Darren Pawski

There is a lot of information about emergency food storage and you will find conflicting ideas on the same topic, which further heightens the confusion especially when you want to begin on your dream to come up with emergency food supply. To start and proceed well, you should consider some vital piece of advice that will help you make a decision that will be beneficial. What you need in this case is a strategy that is designed to work and here are few ideas you could consider.

Storage space optimization

Getting an appropriate way to store emergency food could prove a challenge, and this is so if your home or apartment is small. When that is the case, you need to engage creativity; begin with a walk around tour of your house to see if there are spaces that are overlooked that could be converted into storage compartments. Some of the places that are not given attention include under beds, where you could create a shelf to be used as a storage place for your emergency food. Get out those things you rarely use or ones that you no longer need and convert the space into a useful storage unit.

Focus on the basics

You cannot stock anything you find around. It is important you understand what your family eats every week and use this information as a point of reference for getting started. One benefit of embracing the process is that you are able to learn what your family loves and while shopping you are sure to include things that matter. It’s best to put the facts down so you won’t need to strain your brain trying to remember. Note that you could include foods like rice, oatmeal, beans, and powdered milk, which are categorized as staples and relatively inexpensive.

Special dietary needs

Not all the foods you will include might serve every member of your family adequately as some people have special dietary requirements, maybe because of health complications or based on the prescriptions issued that they should follow. If there is a person in the family who requires special foods you should also look for choices that will suit them and last a long period of time. While looking for these foods consider nutrient content and ease of storage as you might have to store for a long period of time. Stores like My Patriot Supply offer you a wide selection that you can use as your reference when you want to buy the right foods for emergency.

Invest wisely

Buying emergency food is investing your money and for this reason you need to be wise. Don’t break the budget trying to build a food supply when you can trim the budget by including affordable varieties. Most warehouses offer coupons and while buying you should give priority to ones that allow you to enjoy these coupon offerings. Call ahead to confirm if they are willing to offer you a one-day shopping pass and you might be lucky to walk away with a huge discount on all purchases.

Safety and sanitation

Foods that are stored under refrigeration can turn unsafe in the absence of electricity. You should be careful not to allow bacteria to grow at a rapid rate, so if you have foods that are stored under refrigeration the temperatures should never reach 40 degrees Celsius. Store your food in covered containers and make sure all cooking and eating utensils are cleaned before using. Any food that comes with contaminated substances should be discarded safely immediately as continued storage might spread the contamination to other safe food, hence widening the loss basket.