Whether you want to protect your family from suffering during financial difficulties, unforeseen medical bills or power outages, food storage is an essential element of preparation. Securing adequate insurance, building a savings account and implementing a healthy lifestyle are important safety precautions, but so is putting together a proper food storage program. If you’re new to storing food, here’s what you need to know about food storage.

What is Proper Food Storage?

Proper food storage is more than just storing basic foods that can be used in an emergency situation. They have to be well cared for throughout the entire storage process. While rice and a variety of beans might be fine for a couple of years in any type of container with an air tight lid, keeping your supplies dry, protected, nutritious and fresh involves consistently rotating your stock and keeping an eye on your storage conditions. Flavor, cooking ease and what you’re used to eating needs to be considered carefully.

A stressful situation is not the time to experiment with new recipes and food ideas. Although freeze-dried foods are comparable in taste to meals you freshly make, the best practice is to use your food storage on a regular basis. Incorporating the ingredients, foods and recipes you plan to use during an emergency into your regular meal plans now, will ensure that these foods won’t be unfamiliar when disaster strikes. Using them now can also save you money because storage foods often cost less than convenience products.

In addition, using your stored food gives you a better idea of how much you need to store. You will have a balanced food storage, but don’t forget to take into account that most people eat more when they are under stress.

Consider Storing Freeze-Dried Foods

When times are difficult, you might not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. If you’re used to using a large amount of processed foods, storing freeze-dried ingredients and meals can help you get your meals on the table in a matter of minutes. Not only do these meals taste great, but when you go with Buy Emergency Foods, you can purchase handy, stack able buckets that offer a wide variety of selections. You can also use freeze dried meals for camping too so you don’t have to mess with cooking on a fire or in a dutch oven.

Why settle for plain beans and rice when you can have Sweet ‘n Sour, Pasta Primavera, enchiladas or a spicy corn chowder? Putting together a proper food storage is about taste as well as security.