Emergency Food Supplies to Have on Hand:

1. Can opener
2. Plastic utensils (knives, forks, spoons)
3. Disposable plates and bowls
4. Napkins
5. Paper towels
6. Sanitizing wipes
7. Hand sanitizer
8. Measuring cups
9. Measuring spoons
10. Mixing bowl (or several sizes tight locking plastic bags to use for mixing ingredients)
11. Mixing spoon
12. Garbage bags for refuse

Maintaining your health in an emergency is important.

Don’t risk food poisoning!

• Aim for no leftovers. Once opened, canned goods (low acid foods) should be eaten immediately. Canned fruits and juices are more acid than other canned foods and could be eaten the next day.
• All foods should be stored in a cool, dry place. This could be among your everyday foods where your emergency foods can also be used as a part of your daily meals. Remember to replace them as you use them. This ensures that foods are used while they are still top quality.
• If water is limited, use disposable utensils that do not need to be washed after use.
• Clean hands and preparation surfaces before preparing food.
• If you have someone who is immune-compromised in your family (infants, pregnant women, elderly, persons receiving chemotherapy or diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, transplant recipients, diabetics, or people with multiple sclerosis) it is very important NOT to keep leftover food.
• Dispose of all garbage.

Other Food Ideas for your Emergency Survival Food Pack:

• Orange smoothie—mix 4 tsp dried egg white into ½ cup reconstituted milk; slowly add 1/2 cup orange juice and 1 tsp sugar (apple and grape juice can be substituted)
• Almond butter and crackers
• Canned Spanish rice and canned pinto beans or red beans
• Cereal and milk for evening snack
• Stir peanut butter into chocolate milk (yummy)
• Quesadillas (spread refried beans on fl our tortilla, add cheese from pressurized can, and salsa)
• Chocolate fondue with dried fruit and graham crackers (fl avor 1 can sweetened condensed milk with 2   tablespoons chocolate syrup)
• Potato and kidney bean salad (mix cut up canned potatoes, drained kidney beans or other beans, mayonnaise, onion powder and other herbs you may have—parsley, basil, oregano, etc.)
• Canned baked beans mixed with any available canned meat and a drained canned vegetable

Canning can be a safe and economical way to preserve quality food at home. Disregarding the value of your labor, canning homegrown food may save you half the cost of buying commercially canned food. Canning favorite and special products to be enjoyed by family and friends is a fulfilling experience and a source of pride for many people.

Many vegetables begin losing some of their vitamins when harvested. Nearly half the vitamins may be lost within a few days unless the fresh produce is cooled or preserved. Within 1 to 2 weeks, even refrigerated produce loses half or more of some of its vitamins. The heating process during canning destroys from one-third to one-half of vitamins A and C, thiamin, and riboflavin. Once canned, additional losses of these sensitive vitamins are from 5 to 20 percent each year. The amounts of other vitamins, however, are only slightly lower in canned compared with fresh food. If vegetables are handled properly and canned promptly after harvest, they can be more nutritious than fresh produce sold in local stores.

The advantages of home canning are lost when you start with poor quality fresh foods; when jars fail to seal properly; when food spoils; and when flavors, texture, color, and nutrients deteriorate during prolonged storage.

How Canning Preserves Foods

The high percentage of water in most fresh foods makes them very perishable. They spoil or lose their quality for several reasons:

Growth of undesirable microorganisms-bacteria, molds, and yeasts, activity of food enzymes, reactions with oxygen, moisture loss.  Microorganisms live and multiply quickly on the surfaces of fresh food and on the inside of bruised, insect-damaged, and diseased food. Oxygen and enzymes are present throughout fresh food tissues.

Proper canning practices include:

• carefully selecting and washing fresh food
• peeling some fresh foods
• hot packing many foods
• adding acids (lemon juice or vinegar) to some foods
• using acceptable jars and self-sealing lids
• processing jars in a boiling-water or pressure canner for the correct period of time.

Collectively, these practices remove oxygen; destroy enzymes; prevent the growth of
undesirable bacteria, yeasts, and molds; and help form a high vacuum in jars. Good vacuums form tight seals which keep liquid in and air and microorganisms out and keep your emergency food rations safe for that survival situation.

Food drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food for later use. It can either be an alternative to canning or freezing, or compliment these methods. Drying foods is simple, safe and easy to learn. With modern food dehydrators, fruit leathers, banana chips and beef jerky can all be dried year round at home.

Drying removes the moisture from the food so bacteria, yeast and mold cannot grow and spoil the food. Drying also slows down the action of enzymes (naturally occurring substances which cause foods to ripen), but does not inactivate them.  Because drying removes moisture, the food becomes smaller and lighter in weight. When the food is ready for use, the water is added back, and the food returns to its original shape.

Foods can be dried in the sun, in an oven or in a food dehydrator by using the right combination of warm temperatures, low humidity and air current. In drying, warm temperatures cause the moisture to evaporate. Low humidity allows moisture to move quickly from the food to the air. Air current speeds up drying by moving the surrounding moist air away from the food.

Dehydrated Food is a safe and secure way to stock up your emergency food rations and supply for a disaster.

Freeze dried food is another option to considering during your emergency food ration and packs preparations. The advantages of Freeze drying food can often out way all other emergency food options because of the nutritional value retained and methods of easy storage. Benefits include:

• Good, easy to store and lasts up to 30 years.
• Good, fast simple preparation just add water. But only water that is needed to hydrate the food, much less than cooking.
• Good, once hydrated, freeze dried food taste is very close to original food taste.
• Good, light weight easy to store large qty of food for reserves of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year. A 6 week food reserve can fit under a bed.
• Good, can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
• Good, as economical choice - cost can be less than $3.35 per meal.

As you can see there are a lot of benefits to Freeze Dried Food over the other options making it a superior choice for bulk survival food.

MRE's stands for "Meals Ready to Eat" are the latest U.S. Military field rations (meals) that are perfect for short backpacking treks, campers, hunters, and emergency reserves. MRE's were developed to be eaten anywhere, anytime. Ready-to-Eat hot or cold without any preparation! They are packaged in a triple-layer foil/plastic "retort" pouch for longer storage-life. Each complete MRE meal should provide at least around 1000 calories per meal!

How long will an MRE store for?

MRE's will remain nutritionally good for approximately 5 to 8 years when stored at room temperature. We suggest if storing them for emergency reserves than these be store in a cool place. Storage temperature does affect the shelf life of MREs.

The chart below shows the projected storage life of MRE meals over time based on storage temperture. The effect of temperature and time are cumulative. As an example, if stored at 100 degrees for 11 months and moved to 70 degrees, would lose one half of the 70 degree storage life. The shelf life determination is based on product taste. The nutritional content and basic product safety would extend beyond this point.