How To Store Emergency Food - Community Watch Paper

Emergency events like widespread power outages, hazardous road conditions, or floods are all too common throughout the winter.

In the event of an emergency, what would you do if you were stuck at home or in your vehicle to keep you alive? For how long would you be able to survive without food, drink, and a source of heat or warmth?

What are my options for storing an emergency food supply? A great asset in your house is the food you keep on hand. However, finding a place to store all that food properly may be a real problem. There is not enough room for storage in many flats and residences.

Suppose you keep your emergency food supplies in the wrong locations. In that case, they might be harmed by humidity, heat, light, bugs, or physical damage. This article will go through the most common locations where individuals store their emergency food supplies.

Where To Place Food

Think about where you’ll store your food before you start shopping. What you can store will be significantly impacted by this decision. In a tiny apartment with little storage space, you’ll need to think outside the box.

Household Nooks And Crannies

You may use Mylar Bags to fill up that hollow lamp, those vacant shoe boxes, even the hollow ottoman in your living room! These food storage bags prevent moisture, light, and air from harming your food, allowing it to remain fresh for much longer. To keep your food fresh, don’t forget the oxygen absorbers.

Keep in mind to mark each Mylar Bag with the contents, date of packing, and projected expiry time of each one. When stored in Mylar bags, grains, rice, and beans have a shelf life of up to 30 years! These bags may be molded to suit a variety of shapes and sizes.

Empty Luggage

Empty baggage is a great way to store emergency food while also making it easy to get it out of the house in the event of an emergency. Rather than a hard suitcase, a soft duffel bag is more likely to squish, crack, or break your food during transit.

Oatmeal packs, granola bars, fruit roll-ups, and seasonings like salt and sugar may be packed in cardboard boxes or plastic containers.

In The Basement

Your basement is the best choice when it comes to storage options. Basements are a great place to store food since they keep it cold and dry.

On the other hand, basements are notoriously susceptible to high humidity levels. Installing a dehumidifier and checking it often is required.

Check the dehumidifier every few days to make sure it works properly. Think about the possibility of flooding in your basement, as well. Preventing basement flooding is an essential consideration for anybody who lives close to or in a hurricane-prone area.

In The Garage Or Shed, 5-Gallon Buckets

Use a clean area of the garage and shed, away from your equipment and machinery, to package the gallon buckets to avoid contaminating your food supply!

Doing so will help you track which foods have been kept in each container and when they were stored. Add some oxygen absorbers to the mix as well, if possible.

With gallon bucket food storage, you may have a whole culinary line-up ready for you at any time. Various other foodstuffs may be stored in the buckets you’ve selected. You may take a few nibbles from these rations to keep your food supply fresh.

Just steer clear of high-fat foods that may dry out in this atmosphere. Garage survival meals must be kept at less than 50 percent humidity level. Lower than a temperature of around 74 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal.

Organizing The Laundry Area

Make the most of the space above your washer and dryer. The area above your head should be used to the fullest extent possible. Use it. To avoid water damage to your stored things, ensure that your laundry room has appropriate ventilation.

In Pantries And Closets

Because of the comfort with which you can regulate the temperature and humidity in these compartments, they’re excellent for storing your emergency food. Our long-term food stockpile may not be able to fit in all of our closets. However, an essential pantry may hold quite a bit of food if you have a decent organizing system in place.

Consider earthquake and high-wind safety while stocking your emergency food supplies. It’s safest to use cans, but anything in glass or its original packaging can be ruined. The most crucial challenge is creating room in your closets for your stockpile.

It’s possible to do this by spending some time and money on a robust reinforced shelf system. Small rooms need a high degree of the organization since it’s crucial to keep your stockpile organized to rotate it easily.

Food To Have On Hand In Case Of An Emergency

A stockpile of food might be boring to consume from time to time. It’s not just that Real Simple’s emergency food supply list includes foods that require no cooking and are packed with nutrients, but they also taste good. Among the things that are included:

Crusts made of whole wheat (consider vacuum packing to prolong freshness)
Cereal (individually packaged to prolong freshness)
Bars like Power Bars and Granola Bars
There is a wide variety of nuts and trail mixes to choose from.
Peanut butter
Dried fruits
Tuna, salmon, chicken, and turkey are all examples of canned food.
A variety of canned veggies such as beans, carrots, and peas may be found at your local supermarket
Powdered milk
Sugar, salt, and pepper
Convenience foods such as canned soup and chili
Drinks for the sports (avoid ones laden with sugar and artificial color)

Even if it isn’t hurricane or tornado season, you may store these non-perishable food products for a long time since their expiry dates are long. To keep your stockpile fresh, make a list of everything in it and check expiry dates every six to twelve months. Also, have a can opener on hand since all that food will be useless if you can’t open it.

