NRG-5 rations or freeze dried rations?

[Omega]

Omega:
Just out of interest, how often are you likely to be living out of your carkit?
[/quote]

I am still toying with an idea of living in a car for a few days, but it is unlikely to happened for at least couple of years. If I do, then I will buy ready meals from M&S or put home cooked food into car fridge (I worked on site in 2005 and brought all my food on my bike for the week)

I am now eating Seven Oceans bars at home because I opened one box to taste and now should finish it, and I like the convenience of not making myself lunch. I have about 3 Maxinutrition protein bars in my office work bag - sometimes forget to take my lunch to client site, so they replace my lunch, Seven Oceans or NRG-5 should be able to replace them (well, I need to try NRG-5 first, but Seven Oceans is fine for me). Might be expensive, but Costa sandwich costs £4.5, and a box of Seven Oceans is worth about 4 lunches, or about £2.5 per lunch, definitely cheaper

I will write off costs of NRG-5 and Seven Oceans because this is Subsistence for business purposes

[Frnc]

FRNC,
You've inspired me to start a stock-take. I'll publish it later for our amusement. I'll tell you now there will be tins BBE 2019 or earlier.

Powdered egg.... I have some BBE 2018 and I'm happy to use it.
One day Botulism will get me. Not happened yet.

Big problem with expired food is that I won't feed it to MrJJ, because I don't want to eat Jail food if I poison him.

Get it binned.

Don't be so wasteful.

BBE means Best Before End.

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/ ... ce%20cream)

Use by is the ones you must adhere to.

That links to wrap which says you can use tins up to 3 years after BB date as long as they are not dented and visual check confirms pack integrity. But elsewhere wrap says just 1 year for canned goods.

https://wrap.org.uk/media-centre/press- ... stribution

"Ambient foods include a range of packaged items which typically carry a Best Before date and a long shelf life. A guide for common items are:

Crisps - one month; biscuits, cereals – 6 months; canned meat, canned soup, confectionery, drinks (cans / plastic / glass bottles) and pasta sauces - twelve months; dried pasta up to 3 years; jams - three to five years."

[GillyBee]

I thibk it comes down to the quality of the tin- and some of those are pretty poor these days. i just had to throw out a year old tin of unuoened golden syrup because it had eaten through the joint at the base, made a mess and had mystery black streaks inside. I was not a happy bunny and will be buyng the own brand syrup in plastic packaging from here on in for storage

[jennyjj01]

Big problem with expired food is that I won't feed it to MrJJ, because I don't want to eat Jail food if I poison him.

Get it binned.

Don't be so wasteful.

BBE means Best Before End.
Use by is the ones you must adhere to.

Thanks FRNC for your concern I've always been a risk taker. But I do keep my wits about me a bit and I don't really endanger MrJJ. Food poisoning from expired commercial food is incredibly rare. Check out the stats on botulism and it's rarer than most causes of death by a wide margin.
I sample my most expired stuff out of curiosity and amusement. But some of it is destined to never be eaten. Doesn't stop me hoarding it till I have a better use for the space. Even if it's rotten, it won't get completely wasted as I pour it on my composter.
Home preserved food, I give a wide berth.
Frozen food is only as good as it's consistency of frozenness, so I rotate that quite strictly

[Omega]

Why do you want 20 year shelf life? This only makes sense if you have 20 years food stashed. If you only stash enough for 2 months, you only need 2 months shelf life.

For convenience as I reduce the rotation and such rations are universal - can use them to Bug In, Bug Out, for lunch (as I currently do), take on international flights or trips...

[Omega]

Right, now I have one opened box of Seven Oceans, one opened box of NRG-5 and lots of rations from Chinese company 900.
I prefer NRG-5 over Seven Oceans when mixed with water, and I find Chinese ration is very close to Seven Oceans in taste, though not that sweet
Chinese will expire in about 3.5 years, but their packaging is the best among these rations, so maybe they will last longer than NRG-5
Ingredients are very similar, Chinese only do not add vitamins
Well, I assume my lunches are sorted for a long time now
Still, I will buy lots of NRG-5 to reduce rotation, but I will buy 900 instead of Seven Oceans because of price

[Frnc]

Why do you want 20 year shelf life? This only makes sense if you have 20 years food stashed. If you only stash enough for 2 months, you only need 2 months shelf life.

For convenience as I reduce the rotation and such rations are universal - can use them to Bug In, Bug Out, for lunch (as I currently do), take on international flights or trips...

Ration bars, I get it. Same with freeze dried backpacking meals. You want a long shelf life because you might not eat them, they are certainly not normal food you eat ordinarily. Obviously it is worth eating the backpacking meals, they are expensive, and fairly nice to eat.

But things like pasta. I don't eat huge amounts ordinarily, but in a bug in, I would be relying more on it. So, say I might eat 100g per day during bug in. That's 3kg a month. So 6 x 1kg bags would least me 2 months. But ordinarily that would last me over a year. So if I store much more than 6 kg, it might start to go off before I get to use it. Same with tuna and other cupboard stuff.

That's my thinking anyway, clarified a bit by a post Jenny did a while back. I will try to increase my stores a bit, but to not waste stuff, I need to be eating more of that. I still use a calorie app, so I can use the calendar to put cupboard food in as a reminder.

I actually cook some of it in bulk and freeze it now, eg pasta sauce and baked beans, I make my own, so that should help increase useage.

[DustyDog]

As others have said these freeze dried foods have their place, I’m thinking of getting some of the MREs that are about 800 calories each to chuck in my edc rucksack and back of the car for emergencies, having to abandon my car with the snow in Ambleside and Windermere last weekend showed me how fast conditions can change, if I’d been stuck, all I’d have had to eat was a few choccy bars.

[Nurseandy]

As others have said these freeze dried foods have their place, I’m thinking of getting some of the MREs that are about 800 calories each to chuck in my edc rucksack and back of the car for emergencies, having to abandon my car with the snow in Ambleside and Windermere last weekend showed me how fast conditions can change, if I’d been stuck, all I’d have had to eat was a few choccy bars.

May be worth thinking about a couple of flameless ration heaters to go with the mre's? Then You can heat up your food in the passenger footwell (although quite exciting as they do swell up pretty impressively) if (for example) you're properly stuck in traffic in the snow and its not practical to get the camping stove out.

[Frnc]

Another idea re cars stuck in winter. Carry two flasks. One for coffee or tea. The other just with hot water. This could be used to hydrate a meal such as noodles in a pot or anything like that. It would even hydrate pasta if it's hot enough. It should be ok for backpacking type meals. Or you could just have one flask of water, and use it to make food and a brew.

You can buy stand up bags that will hold hot water https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BCHNQ2Y/

For backup you can also have gas.
A backpacking type gas stove that screws into the canister is tiny and it boils water very fast. The remote ones with a tube are more stable, but you can get plastic feet for the canister. You need to make sure you have a handle for the pot, unless it has a folding one.