Search This Blog

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Emergency Food Supply: Must Have Items

By Allyn Cutts

An emergency food supply should provide food for each member of the family, and pets, for three days. If you have room to store more, that is preferable, but you must be prepared for the very basic food necessity of three days in the event of an crisis. You will want to cover the food groups, and also provide the staple content such as flour and grains. It is vital to store these emergency foods in a cool, dry, easily accessible spot, and to put all perishable staple meals in sealed, plastic containers. There are several choices of meals to opt for from, and typically a wide variety works well. Water is also vital to be stored along with your crisis food supply. One gallon per person per day, for three days, is the rule, and do not forget your pets.

The types of foods that you can buy to store for emergencies are endless, but the most popular, and longest lasting are canned goods, freeze-dried, dehydrated, MREs, and staple foods. The freeze-dried and dehydrated meals are prepared like normal meals, but all of the water is removed in the freeze-drying and dehydrating process. These foods retain nutrients, have a long shelf life, are easy to make, and are light weight, and easily transported if wanted. Canned foods have a long shelf life, and are nutritional, and easy to prepare, but are heavier and more cumbersome to store and carry.

Meals ready to Eat, or MREs are high in energy, nutrient dense, and self-contained meals, with a shelf life of 3-10 years. They are easily transported, and easy to prepare. They can be stored easily and in less space, and are alprepared prepared meals with more wide variety of meals. MREs were originally used for the military, but now are on sale for civilian use. They are more expensive than canned goods, but a mix of all types of food is a better alternative than buying just one type of food. You want to plan to be without food for three days, yet it may be lengthier, so being able to stretch your food supply, may mean supplementing your emergency food supply with staple products, and high caloric fruit and nut bars.

Staple supplies such as flour, sugar, salt, preparing soda, oats, wheat, and powdered milk are good to have in order to stretch your food supply. It will allow cooking flexibility, and can add additional days of food to the length of the crisis situation. These staple supplies need to be stored in Plastic material containers so that they are unable to be affected by condensation or bugs. They are not lightweight, and you will need a heat supply to use most, but they will stretch your food if you need to. They are not easily transported, but can be centrally located to go back to, if wanted.

These basic goods are emergency vitals necessary to get you and your family through the initial days of an crisis. If you have space, and pick up objects along the way, you can gradually add to your crisis supply Storage. Make sure to put the earliest to expire things nearer the front, so that they may be checked and discarded as needed. It is wise to make checking dates of things, part of your family's preparedness plan and emergency routine review. If you are prepared with an crisis food supply, one part of your emergency preparedness plan is taken care of, and you can focus on the other components of crisis survival effectively.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment