Long-Term Food Storage

Depending on where you live the recommendations for emergency food storage vary. In big cities which are “high priority” for emergency services and which would get a lot of attention if a major disaster occurred (think New Orleans, Houston and San Francisco!) it’s recommended to have a 2-week supply of emergency rations for everyone in the household. In more rural areas like where I live, where the power can go out for after a week due to a simple windstorm (thank you, beautiful evergreen trees we love which fall onto power lines with regularity!), a major natural disaster or other unfortunate event would require 30+ days of food on hand. And that’s a minimum estimate. As our local fire chief likes to point out – we are NOT at the top of anyone’s list. We are ON our own!
 
Anyways, if you’re a prepper then you’ll want to have WAY more food that the suggested minimums. My goal for my family is a 12-month supply of stored food. We’re not there, yet. But that’s the goal.
 
Take a look right now into your refrigerator and freezer: what have you got? If you’re like my family there are several gallons of milk, some yogurts, a bunch of (possibly expired) condiments, drinks, less than a dozen eggs, some leftovers, and some vegetables of varying ages (Hmm. That lettuce looks iffy. And how long do brussel sprouts stay good? Should I peel off the outer leaves?)
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​In the freezer there is of course ice cream, a dozen bagels, frozen pizza, some free range chicken breasts and a few pounds of ground beef (grass fed and organic, of course). I’m vegetarian but my family is not. Would I eat meat in the case of a natural disaster starvation situation? You bet I would! But by the time I’m ready to do that I’m guessing all the meat will have been consumed by my family members. I’ll address the plight of vegetarian in SHTF situations in a future post.
 
How long will the contents of your refrigerator and freezer last? I propose that for most of us this easy-to-access “fresh” food will last less than a week. Remember – the power will be out. The dairy products will need to be consumed ASAP before they go bad, and the frozen stuff will thaw pretty quick. Eat the ice cream right away!
 
SO – once that’s gone what do you have in your kitchen? Hopefully your pantry area holds more than a few boxes of breakfast cereal (which you’ll have to eat dry, pretty soon, unless you have powdered milk - see below!) Canned foods are nice because they don’t require much time to prepare and, let’s be honest, you can eat them unheated, since everything has been pre-cooked.
 
I talked about WHERE to store food long-term in my 3/5/17 blog post. Today I’d like to talk about WHAT kind of food to store and HOW to manage it so you don’t end up with a bunch of sketchy expired food when the time comes to pull out the can opener!

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Some quick tips about long term food storage...
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• ALMOST every “non-perishable” food has an expiration date.
• Food can be consumed after its expiration date, but it won’t taste as good.
• If expired food smells or tastes bad DON’T EAT IT!!
• Rotating stored food can help prevent wastage.
• Buying food in bulk and/or on sale can help build up your food stores.
• Dried food stored in a low-oxygen environment can last much longer/stay fresher than usual.
• Freeze-dried food can last a really long time (20+ years) but is expensive.
• Some foods can last indefinitely if they are stored properly.

 
Some thoughts about expiration dates….
 
All expiration dates, including those on food but also on medications, are just “best by” dates. At best, they’re warning lights, like when your car gives you a head’s up that you’ve got 30+ miles until you run out of gas. At worst, they are WILD GUESSES about how long the food or medication will stay fresh.
 
Stuff the manufacturers don’t want you to know about expiration dates:

• Eggs don’t have to be refrigerated, and their ‘best buy’ date is extremely conservative. If you’ve been to Mexico or any country in Central America you see huge flats of chicken eggs stacked unrefrigerated in the store – which is NOT air conditioned, and nobody thinks twice about it. In the U.S. this makes us VERY nervous, but it should not. If the eggs are farm fresh (ie – from your backyard) and haven’t been washed then they’ll last REALLY long – like for 3 MONTHS – without refrigeration. They'll stay good for 6+ months if stored in a cool, dry place! For store-bought eggs you can preserve their un-refrigerated freshness by coating them in mineral oil. How cool!
• Canned food and dried goods can be eaten well past their Best By dates – they just won’t taste as fresh. Again – if they appear moldy, smell bad or taste bad, obviously don’t eat them!
• Medication expiration dates are TOTALLY ARBITRARY. I’m saying this as a health-care provider: The dates on your prescription medication are COMPLETE B.S. All the bottles are dated to expire one year from the date you picked up your prescription. Isn’t that convenient for the drug manufacturers? Really? All medications expire in exactly 12 months? From the date you bought it? Like they knew when they made it what date that would be. Please. Medications can lose some strength as they age. They will NOT become poison. If it’s expired, and it’s all you have – go ahead and take it. You will be fine.