Try To Buy Longer-Lasting Fresh Products Wherever Feasible

It’s not too late to store hurricane food like fresh veggies and other perishable items if you’ve received enough warning of the imminent crisis. Most of these goods will keep for at least a week after being bought, providing a fresh alternative to packaged meals.

Apples
sausages that are hard and pre-packaged like soppressata and pepperoni
Vegetables and fruits that are high in vitamin C
Cucumbers and summer squash
Acorn squash is an example of winter squash.
Tomatoes
Yams with potatoes
Avocados

Types Of Emergency Non-Perishable Foods And Shelf Life
Food and Type of Storage	Average Shelf Life
Dehydrated vegetables	25 -30 years
Dehydrated rice	30 years
Dehydrated beans	30 years
Dehydrated grains	30 years
Dehydrated oats	30 years
Dehydrated fruits	25 – 30 years
Dehydrated powdered milk	2 – 25 years
Dehydrated eggs	5-10 years
Dehydrated butter	3-5 years
Freeze-dried meats and poultry	30 years
Freeze-dried vegetables and fruit	30 years
Freeze-dried butter	15 years
Freeze-dried eggs	10 – 15 years
Freeze-dried cheese	5-10 years

Before A Natural Disaster Or An Emergency

Make A Food Supply For An Emergency

In the case of an emergency, aim to have a minimum of three days’ worth of food on hand. Foods like as:

Cooking, water, and refrigeration requirements are minimal or nonexistent in the event of a power outage.
Meet the dietary requirements of baby food storage or other family members on special diets.
Meet the requirements of your pet.
Avoid meals that are very salty or spicy since they might increase the amount of water you need to drink, which may be limited.
Have a longer lifespan in storage

How To Maintain A Food Supply For An Emergency

Purchasing dehydrated or other emergency food isn’t essential while stocking up on food for later use. Here are some of the essential food storage tips:

Be sure to check the expiry dates on all of your canned and dry goods. Canned food sitting in the pantry for more than 12 months has typically to be discarded.
Make sure you use and replace food before it expires.
Food should be kept away from petroleum products, such as gasoline, oil, paints, and solvents. Others may absorb the fragrance of certain food items.
Keep rats and insects away from your food by sealing it in a container. Keeping food items in watertight, airtight containers, Rubbermaid food storage containers, or boxes can help them last longer.
Canned evaporated milk, dried or canned food may last longer if stored under certain circumstances. If you can, choose a cold, dry, and dark area. The ideal temperature range is between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make sure your food is protected from flooding by putting it on shelves.
Keep food out of the path of vents from the stove or refrigerator. Many foods degrade more rapidly when they are exposed to high temperatures.
Temperature fluctuations should not be allowed to affect the storage area. Consistent temperature is essential for extending the shelf life of your products.
Sunlight should not be allowed to enter the storage area. You’ll want to keep your food in the dark area since sunshine will gradually ruin it.

FAQs

Where Shouldn’t You Keep Your Food?

Even if you want to hide your food storage, you shouldn’t simply put it in any old place in your yard. It’s best to avoid keeping food in situations where the temperature and humidity can’t be regulated.

What precisely should you stock in your pantry?

What your family eats. “Store what you eat and eat what you store” is an ancient proverb. Even though it’s a little ambiguous, this is the one guideline you need to remember when you start stocking up on additional food items.

How much money do you have?

When creating an emergency food plan, you’ll need to figure out how much money you have available. Freeze-dried food may be purchased ready-made and has 25 to 40 years of shelf life.

In the case of an emergency, you may still have a comprehensive emergency food plan even if your budget is limited. Adding a little more work and forethought is all that is needed.

What would you look like if you bought premade, freeze-dried foods?

If you want to buy pre-packaged, freeze-dried goods and have the resources and room to do so, you should keep these factors in mind:

Calories consumed per day.
The shelf life of the product.
Packaging.
Oxygen Absorption Devices.
Containers that are simple to open.
Foods that are simple to prepare.
Eating well-balanced meals.
Variety in the food you eat.

Conclusion

A six-month or one-year food supply may be stored in a pantry or food closet. Because this food supply will be based on what you consume daily, it will not last as long as long-term food supplies of 10 to 25 years. An emergency food supply may be ensured with a bit of planning. In the case of a disaster, you should stockpile food for both short- and long-term storage. CWP

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