What food to store?

[taylor94]

Hey everyone.

Been doing a lot of research and trying to get the basics of prepping.

One thing I am trying to get my head round is what food to store.

I am looking to store food for long periods of time. By long periods I mean years if possible.

Food have expiration dates and the last thing I want is to store food, to have the SHTF and open it and see its spoiled.

What foods should I store? What will last long periods?

The best I have found is White dry rice, dried beans, bouillon pastes, salt, sugar, honey and oatmeal. Apart from that I am stumped. Yes can soups last some time but if someone can help with certain foods that will last long if stored properly etc that would be awesome.

I have started prepping water. Each week I am ordering a barrel of water, and using the water at home, once the barrel is empty i am re-filling it. That way I will have more containers filled with fresh water. But food is the one concern. What to buy etc.

Hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

Darren

[preppingsu]

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=629

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1011

Having a mooch around the site will come up with lot of discussions about long term food storage.
Mantra one : store what you eat and eat what you store (rotate, rotate, rotate). Tinned food will last indefinitely (past its use by date) in the right conditions.

Many on here use Mylar bags to store dried food. I'm not sure if anyone has actually done a study on how long mylared food stuff will last but the thought is 10yrs or more.

I'm sure other will have opinions.

I could write lots more but I'll let others have a say!

[unsure]

just about anything dries will keep for years after the use by date .
same goes for tinned foods , not to every ones taste but you can store everything from beans and potatoes to tinned meats .so long as theres not rust or bulging then it should be good to eat . use your nose , smell it
if it smells bad then just don`t eat it . cuppa soups , pasta soups and the like are cheap enough and easy to store . porridge oats are another good item to have in , in mylar bags with an o2 obsorber then froze for a week to kill off any thing that might have got in there and these will keep as well .
white rice again bagged and sealed then frozen should keep for well over 10 years .
as you said , stock cubes , these you can put in just about any thing to help with the taste , beef ,chicken or veg flavours will give bland white rice a nicer flavour or in a mug to help warm you up .
don`t forget comfort foods , tinned fruit will all so keep well provided its not in the ring pull cans .
if you have children , then think about custard powder and a can of coco powder , kids love chocolate custard . also jelly chrystels ,ok you need a fridge to help it set or a cold day but still worth thinking about .

think super market own brands or whats on offer , eg asda own brand savoury rice , 26p .

[taylor94]

Thanks very helpful. Gives me more options than stock cubes and rice lol.

Appreciate it.

Will let you know what I come up with lol.

[Hillybilly444]

don`t forget comfort foods , tinned fruit will all so keep well provided its not in the ring pull cans .

Do ring pull cans not last as long as "normal" cans?

[damaralenoire]

I have started prepping water. Each week I am ordering a barrel of water, and using the water at home, once the barrel is empty i am re-filling it. That way I will have more containers filled with fresh water. But food is the one concern. What to buy etc.
n

Although the suggestions you come up with is spot on, I personally still eat the food that i buy tinned, just ensuring that i have plenty available,Tinned food is a must for many preppers but the best thing to do is to still use it that way you are replacing it just like what you do with your water

[delard]

Hi,

Personally I think rice in bulk is hard to beat :

- its easily available in large size (get 20kg bags from wholesaler)
- its cheap (about £1/kg)
- its compact - a few 20kg bags doesn't take up much space but represents a huge amount of calories (about 73,000 calories in 20kg!)
- it doesn't quickly spoil (but try to get in thick plastic bags rather than fabric/paper)

Obviously you can't live on just rice for long periods - but it could provide the bulk of your calories for a while. A catering size container of soy sauce will go a long way to making it more palatable!

Tinned food is even more convenient and doesn't typically need cooking - but its relatively expensive. Also the relatively short best before dates on tinned food is a pain. I know its probably fine for years after the printed date - but it does put you off. Right now I've got a stack of tinned foods with dates in 2009 and 2010. I think they are still fine - but I can't persuade anyone else in the house to touch them - and if the apocalypse doesn't happen soon ( ), they will probably get binned at some point in the next few years!

- Delard

[unsure]

don`t forget comfort foods , tinned fruit will all so keep well provided its not in the ring pull cans .

Do ring pull cans not last as long as "normal" cans?

for some reason the ring pull cans tend to burst open when they have past there use by date .

[taylor94]

Thank you all for the advice. Made things a lot easier.

Started buying my rice lol and I have been ordering bouillon pastes from my works supplier. Should have a good store set up soon.

Is there anyways I can make things last longer. I have heard there are ways to seal the food in certain type of bags and remove the oxygen making the food last for years after years.

[unsure]

you can get mylar bags and o2 absorbers from ebay .
just remember , you need to make sure the have a good seal and to freeze them for a week after they have vacumed down .