Before You Buy: 10 Criteria for Buying Emergency Food

Emergency food is a booming industry. As Hollywood continues to produce shows such as “Doomsday Preppers” and National Geographic’s “American Blackout,” the prepper lifestyle is brought more into the mainstream. So often, these people are portrayed as nut jobs who are more extreme than the average ‘prepper’ realistically is.

Still, many are waking up to the indisputable fact that our government cannot provide for the entire population should some catastrophic event occur. They realize that they will be on their own to look after themselves (at least for the first few days) and want to take steps to ensure they will make it. To them I say, “GOOD FOR YOU!” Now that you have decided you want to get things in order, the issue of food invariably comes up. With so many “emergency food” companies out there, it can be very difficult to decide which one is the best for your purposes. Before you start to read all the information on these company’s sites, it is good to have some criteria so you can truly compare and make an informed decision without getting lost in the hype. Most of these sites tend toward conveying urgency at getting yourself a year’s supply of food for 4 people right away (at the tune of thousands of dollars). I do not promote any one kind in this article; my intent is to arm you with the tools you need to make the best choice for yourself.

Before I get to the actual criteria for buying your emergency food supply, I would like to mention that some of these companies will send you a free sample and I highly encourage you to take advantage of them prior to buying. Some are awful while others are actually quite tasty! Before sampling though, consider these criteria before you buy:

1. Shelf Life. Freeze dried/MRE style foods largely vary when it comes to shelf life. Some companies boast 25 year shelf lives, others are closer to 10 years. These times are given based on the ideal storage environment. That environment is a dark and dry place where the temperature stays steady year round. A garage is not the ideal storage place. Temperature variations in a garage can be as extreme as it is outside, changing a 40+ degree difference in a day. The cold is not the issue as much as the heat. Consider this important factor when looking for emergency food. The point to buying this is for emergencies and you want it to be edible should you ever need it.
2. Nutritional Value. When and if the SHTF, the last thing you will be thinking about is the nutritional value of your food. Best to consider this now while you are clear headed. Nutritional value for emergency rations vary on both sides of the extreme. Personally, I would rather spend a little more per meal to have a higher quality food that will fuel me to be able to handle the aftermath of a SHTF situation.
3. Ingredients. While looking at the nutritional value, also look at what is actually IN the food. During a SHTF event, you do not want to put ‘food product’ into your body; you want FOOD! When I was in the market, I paid close attention to the ingredients lists and was shocked at some of the companies who tried to pass it off as a whole-food meal. If there are more chemicals than food ingredients, best to look to another company.
4. Storage Space. How much room will this food take up? If you live in an apartment, this can be a major concern. Even if you only got a month’s worth of food for a family of 4, that will be the equivalent of 3 – 5 gallon buckets’ worth of space that will literally just sit there until it is needed. Some people get very creative and turn the buckets or boxes into an end table. I recently wrote about this very topic in an article for the Survival Mom‘s site.
5. Portability. Most emergency food will come in a box or a bucket. The bucket makes things convenient since you can grab and go whereas the box may be cumbersome. Should you have to bug out of the house to safety, it is important to be able to grab your emergency food stock and take it with you.
6. Weight. This ties in to #5. If you cannot grab the bucket of food because it is too heavy, you may want to consider different methods of storing and accessing your emergency supplies. Pay close attention to the weight of the package you are buying, even if you only intend on buying some for a hiking pack – every ounce counts!
7. Variety. No matter how much you like beef stroganoff, you will get sick of it after a few days. Variety is important and not just for ensuring your body is getting the vitamins and minerals it needs to keep going. Variety is hugely important to our psyche and moral. Consider the favorite meal your mom or grandmother made; you haven’t had it for years and then at some gathering, the dish comes out of the kitchen and the scents take you back to your childhood. Your mood lightens, your endorphins kick in and you are happier because of it. Now imagine it has been a week since you had anything other than water to drink but when you open your MRE, you find a pouch of kool aid mix. See the point? This is as important as making sure the food you buy is food you actually eat and enjoy now. If you do not eat broccoli now, chances are you will not like it or eat much of it after SHTF.
8. Cooking Methods. Most emergency food and MREs are an “add boiling water” affair. Keeping that in mind, some questions to ask are:
   • Can you pour boiling water directly into the bag?
   • Do you need any special equipment to process/cook the food?
   • How long does it take to be ready?
   • Is there a way to close the pouch or otherwise store any leftover?
9. Versatility. Some may think this an odd criteria at first so let me explain: Can you combine some of the ‘dishes’ to make a ‘new’ dish? Will the leftovers from this pouch go well with another? What if you had some leftover chicken teriyaki rice leftover but the scrambled eggs pouch doesn’t have quite enough to feed everyone the next morning. Will they taste good together? How about foraging food to be added to the meals to make them stretch further? Versatility is a lesser consideration but this line of forward thinking is at the heart of what it is to be prepared.
10. Taste. I left this one for last, even though it is extremely important!  I mentioned earlier that some companies will send you a free sample and again, I highly encourage you to take advantage of the offer and really test them out. Plan a little hike and bring a pack with the pouch of food and a way to heat the water. Not only are you trying out the food (which was free!) to see if you like it, you are actually practicing the steps you would be taking in a true SHTF situation. It helps open your mind to possibilities both good and bad. It will reveal areas you may need to work on. In short, the experience is a valuable one in itself.

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There is nothing shameful about being prepared for emergencies and I can assure you that should the time come, even if it is not a huge disaster; whatever you set back will seem like a pot of gold. You will find relief and pride in yourself for having taken the steps to deal with whatever comes your way. I wrote another article for Tin Hat Ranch about my personal experiences at how empowering and liberating it is to be prepared for life’s big AND little challenges. I am sure some of you are wondering which company we went with. The answer is Wise Food Company because they met all the criteria I had for our situation and they sent a sample. I hope this helps anyone who is looking into getting some emergency food/rations set aside to make the best choice!