9 Best Survival Foods: What Preppers Keep in Their Pantry

In an emergency, you can only survive as long as your food does. Luckily, building a stockpile is easy with these valuable tips on the best long-term food storage practices and choosing survival foods.

How preppers choose food to stockpile

Preppers have criteria that they follow when they stockpile food for emergencies. These foods don’t have to be gourmet, but they need to be safe to store for long periods, can be eaten with minimal effort, and provide adequate nutrition. Long-term food storage is essential to prepping, and this survival guide gives you everything you need to know, from food safety to essential items.

Shelf life

You can only survive as long as your food can in an emergency. By stocking foods with long and indefinite shelf life, your only problem will be finding enough room to keep them.

Another tip to maximizing your food’s shelf life is understanding that the predetermined expiration date is more of a guideline for most foods. For example, man foods like cereal can be eaten up to 8 months after the “best if used by” date (they just won’t be peak quality).

Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats age differently. While carbs will remain mostly stable, proteins and fats can break down and spoil. With time, you’ll learn to look for the right signs of food spoilage and know when your food is safe.

Calories

When stocking your pantry, look for foods with the most calories per serving. Calorically-dense foods are key for survival since they provide the most bang for your buck in terms of energy. Foods like sugar and protein bars are lightweight and easy to store, yet pack a punch with a burst of energy.

You’ll also save space in your pantry and be able to fit more meals into your stockpile if you choose calorically dense foods.

Types of survival foods

Before disaster strikes, you’ll want to have three main types of survival foods in your emergency pantry. They’re great options for long-term food storage when preserved properly in ideal conditions.

Pantry foods

Pantry foods refer to the base ingredients for all your recipes and other dried foods with a stable shelf life. If you have your pantry foods stocked, you’ll be able to make a wide variety of tasty and nutritious meals. Things like beans, honey, and rice are stable pantry food items and can last very long.

Canned foods

Commercially canned foods are cheap, easy to stock in bulk, and a favorite among preppers. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can even can your own food and keep it for up to a year!

Canned food is a broad term, but there’s guaranteed to be something in it for you. Because there are many kinds of canned foods and methods to can your own food, their shelf life can vary from a few months to a few years.

Frozen foods

If you’re able to keep a freezer running in an emergency, it’s great to know that frozen foods remain safe indefinitely, even meat. The quality and taste may be lacking, but bacteria are unable to grow on frozen foods (so long as it is below 0º Fahrenheit).

Frozen foods are not to be confused with freeze-dried foods, however. Most freeze-dried food has a safe shelf life of up to 25 years or more and doesn’t have to be refrigerated to stay safe.

This is because freeze-drying foods removes up to 99% of their liquid content, preventing bacteria and microorganisms from growing in your food.

Best survival foods

Now that you know the basics preppers look for, here are our top picks for the best survival foods and why we put them on this list.

Kitchen essentials

No kitchen is complete without salt and sugar, and neither is your stockpile.

Pure salts without additives, such as pink Himalayan salt and sea salt, have an indefinite shelf life and many survival uses. You can use it to cure meat, extend your milk’s shelf life, and stay hydrated with sufficient electrolytes and minerals.

Some salts with additives, such as ionized salt, are still a good idea for shorter-term stockpiles that are often rotated, but be aware they only have half a shelf life of about 5 years due to the additives.

Having sweet treats is important to balance out the salty, savory meals from your salt cache. When stored properly, sugar has an indefinite shelf life and has more uses beyond baking. While brown sugar is also stable, it contains a lot of moisture, meaning the texture can change or turn into a rock-hard lump after about 2 years. This is still safe to eat but makes it less desirable than sugar.

Sugar can be used as a preservative in jams and jellies or as a key ingredient in comfort food. Medically, it can prevent Hypoglycemia and can be dressed around a wound to be used as an antibiotic.

Grains

Grains are a stable pantry good for several reasons: they are high in protein and nutritional value, they’re highly versatile, and most varieties can be stored for as long as 25 years if packaged in airtight, oxygen-free containers.

There are 2 primary grain groups: soft grains and hard grains. Soft grains include things like oats, rye, and quinoa. They are stable for about 8 years on average, but this can be increased to 20 years in ideal conditions.

Hard grains include buckwheat, corn, flax, mullet, wheat, and more. These grains can last from 12 years to 30 or more!

However, avoid grains with long processing methods, such as brown rice and barley. These processes can cause them to go bad after only 6 months.

Beans

Under the right conditions, dry beans can last more than 10 years! Beans and legumes are also bountiful in key nutrients, proteins, fibers, and calories and can create a variety of dishes.

Not all beans are created equal, however. Kidney, pinto, and black beans are the most common, making building a stockpile easy. They’re also packed with 15 grams of protein per cup – not bad for a pantry food item. When they’re combined with grains, they also provide complementary amino acids for a complete protein meal.

If you want to expand your options, split peas, garbanzo beans, and azuki beans are great for soups, dips, and curries and store well long-term. Just be aware that beans high in oil, such as soybeans, won’t last as long as their counterparts.

Honey

While honey maintains its peak quality for up to 12 months, it is safe to eat indefinitely, according to the USDA. This makes it an invaluable food item, but preppers often forget it’s also a great tool in your first-aid kit.

More effective than sugar, studies show that honey can be used as a wound dressing to promote quicker healing as it contains anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant properties. This may not be as effective as modern medicine, but it’s better than nothing in an emergency.

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