actually gets used and rotated and the canned stuff ends up getting wasted. The only thing I can keep in the pantry in easy rotation is Spam, tomato sauce or tomatoes, dry pasta, or rice. Things like tuna, canned soups and chilis, dry potatoes, canned vegetables, never get eaten before expiration. But that's my experience based on my own eating/cooking habits. If you are the type of guy that is okay with bringing a can of spaghetti O's to work for lunch, then a pantry rotation system would probably work well.

This for sure, found out the hard way that things I would want in case of emergency are not things I would eat enough of the cycle through. Threw away a bunch of canned goods and was lucky enough to give away the rest to local pantry a couple months before expiration. Freeze dried 30 year stuff for sure. As an added bonus if you needed to flee for some reason water purification and freeze dried food is very light as well as pretty compact.

Food for thought...concerning long term shelf storeage... recently saw a news story about some of the current Russian troops involved in the current invasion are going hungry because they were issued some of the sealed meals ready to eat that have been expired dates of Many Many years(1980"s) and supposidly not edible........... Personally in the 1970"s Uncle Same had me eat some C-rations that were quiet Old but were still edible... Maybe not gormet meals but did not go hungry............................................................................................ drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Most people can't realistically rotate food enough. I know I certainly can't. Most of my mid term emergency supplies end up getting up into about 3-5 years past their expiration date and then I am forced to toss it. I just can't incorporate enough canned, jarred, or dried foods into my cooking when I have high quality meat in the freezer and fresh veggies in the fridge running against that same clock.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
This for sure, found out the hard way that things I would want in case of emergency are not things I would eat enough of the cycle through. Threw away a bunch of canned goods and was lucky enough to give away the rest to local pantry a couple months before expiration.

How often do you cook meals? (Actual meals made from individual ingredients, not just heating up premade items.) That's probably the biggest factor in this.

I cook a lot. I only eat out maybe 2 meals per week, usually 1 lunch and 1 dinner. I cook dinner just about every night. I prepare my own lunches, sometimes by cooking a whole lunch when I'm at home, or by cooking 2-3 meals worth of food for dinner and packing leftovers, or by packing heat-and-eat stuff like cans of soup or pouches of microwave Thai/Indian curry sauces with pouches of microwave rice (or by wolfing down a pouch of tuna when I get 30 seconds to catch my breath on a really busy day). Breakfast is usually simple like oatmeal, cereal, or a protein shake, but sometimes I'll even cook something like an omelette or a scramble for that.

Because I cook so much, in addition to the ready-to-eat packaged stuff I stock for lunches and snacks, I've found it to be quite easy to incorporate and rotate a decent amount of canned and dried foods into my cooking, alongside my fresh and frozen ingredients. With any dish that's simmered or boiled or stewed in a broth or sauce, canned/jarred ingredients often work just as well as fresh.

I use several cans of diced/stewed tomatoes in my cooking each week, as well as canned green chiles, and frequently use stuff like tomato sauce/paste in various recipes. I use cans of beans and various veggies slightly less. I use cans of chicken broth all the time. I use jarred pepperoncini peppers, artichokes, and red bell peppers several times per week. I go through a couple cans of citrus salad, mandarin oranges, or pineapple each week as sides/desserts. I routinely use pouches/cans of tuna and canned chicken. I cook rice or pasta at least once a week apiece. I bake bread on a semi-weekly basis, using flour, honey, dried yeast, and salt.

As a result, I find it relatively easy to keep a 1-2 month stash of canned/dried/prepackaged foods on hand, since I usually have 6-8ish cans of any given frequently-used item on hand at one time, while still keeping it all rotated well before any of it nears its expiration dates. (Even then, canned foods' expiration dates tend to be extremely conservative.)

If you cook enough, there's probably plenty of easy ways to incorporate a bunch of canned/jarred pantry items into it. The only thing really needed at that point to keep a rotation going is an organization system and the discipline to remember to use the jar/can that at the front of the shelf, then move older stuff up to the front, and stock new replacement items at the back of the shelf when you get home from the grocery store.

But you're correct that simply buying stuff that you don't normally use/eat, just to stick it in a closet or basement and forget about it, is not going to result in a very successful rotation, and you'll end up wasting money by tossing out and restocking your expired emergency supplies every few years. The same thing will apply to these 30 year food storage items... It'll merely sit around for 30 years, just to get thrown away. You have to find ways to incorporate shelf-stable items in your daily use, and then stock those.

This is why I stopped keeping MREs around. I used to get cases of them for free from our emergency management guys years ago, but with the exception of me occasionally taking a few on a camping/backpacking trip, they mainly just sat around collecting dust until well past their expiration dates.

^^^ my problem is that routinely I don't eat canned goods. The ones I do use are baked beans, petite diced tomatoes, Rotel, corn, and green beans. So I bought other stuff that I'd normally only eat fresh like fruits and veggies, given the choice of opening a can of pineapple vs buying a fresh one, 20:1 chance I'm buying an actual pineapple.

I cook my own meals only ordering takeout once a week usually. I like fresh ingredients, I don't normally shop for a week or more at a time, instead buying what I want for dinner that day. The only exception to that is buying whole tenderloins or rib roasts and cutting/vacuum sealing a many months supply at a time.