Following all the turmoil in the world, it’s no surprise you might be making plans to optimize your food storage for emergencies and worse. A recent United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report stated natural disasters now occur three times more often than in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, there’s now a broader gap in food security, particularly across poorer countries.
Stockpiling food to increase your chances of survival is always a good idea, especially if you live in an area prone to major storms and a faulty electric grid. Of course, your food storage organization is critical to preventing waste and meeting your family’s needs. This article provides essential tips for optimizing food storage more efficiently and ensuring enhanced preparedness.
Before You Begin Stockpiling Food
Perhaps a hurricane or snowstorm is heading your way and you’re storing food in case you lose power. Maybe you’re stockpiling canned goods and other non-perishables for long-term for disaster preparedness instead. Whatever your reasons for optimizing food storage, you should keep a few essential things in mind.
For instance, how many people live in your household, what are their ages, and do they have any specific dietary needs?
Depending on age and gender, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends a specific calorie intake. Per the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, men require about 2,000 to 3,000 calories daily, while women should eat between 1,600 and 2,400 — the high end of these ranges is for active individuals.
Children and adolescents have different dietary requirements, mainly since the basal metabolic rate is higher when you’re younger. The guidelines suggest young children eat 1,000 to 2,000 calories, while older kids and adolescents should consume anywhere between 1,400 to 3,200 calories. Gender plays a vital role in caloric needs, with boys requiring more calories than girls.
Of course, eating enough calories is only one part of guaranteeing proper nutrition for a healthy body. Getting enough macronutrients — protein, carbohydrates and fat — is also critical. The human body requires ample macronutrients to function correctly, such as aiding digestion, building and repairing muscles and tissue and storing energy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture breaks down the body’s need for macronutrients as follows:
- Carbohydrates: 45% to 65% of daily calories
- Protein: 10% to 35% of daily calories
- Fat: 20% to 35% of daily calories
Again, this might depend on various factors, such as gender, age, or if you’re pregnant. Before optimizing food storage for an emergency, take stock of who you must feed and the recommended requirements for each person.
[Editor’s note: Consider stockpiling food and supplies for extra mouths to feed, should you take in family or friends.]
7 Ways to Optimize Your Food Storage
Here are seven ways to optimize your food storage for excellent efficiency.
1. Pick the Right Location
What good is storing food if you don’t have a place for it? The first step to optimal food storage is picking the right location in your home. Do you have a basement you can install shelving? Maybe there’s an extra pantry in the mudroom or attached garage.
Most of the food you’ll store will be dry goods. Maintaining the correct temperature and environment will ensure the products retain their nutritional value and quality and prevent bacteria from forming. The USDA recommends storing canned food, baking ingredients, grains and cereals in a clean, well-ventilated area with low humidity. Ideally, food will last longest at 50° Fahrenheit — however, 70° is also acceptable for many products.
Hang a thermometer in the storage space and check to see that it stays within the proper temperature range daily. You’ll also want to store the food away from windows and heat sources, which could diminish its shelf life. Additionally, placing food on shelves away from the wall and off the floor is critical for better air circulation.
2. Consider the Type of Food
Knowing what types of food to store is easier than you think. You can easily purchase the right items for long-term storage at your local supermarket or warehouse grocer in one visit or over time. Some foods you might consider purchasing for food storage efficiency include:
- Rice
- Canned beans — black beans particularly are a great source of protein
- Canned vegetables
- Canned fruits
- Canned meat
- Oats
- Peanut butter
- Vitamin C-enriched drink powder packets
- Salt
- Jars of jam
- Canned soup
- Jug of oil
- Hard candies
[Editor’s note: I wrote a book about the best foods to stockpile, which include much more than the above suggestions.]
The list goes well beyond these goods — however, the listed items are an excellent starting point. Of course, you might wonder how to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without slices of bread. Bread doesn’t have a long enough shelf life for long-term food storage. Considering that 30% to 40% of food goes to waste in the U.S., it’s essential to find creative uses for bread.
Several factors impact bread spoilage, yet shorter durations might better suit some types of bread. For example, gluten-free bread can last up to three days in a pantry and a month in the freezer. Meanwhile, sourdough bread lasts seven to 10 days in a pantry and three to four months in the freezer.
You might store loaves of bread in the freezer until you need it during a power outage or emergency. Or, better yet, stockpile the basic ingredients to make bread; they last longer and it’s not that hard to make.
3. Prepare for Outages
If you live in a region impacted by major storms, you’re likely aware how troublesome power outages can be. Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict the outcome of weather-related damage and you could be without electricity for days or weeks at a time.
After Hurricane Maria barrelled through the Caribbean in 2017, Puerto Rico endured the longest blackout in history, with power plants taking 11 months to recover fully. An electric grid failure in Texas also sent the state into sheer darkness for three days during a major snowstorm in 2021. Nearly two-thirds of the 246 deaths were due to hypothermia.
For this reason, don’t just assume you’ll be able to use appliances to prepare meals. It’s impossible to tell if a storm will knock the power out, so you’ll want to have plenty of food that doesn’t need to cooking, especially canned soups and stews.
4. Use Proper Containers
Four things can lead to contamination when storing food — oxygen, pests, rodents and light. Any openings in the packaging can lead to severe food contamination that’s hazardous to your health.
Choose the correct containers to safeguard your products. For example, food-grade buckets are available to help seal out the excess oxygen and prolong shelf life. They also act as an additional barrier against critters getting into your supply. Seal the rest of your food items in glass jars or metal containers to keep the other elements from impacting food quality.
5. Remember to Store Water
It’s possible water might slip your mind when thinking about food storage, yet it’s one of the most critical items to include for emergency preparedness. The human body depletes its water reserves every time you breathe, eat, sweat or relieve yourself. That’s why it’s essential to replenish the body with fluids and foods containing high water content. And, of course, many foods need water to rehydrate and to be cooked.
According to the Mayo Clinic, men need approximately 15.5 cups of fluids daily, while women need 11.5 cups — about 20% of fluids come from the foods you eat. Of course, you might require more fluid intake if you’re active, sweating in a hot or humid environment, taking medications, are sick, have a bladder infection or are pregnant.
Remember to purchase jugs of water for your storage unit — enough to drink, use for cooking and even bathing. Water is one item that’ll never go to waste in a disaster.
6. Store Foods by Expiration Date
Restaurants and grocery stores have a first-in-first-out protocol they follow to make sure they use up the foods with the shortest shelf life first. When you optimize your food storage for improved efficiency, you should also consider following this model.
Using the soon-to-be-expired foods first helps reduce waste and allows you to save more food for much longer in an emergency. Most preppers aren’t be picky, though. If you’re in a dire situation, eat the stored food according to its expiration date.
Every now and then, go through your food storage area and remove the goods that have reached or long-surpassed their best by dates. Even canned foods — particularly meat — can make you sick once they expire.
For even greater efficiency, purchase a can organizer, such as the Cansolidator or other pantry can organizers. Or, simply organize your goods by date and product as best as you can.
7. Create a Master List
Creating a “master” food list can help streamline your food storage system for better efficiency. Writing down the essential macronutrients and everyone’s dietary needs is an excellent place to start and will make stockpiling easier.
For each macronutrient, list about three items. Consider whether you or your household are willing to eat them during a disaster. Also, if the item has a short shelf life, you’ll have to be ready to consume the product and restock it, regardless of an emergency.
After you’ve chosen the foods to include in your food storage, you’ll have to determine the quantities needed to meet each person’s nutritional needs. A spreadsheet that consists of the food item, amounts, macronutrients, caloric information and expiration dates is a great way to track what you have or still need to buy, but it is a lot of work.
Disaster Survival With Efficient Food Storage
Building up your food storage for better efficiency takes time, but the effort will drastically boost your chances of survival. But be realistic about the foods you select, that is, don’t just buy anything off the shelf, like foods you don’t currently eat, and expect that you’ll eat when the times comes.
Remember to devise a system to help you avoid waste (such as using a can organizer) to give you and your family the best chance of surviving whatever comes your way.
And realize that you need to start now. The day of, and certainly the day after, disaster are simply too late.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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