To Buy Army MRE's or Not?

[sethorly]

That's interesting about mountain warehouse food. I did not know it lasted that long...or is it a case that it "can" be stored for 25 yrs but not designed to like the MREs?

Thanks for the link as well; I take it this is freeze dried ?

Mountain House freeze dried food is advertised to last for 25 years, so can probably last for longer. It's going to be my food prep beyond 1 year whilst my kids are at home, once I've got the cash together. Here's a link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Emergency-Food ... 985&sr=8-9
You just add water to the freeze dried stuff, so you'll need to use filtered and boiled rain water or something similar if your stored stuff has run out.

The link in my post above is to an non-freeze-dried MRE-type food box.

[BlinkingCory]

My advice with Mountain House (after using them a lot in the past for hiking holidays) is to try a one serving pouch first before committing to big tubs.
Some are a lot better than others and you'll get an understanding of what they consider to be a meal sized portion and the calorific value.

[FlashPan]

Thanks sethorly...no worries..you may be the waffler (and please carry on) but I am also the what if thinker. My boss tells me I have a helicopter type of view on situations. I hover above looking down and try to see all that is going on an pre-empt/understand if X or Y happens then not only is the consequence then Q is also a possibility but also think how does X and or Y occur in the first place.....wow feel like I'm lying on the shrinks couch now

60 meals for that price seem ok, although you may get sick of the variety by day 30

So with that particular box you have 4 main meals and 1 desert...although if push comes to shove who cares what you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner...or just have 2 meals a day.

In the description I noticed though:

"They have the additional convenience of a plastic lid to provide an airtight seal keeping the contents fresh for up to 7 days after opening"

Plus am still a little concerned about having extra available water to rehydrate as well.

Apologies, I am not looking to poke holes in plans am just trying to figure out the pros and cons of new info I am reading.

I am liking the idea of hydrated but just not completely sold yet.

I know people say tinned goods are really good to keep past x years sell by dates but the metal taste can start to affect the main flavour. Am wondering though..what are peoples thoughts about longevity on tinned goods?

Yes am 100% aware about rotating but to be honest I completely forgot to do that.

Any tips then on how to manage/remember what you bought, when to rotate. What to buy for long(ish) term storage, what do you feel comfortable in storing past its "best by" or "use by" date?

Cheers me dears

[Deeps]

Like Blinking Cory says, I've got the contents of a corner shop stowed away (after a recent stock take I've got more than I thought and will continue to add), its maybe a bit 'samey' but I've tried to mostly store what we eat so it can easily be factored into our normal scran. Its whatever works for you though, I've really enjoyed making my own dehydrated scran (bizarrely) and the dehydrators are cheap, the vac sealers are a bit more pricey but not stupidly so. I've not got a huge supply as I don't really want to do the whole bug out thing but I'm planning on having a week or two's supply for me and Her Maj, I'll use them up on the odd sojourn up the hills which is my 'official' reason to do them. We all prep for our own reasons and have our own preferences. For myself I'm not going to get too bogged down with either the calories OR the balanced diet for a 72 hour type thing, while I'm a fan of both as long as I'm keeping body and soul together and not so hungry I can't sleep then fine. For a more 'medium term' situations if I'm in my house or have enough time to plan I can use the preps I've got to keep us fed and watered. If its long term then realistically you're looking at a skillset to sort you out. The longer the time scale of 'disaster' the less likely I see it happening but others will have their own thoughts. What you think you'll be using your preps for is the guide here I'd have thought, do you see yourself staying put or running off, have you the infrastructure to support your food preps, stuff like oil, condiments etc as well as fuel if staying put, still fuel if you're looking to sod off somewhere. If doing the whole bugging out thing, how long for ? Everything weighs so how long can you realistically support yourself for ? Do you have somewhere in mind to bug out too etc. As I've said on other threads, my food for the two of us might have to stretch to fill a few more mouths, so if I have 180 days worth (ie 3 months for 2 of us) then that might end up as 10 days for 18 people or whatever, its potentially going to get very complicated if there's a proper SHTF incident. I guess like most of prepping there's no right or wrong, a lot of it is speculative and tailored to the individual anyway.