Mountain house long life food! Ripoff? Or good price?

[Pointboy]

Ok well I have been looking around for some food recently to start making a food bank, not sure how to start though, I.e. I have no idea what I'm doing. Well I found this website called emergency food storage and it has some long shelf like food like up too twenty years and so on, and well I'm just wondering if the prices on this website are way too much for the amount and what it is or if for long life food it is a good deal?!

Here is the website
Go into the food section and look at the prices!

http://www.emergencyfoodstorage.co.uk/p ... meals.html

[Moony]

It really depends on what you are after. MH tins are without a doubt expensive, but not a ripoff, if you want some large tinned complete meals that you can just stick at the back of a shelf and know will still be good to eat in 25 years time. There are cheaper ways to do long term food storage (mylar bag + oxy absorbers on your own dried foods), but will still require some effort on your part + cooking + combining with other ingredients to make complete meals. If you've won the lottery, I'd say it's the best way to go about long term food prepping, if not then it might be worth buying a few tins (if you can afford them) as a backup to your more conventional food preps.

The freeze-drying + heavily coated, long-lasting tins used by MH are something that can't be easily duplicated without spending millions on industrial machinery in the first place unfortunately.

NB: Just think for a minute about whether you'll still think the cost is a rip-off in 25 years time when you can eat this stuff or buy food from the supermarket after 25 years of food inflation. I'm not saying it's a great way to save money, but hopefully this might help soften the financial blow somewhat
(Not bought any MH myself yet, but that website is on my favourites list and I've been sorely tempted myself in the past)

[Arzosah]

I wouldn't dream of buying MH ... way too expensive for me.

[tshw1973]

Look at them as an insurance policy. If you can afford some and think they are worth investing in why not. I can think of worse things to spend money on.

[poppypiesdad]

Has anyone tried the MH stuff , is it dry ? , add water ?? and when it says 20 meals is it 20 portions so when you open the tin your basically got to have it 20 times untill its done , whats the shelf life when open

What does it taste like?????

[Plymtom]

Out of my financial reach but their reputation is good, quality costs they say.

[12mp82]

I wouldn't buy MH as I really don't see a favourable reason to store food for 25 years plus in the UK, or anywhere come to think of it.

It is designed for long term fit and forget storage, but personally I can't get my head around putting something away for so long, a three month to 12 month stock of food on a good rotation basis is in my personal opinion a more logical and cost effective method of prepping in the UK.

At best it might be good for a budget prep, as food might be really expensive in 25 years time.

Might be better to buy a small holding with about 4 or 5 acres and work that to your advantage

[ForgeCorvus]

Sorry, was that 180 portions of scrambled egg for 200 quid ?

I know MH is expensive.... But I didn't think it was THAT expensive

OP: Food storage basics

First off, if you're money rich and time poor the 12 month prepacked food store offered by MH, Thrive and several other commercial companies looks tempting. However, do you know if you'd eat some of the foods or the best way to use those food stocks?

Think about your food stores...As in what you already have in the house right now
Unless you never eat at home or shop only for todays meals you'll have some food at home. This is your Current food stock

Right, imagine you're at your local supermarket and they have a killer deal on baked beans. So rather then just buying the two cans you normally get each week you buy a whole flat and stick it in the cupboard, each week you still buy cans of beans but you use tins from the flat and replace them from your shopping trips (or even better you buy a can or two more then you've used). This is your Medium term food stock

Then theres the whole 4 stone sacks of grain and pulses stored in milar and lidded buckets that you're not planning on eating until your babies can vote... This is Long term food stocks and for that you need time,money and space..... With the money/time on a sliding scale.


Most tins that you buy already have Best Before End dates 18 months to 2 years away (and thats BBE not "turns to rat-poison", most people agree that you can pretty much double that time before you notice any difference. Just store the tin properly and chuck it if it bulges), this is what rotation is about (FIFO or First In-First Out)

"Store what you eat & eat what you store"

Am I helping ?

[Triple_sod]

I do think there’s a strong case to be made for buying a few MH #10 cans should you need to bug out. Worst case scenario for whatever reason you have to ditch your vehicle and carry on, on foot, bearing in mind you’ve got the rest of your kit to carry, 4-5 #10 cans is going to be a lot easier, than lugging 25-30 supermarket tins.

[12mp82]

And the chances of that are?

I can carry three days of food in my back pack with some water included plus ways to purify more, there is pretty much no where in the UK that is more than 8 miles from civilisation.

Also what bug out situation in the UK is going to be so severe that you won't be able to get to a shop to stock up en-route?

As I have said before, most bug out plans in the UK should be for a very little time, a few days at most, and most likely to a friend or relative or if really necessary an hotel or B&B possibly as far away as the next town.

Don't forget that even if your house burns down you still likely to have to go to work in the morning.

Just stating the obvious really.