How to rotate food so you waste less:
 
We’ve all done it – you open up the pantry, grab a can of soup or some refried beans, and realize the “good by” date is a couple of years ago. Can you still eat this stuff? Should you?
 
The answer is USUALLY Yes, you can. If the can is swollen, definitely do NOT eat it! The same goes for food that smells or tastes bad. But if it smells and tastes about right, you should be OK. The canned food won’t be as fresh and delicious as it was a couple of years ago, but it won’t kill you.
 
That said – let’s try to avoid this situation, if only for good morale! The best ways to avoid food expiration include:

• Only buy canned and dried food that you LIKE to eat. If the chili is on sale but your kids despise spicy beans, don’t buy it! If your family will only eat a certain brand of shell macaroni & white cheddar cheese DON’T waste your money getting the off-brand orange cheddar mac & cheese! You’ll just end up donating all of it to the food bank the week before it expires, and feeling kind of guilty about it.
• Rotate your stored food to keep the oldest food in front so you grab it first. If you buy a bunch of olive oil on sale, put it behind the older oil in the pantry. If you purchase bulk canned food store it in a can rotator to keep the oldest cans closet to your fingertips (see photo below).
• Pay attention to the age of your food when planning meals – use it up when it’s still at its best!

Canned Food Rotation Rack

Tips for bulk buying and finding sales on non-perishable food:

• If your family really likes a certain brand of a certain food, buy it in bulk. It will stay good for 1-2 years, and you’ll probably use it up in that time.
• Stock up on foods you like when it’s on sale at your grocery store. Often there’s a discount for loyalty members if you buy more than a certain amount.
• When it’s possible with your budget, purchase cases of your favorite canned foods or a huge bag of your favorite pancake mix at your local discount warehouse store. You can divide the pancake mix (or flour, or rice) into smaller portions by putting it into mylar bags with oxygen absorbers – see below.
• Slow and steady is fine – you don’t need to stock up all at once. Stock up your pantry and long-term food storage gradually, when you an afford it. I usually buy one extra item (or group of items) during every trip to the store.

 
Storing foods to preserve shelf life using oxygen absorbers:
 
Once you get into storing food this way you will REALLY start feeling like a prepper. And your family members will definitely start rolling their eyes and calling you one. But, honestly, you ARE a prepper and this is a great way to make food last longer, so be PROUD and GO with it!
 
This is pretty simple – you just need thick, food-grade mylar foil bags, oxygen absorber packets, and a way to seal the bags, like a hair flat iron. You can order your supplies easily online. Great foods to store this way include: white flour, white rice, sugar, pasta, breakfast cereal, dried beans, powdered milk, pancake mix and oatmeal.

 
A few words about freeze-dried food:

• Freeze dried food is awesome, but expensive. If you have the disposable income to purchase a 1-year supply of freeze dried food for your family in one fell swoop, GO for it! I wish we had that kind of money! There some terrific options for bulk purchasing emergency food via at Costco online, Mountain House,  and Sam’s Club.
• Freeze-dried food is easy to prepare, lightweight, and usually tastes pretty good. For my family I like to think of freeze-dried food as the food we’ll turn too if we’re away from home when disaster strikes. It requires only water to make it palatable (preferably hot water, but it can be eaten either way), so it’s a nice option if we’re stuck in a traffic jam for two days or get stuck in our car during a blizzard. Also, it would make a nice special treat (for both the chef and the eaters) after a few weeks of preparing other post-disaster foods.
• The downside to freeze-dried food is it’s bulky and it’s expensive. At the best prices I’ve seen feeding a family of 4 freeze-dried meals for just ONE DAY would cost upwards of $24. That is WAY more than it would cost to feed your loved ones canned food and bulk pasta/rice. A 5-gallon bucket can hold 3-5 days of freeze dried foods for a family of 4. That’s compared to however many days 5 gallons of beans, rice or pasta would last.  

Mountain House makes delicious and easy-to-prepare freeze-dried food. I highly recommend them!

Some amazing foods can last FOREVER!
 
This is a short list, but it’s still pretty nifty. With proper storage (ie – a cool, dark, dry storage area) certain foods can last pretty much forever, including:

• White sugar
• Honey
• Salt
• White or apple cider vinegar
• Vanilla extract
• Hard liquor
• Ghee (clarified butter)

This posting is just the tip of the iceberg as far as long-term food storage. Please feel free to message me with any questions or if you have some good ideas to share!