Top Survival Foods You Must Store
When SHTF For Prepping And Survival
My list of top survival food you must stockpile and store before the SHTF.
Also bear in mind the fact that your food stockpile is not all about waiting for the SHTF - no way. In fact a good food storage system will cover several bases all at once.
I was recently on a radio talk show and the host asked me 'whats your concerns, whats disaster are you prepping for?'
My reply completely shocked him..!
At the moment I'm prepping for the possibility of loosing my job.
"What do you mean", he said? He was very confused indeed - only thinking that prepping is all about learning to hide out in the woods and hunt down your food, sneaking into disaster areas and other James Bond style antics.
Part of my prepping is for the very real possibility of loosing my job.
As such I'm building up a food store.
With a good back up supply of sensible long life, nutritious foods, enough to last me a few months, I have no need to spend any money on food, especially if it takes a while to get a new job.
He now sees prepping in a completely different light!
In effect this is more of a back up of my back up plan.
My 'real' food storage still consists of much the same foods and I have narrowed it down to a few of the essentials that I think we should all have.
There are always certain criteria you must follow to get the most bang for you buck, as its no good buying any old foods that shrivel up and die within days.
Non Perishable Foods Are The Key To A Preppers Food Store
It is essential to balance high quality foods with costs and the nutritional return you are getting from them.
If the food offers good value for money, the only other concern is its shelf life.
Fortunately choosing good nutritional value foods, with high calories and long shelf life, within an economic price range is not as difficult as you may think.
Another important consideration for you food storage is whether this is food storage for hunkering down or bugout?
If it's for bugout, the weight becomes a very important factor - I say this because tinned food is a good solid food source, offering nutrition, shelf life and value. But carrying a dozen tins in your bugout bag is definitely a no no.
So, for this exercise, the following list of foods is based on a hunker down survival scenario where the actual food weight is not that important.
MY TOP FOODS LIST:
Top Survival Foods You Must Store
When SHTF For Prepping And Survival
RICE:
White, wild, arborio, jasmine or basmati
White, Wild, Arborio, Jasmine and Basmati Rice are the best types of rice to store, offering a pretty much indefinite shelf life when stored correctly.
Brown rice is an exception to this - and will only give you a six month shelf life.
This is due to the high oil content which will speed up the rate at which it goes rancid.
Rice offers a very good 'filler food', which is high in energy giving carbohydrates, with the advantage of proportional high protein as well.
I buy my rice pre packed, shown here.
For storage this method is ideal as the rice is fully dried and sealed and requires no further action by me other than to store it.
The 5kg pack works out enough to give you a serving of rice each day for one month.
Not a full cup serving, just a bit less, but I base the 5kg pack as being one month supply for one person - you may want more?
Price wise a 5kg pack is below £15, So below 50p per day, per person for one serving.
SALMON:
This choice may surprise you, but tinned salmon offers all the essential elements of a good survival food.
It is compact and very easy to store, as well as being sealed, requiring you to do nothing other than store it.
Shelf life is anything up to six years and the salmon itself offer very high amounts of quality protein and essential healthy fats.
It is a very good alternative to canned or fresh meats.
It is not, however, a budget item which may well restrict purchasing a good supply.
On average a pack of 12 x 418gram cans will work out at about £4.75 each can, but one can will esily do two people, maybe more. it is a very good food source offering a high protein content.
Bearing in mind that in a SHTF situation you can expect to be exerting far more energy than usual, so a decent protein intake is essential for muscle recovery and to avoid injury.
BEANS:
- Aduki beans
- Black beans
- Black eyed peas
- Butter beans
- Cannelloni beans
- Edamame (soy beans) buy only organic or you will risk having GMO beans.
- Fava beans
- Garbanzo beans
- Green beans
- Kidney beans - ideal for chilli
- Lima beans
- Lentils
- Navy beans
- Pinto beans - staple for chilli
- Red beans
- White beans
Another long life, high protein food that is easy to store - although good preparation is essential to avoid spoilage and wastage.
The dried bean is a very versatile food source. It can be used to mix with all other foods, offering you a more bulky and filling meal.
Dried beans provide an excellent source of good, high fibre nutrition including protein, as well as a source of iron, magnesium and zinc.
They are well known to reduce levels of cholesterol and also provide you with a good source of antioxidants
This is exactly what you want when food is scarce.
The bean can be utilised to produce other stable foods as well - grinding beans into a flour gives the basis for making bread, with some dried milk powder, a little sugar and salt, you have a good bannock bread mix.
Another good point about storing beans is the cost - they work out a cheap and cost effective food source.
A 5kg bag of dried beans will give you 10+ servings - with the average bag size of 5kg, so that's 50 servings per bag and will cost around £15.
Making each meal cost only 30p each - great value eh..!
The cost can be brought down even more if you buy in larger bulk.
CANNED MEAT & VEGETABLES:
Canned foods is a very important addition to your survival food store because there is so much variety to choose from.
The manufacturers stated use by date is a guide only, and all canned food, when stored correctly, will last for many more years than stamped.
Simply eating only canned foods will give you all the nutrients you need to survive in a SHTF scenario.
Canned vegetables, carrots, corn, tomatoes, potatoes and just about everything else is readily available, and is as fresh as when it was processed and canned, with very little nutritional decrease.
All these foods will give you variety and choice on a daily basis, making survival far more pleasant.
VITAMIN / MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS:
In hard times it is essential to keep your body topped up with all the essential vitamins and minerals to help process what other food you have.
Buying vitamin and mineral supplements is by far one of the easiest and most cost effective ways of to ensure you can keep your health levels up and are very easy to store.
Costs are good for a quality pack and will set you back litterer pennies each day.
This list is very straightforward to implement as well as being quite cost effective.
By stocking up and storing these foods you will get a very good selection of quality supplies that are easy to store and are good in nutrition.
Plus they wont take up loads of room.
Acquiring a good store will not take you long either - so don't sit around and think about it, put a small amount of funds to one side and make it happen.
Happy Prepping Folks,
Steve
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