Tips for Your Survival Pantry

You of course know that you need food to survive. This means that you might be building a survival pantry for emergency situations. That said, what are the requirements of building something like this? Here we have 8 tips for your survival pantry that you need to know all about.

Your Nutritional Requirements

One of the first tips for stocking your survival pantry is that you need to go for somewhat healthy foods, or at least those that can provide you with a variety of necessary nutrients.

The 2010 USDA dietary guidelines say that a diet should consist of 55 percent carbs, 25 percent fats, and 20 percent protein, so this is something that you should aim for.

It’s not all about having the most food, but the right kind of food too. You need carbs and sugars for energy, protein for your muscles, fats to keep going, and of course, vitamins and minerals. If you plan on staying alive and healthy, ensure that your survival food actually meets your survival needs.

Ensuring You’ve Got Enough to Last

The quantity of food you get is also important. After all, even high-quality foods with adequate nutrients will only last for so long. On average, adult females need between 1500 and 2000 calories per day, and males need up to 2500 calories per day.

Therefore, you will want to stock up on foods that have fairly high caloric contents. Now, of course, when it comes to survival situations, your caloric intake can be cut down quite a bit, so you can stretch this. Remember that a bare minimum of 1200 calories per day is required for a normal human being to survive.

You need to figure out how many people are going to be eating this food, for how long the food needs to last, and you need to aim to provide each person with 1200 calories per day at the very least. Yes, this is going to involve some mathematics.

Good Variety

The variety of food you get is not only important due to the need to meet nutritional requirements, but also for your own sanity and enjoyment. Simply put, yes, 100 cans of the same meat and veggies may technically keep you keep you ticking, but it’s going to start to wear real thin after a few days.

If you want to survive and at least partially enjoy meals, having a wide variety of foods is important. Canned foods, freeze-dried food, grains, energy bars, dried fruits, and more should all be considered. Although this has nothing to do with variety, always remember drinking water!

The Right Packaging and Preservation Methods

One of the most important aspects of stocking that survival pantry is to get foods that are properly preserved. Fresh food is not in the cards here. Anything fresh like meat, veggies, and fruit is not going to be acceptable for the long run because fresh food can go bad in a matter of days.

For your survival pantry, the best kind of food to go with is canned food. Canned food tends to last longer than anything else. Fermented, pickled, and cured foods all work, as well as dried foods, such as dried fruits. Rice and grains are always a go-to option as well (as long as they are properly stored). Another option is freeze-dried food, although it’s certainly not cheap.

Buying in Bulk

The next tip is to try and buy in bulk whenever you can. If you are putting together a survival pantry for 4 people, and it needs to last for a couple of months, there are going to be certain costs involved; food is not cheap in general, and especially not when you need so much of it.

That said, buying in bulk is always cheaper. It’s going to be comparatively cheaper to buy a 20 pack of canned ravioli than buying a single can, and a 20 pound bag of rice will be comparatively cheaper than a single small box. Buying in bulk is definitely the way to go here.

Easy to Prep Food (Watch Out For Water Requirements)

When you are in survival mode, you may not always have access to an open fire, to adequate clean water, to the needed cooking utensils, and anything else needed to prepare food.

Therefore, any food you need to cook should not be stored in a survival pantry. Foods that can be eaten as is, foods that require minimal water, can be eaten cold, or only require minimal heating are ideal. One thing to look for here is dried foods and water.

If you plan on making lots of rice and heating dried foods that need water for rehydration, you need to consider water requirements, as some food can really eat through your water supply.

The Right Storage Space and Technique

Where you have your survival pantry set up is also important. You need to create your pantry in a place that has moderate-low temperatures — and is not susceptible to temperature swings — in a place that is dry, and that sees minimal or no sunlight. Heat, moisture, and light can all cause food to go bad faster, even canned foods.

On that same note, how you build the pantry is also important; you need to make use of vertical space. Being able to stack plenty of food vertically is going to help you save space and to store more food at once.

Storage Materials

You will also want to store foods in containers or bags that are resistant to moisture, are light proof, and can withstand being gnawed on by critters. Many people opt for canned foods for this reason. Dried and freeze-dried foods, really anything that’s just in plastic or a box, should be put in buckets or a mylar bag for protection.

Conclusion

There you have it — all of the tips you need to build and stock a survival pantry for long-term use. All of the above tips and points are equally important, so pay equal attention to each one.