Ten Basic Foods You Absolutely Need in Your Food Storage

October 29, 2015

If you are working on food storage, here are ten basic foods that you can use as a framework to build your food storage around.  Now these are foods that are inexpensive and that you could live off in a real emergency.  This diet would get boring fast, but would keep you alive.

When I started my food storage, these ten basic foods were the first things that I stored.  Since then we have expanded our storage and added many other foods, including dehydrated and freeze-dried.  But if are just starting I would encourage you to store these ten basic foods first.  This will give you the most bang for your buck.

Ten basic foods for your storage

  • Rice is inexpensive, stores well and beans and rice make a complete protein. For long-term storage, you should use only white or parboiled rice.  Do not store brown rice, it only stores about 6 months before going rancid.

  • Beans, various varieties, beans and rice make a complete protein when served together. Beans are inexpensive and store well.

  • Honey or sugar. Honey is the best choice if you can afford it, if not store white sugar.

  • Whole grains, wheat berries, quinoa, whole corn, spelt and rolled oats. The choice of which grains to store to a large part depends on what your system will tolerate.  Wheat is great if you can tolerate the roughage and are not gluten intolerant.  But regardless of which grains you choose, you need to incorporate them in your diet so that you are used to them.  Remember you can sprout many of these grains to give you a source of fresh greens and vitamin C.

  • Iodized salt. You need iodine in your diet to stay healthy.  Salt is also a great preservative for any many other foods you may run across.

  • Powdered milk is a good source of protein. Properly packaged it can store for 20 years or more.  It adds a tremendous variety of recipes to your cooking.

  • Yeast or baking powder this lets you make bread and take full advantage of your grains. Yeast needs to be rotated regularly.  Baking powders can be stored for long periods of time, see the article Baking Powder Shelf Life is Longer Than You Have Been Told

  • Cooking oil should be rotated regularly to avoid them going rancid. Store in a cool dark area.

  • Multi vitamin, a good one will make sure you get all the nutrients that you require.

  • Spices need to be stored in sealed containers. We have found that vacuuming sealing them with a food saver extends there shelf life.  In a long-term emergency, you never know what you will end up eating and even the rats will taste better with a little chili powder.

Like I said at the beginning this is just a framework to build on.  It will keep you alive, but I would not want to have to live on just these ten basic foods.  But it is an inexpensive way to start.

Howard

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