No.5 – Survival Food: Storage, Preservation, and Planning
When you prepare for emergencies, food is a priority. Learn what to stock, how to store it, and how long it lasts. Effective prepping is about understanding preservation, knowing how storage times and food types differ between staying at home (stay-in-place) and evacuating quickly (bug-out), and adapting your plan for each scenario.
Why Survival Food Matters
During emergencies like storms, supply problems, power outages, or evacuations, you need food that provides enough calories and nutrition and will not spoil easily. Without a steady food supply, stress increases, and decision-making can suffer. A plan helps your family handle short- and long-term challenges with more confidence.
We’ve discussed why survival food should be a priority. Now move to the practical side of planning: choosing the foundational types of survival food.
Types of Survival Food (and Why They Matter)
Survival foods fall into four main groups, each having unique benefits, storage needs, and shelf life.
1. Canned Foods: Reliable and Widely Available
Canned foods are dependable during emergencies. They are affordable, widely accessible, simple to rotate, and require no special equipment. Typical canned foods include soups, stews, beans, tomatoes, vegetables, meats such as corned beef and processed hams, fruits, and various milks and puddings, such as rice pudding.
Canned foods have a good shelf life, typically 2 to 5 years, but many remain safe to eat well past their ‘best by’ dates if the cans are sealed and undamaged. They are ideal for stocking up your stay-at-home larder if you have enough storage space, but they are heavy to carry if you have to bug out on foot.
2. Dry Staples (Rice, Beans, Pasta, Flour)
Dry foods suit long-term storage and provide cost-effective calories. Main types include white rice, pasta, oats, pulses (beans, lentils, peas), and flours.
Store them dry in airtight glass or heavy plastic containers. Flimsy packaging, whether paper or light plastic, risks spoilage from vermin. Shelf life is long, and white rice, dry beans, and pasta can last decades if stored correctly. These foods are best for long-term storage at home (stay-in-place) because they are heavy and require long cooking times, making them less practical to carry in a bug-out situation.
3. Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated Foods
Freeze-dried foods retain their nutritional value by removing moisture and have an extended shelf life. Main options are freeze-dried meals, freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, dehydrated soups, and powdered eggs and milk.
They are usually much lighter than the original ingredients because moisture is often the heaviest part. That means these foods work well for both stay-in-place plans, where you may have room and cooking options, and bug-out scenarios, since they are lightweight, durable, and only need hot water.
4. Speciality Survival Foods (MREs, Rations, Pemmican)
These foods are made specifically for emergencies. Common options include MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), self-contained military rations. Other options include emergency ration bars (high-calorie, compact), Pemmican (a traditional, long-lasting mix of dried meat and fat), Jerky, and cured meats.
Survival food, ready-made meals, and ration bars usually last 5+ years, but properly stored traditional dried foods can last decades. These foods are especially ideal when you must bug out—leave your home suddenly and travel on foot—since they are lightweight, tough, and ready to eat without preparation. They are less ideal for long-term, stay-in-place needs because of their higher cost or limited variety, but they help in on-the-go emergencies.
Types of Storage and Preservation
How you store your food matters as much as what you choose to store. Heat, moisture, oxygen, light, and pests can shorten food’s shelf life.
1. Mylar Bags with Oxygen Absorbers
Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers are a popular way to store dry food long-term. They prevent oxidation and extend the shelf life of many staples. These bags are cost-effective, lightweight, and reliable. Store them in rodent-resistant containers, since Mylar alone doesn’t keep rodents out.
2. Vacuum-Sealed Jars or Bags
Vacuum sealing removes air and compacts food. It’s great for mid-term storage, but bags often lack mechanical strength and can puncture easily. Their low cost makes them ideal for storing food for 1-5 years, depending on the contents and storage environment. It works well for dehydrated fruits, nuts, meats, and dry goods.
3. Canning (Pressure or Water Bath)
Home canning lets you preserve fresh produce, meats, and soups, and it’s especially useful for preserving excess garden produce or making produce available out of season. Several canning methods exist, and you need to choose the right one for the produce. Pressure canning is required for low-acid foods because it needs higher temperatures to kill bacteria. You can can higher-acid foods in a water bath. Pickling also uses acidic vinegar and salt to preserve food for a shorter term, with a change in flavour.
Shelf life depends on how well you kill bacteria and seal the jars. Shelf life can range from a few months to a few years.
4. Freezer Storage
Frozen foods offer variety, convenience, and good nutritional retention, but require electricity. In an emergency, this can be a problem unless you have your own electrical source. Any extended outage may cause food to spoil. While frozen foods help you plan your family’s food supply, they shouldn’t be your main survival food. Frozen food can last from 6 months to 2 years, depending on the type.
Duration of Storage (How Long Should You Prepare For?)
A good emergency food plan should cover different time periods.
1. Short-Term Supply (72 Hours)
At a minimum, your emergency food supply should last three days. Emergency services often need you to be self-sufficient for this long while they organise help. You can fit this into a go-bag and keep it at home at any time. The latter really should have a lot more.
2. Medium-Term Supply (2 Weeks – 3 Months)
The go-bag is not designed for these durations, but it may still include items that last longer than 72 hours. For example, water filtration and purification could last for many weeks. First-aid items and tools can also be useful long term. To last in the medium term away from home, you need to get to a place with supplies, and the bug-out bag gets you there. Of course, depending on your situation, you may have storage elsewhere prepared for just that occasion.
3. Long-Term Supply (6 Months – 5+ Years)
A long-term survival food strategy is mainly for people in outlying areas where help may take a long time to arrive. This applies to areas that are difficult to reach in winter, where normal civil society cannot provide emergency cover, or where civil society has completely broken down. Monitor food stocks for dates and, if needed, rotate or replace them over time.
Stay-in-Place vs Bug-Out: How Survival Food Planning Changes
A key part of prepping is deciding whether to stay or evacuate. Your food plan must address both, but the needs of each will obviously look very different.
Stay-in-Place Food Strategy. This gives you more options, especially if you have space to store food in a cool, dry, well-organised way. Food options will be more varied, as you will likely have access to cooking and more water. You will have larger quantities and long-term food options.
Bug-Out Food Strategy. This requires you to leave quickly, travel light and fast, and be ready to pick up and go. It requires lightweight, high-calorie food with minimal or no cooking, durable packaging, and compact storage. Best bug-out foods: MREs, ration bars, jerky, nuts and seeds, freeze-dried meals. A bag should include three days of lightweight, ready-to-eat food.
Final Thoughts
A successful food strategy relies on long-term storage using a versatile selection of foods that can rotate well. By focusing on methods like Mylar storage, freeze-drying, canning, and building layered supplies, you protect your household from surprises.