Why food rotation matters...

I can tell you that 20 year old cans of sardines have the consistency of fishy smelling snot

 

But how do they taste?

 

I'M STILL HERE! Alive and kicking! I'm gonna try the canned chicken next.

 

How did you know I did a finger tip sampling As expected they taste like oily fishky flavored snot

 

I can tell you I would never want to experience that first hand.

 

Unless actually starving to death...

 

I have about twenty cases army rations that are at least twenty five years old that are bad I imagine. They have not started smelling yet. I probably need to haul them off to the dump but need to go thru them first,I would hate to throw away good food. They have early 90’s dates on them.

 

We use that down here as coon bait or coyotes.....

 

Amen, brudda. The biggest mistake folks make is not paying attention to temperature when storing food. Only thing I have in my garage are mechanical goods, candles (liquid), propane, and my Faraday cage with electronics. Food should be stored in a basement or somewhere climate controlled.

Also, before you buy ANY supplies, make sure you buy a few samples and try them out. Lots of sub-standard makers out there, and folks who use meat substitute and have poorly made supplies. They are betting that you'll buy it and put it on the shelf without tasting the stuff.

I have a lot of freeze dried supplies that I experiment with periodically, making sure that we have recipes to use. The next step is to buy my own freeze drier. They are pricey, but I can use a lot of freeze dried stuff in the summer at our cabin.

 

Depends on how you've stored them. If at 65-70 degrees or below, they might be OK. However, if you've stored them in a non-climate controlled space like a garage, chances are they were bad 1-2 yrs into storage.

I've eaten MRE's that were properly stored at 20 yrs. Likewise, when I was a pup, we ate C-rats that were Korean and Vietnam war vintage and they were OK.

 

Another Zombie land thread on Beans and Rice - lots of good give and take.
Adventures in rice, beans and bulk dry milk storage - Zombie Squad

One of the boarde members (A Vet) added this
Here's anther angle on the daily raw rice calculation and reasoning.

If 1/2 cup of cooked long grain rice equals 80 calories and we want to have enough energy to be able to move outside, set/retrieve traps, fish, cut wood, fight zombies, etc. We'll need a minimum of 1200 calories a day. Probably more toward 2500. Rice/Beans may well be the least expensive long term storable food stuff. According to the 'new' balanced diet pyramid*, grains should be 20% of your caloric intake. 1200 X 20% = 240 calories or 1 1/2 cups cooked rice per day per person which could be served in three 1/2 cup servings per day.

So calculate purchases and storage based on using 1/2 cup raw rice per day per person. Which = 1 1/2 cups cooked. or 3 cups cooked if you need 2500 cal/day [unless supplementing another grain]

8 bags hold 14 cups/bag = 50lb bag therefore there are 112 cups in a 50lb bag. With that in mind we get 224 days of rice per 50lb bag for one person. According to the 'new' pyramid*, beans can take the place of meats, which meats and beans should equal 20% of your daily caloric intake also or 240 cal. just need another 720 calories in fruits, veggies, and milk/cheese and that's that.

AND

For each 50 pound bag of rice, you should have 50 pounds (more or less) of died beans. This will give you around 224 days of food (beans and rice) per person per 100 pounds of dried product.

Calories count would be
218 calories in 1 cup of Black Beans
240 calories in 1.5 cups cooked rice
458 calories/day and that is well short of a balanced diet or even a 'survival' level of nutrition.
(ETA this also lack other nutrients. In my recent 100 lb weight loss adventure, I went with 500 K/day or less for 3 or 4 days a week. It was a mix od yogurt, greens, cottage cheese, tuna, chicken and so on in limited amounts. I survived and lost a lot of weight over 5 months, which was the plan. So, the bean and rice could be an 'extender' for other, high calories items in your pantry.)

1.5 oz of peanut butter (250 Cal) and 2 Sailor Boy biscuits (200 cal) adds 450 calories, so now you have
908 calories.

So, lets add a breakfast of 1 cup of oatmeal (300), 1.5 oz of raisins (90) a couple of CoffeeMates (30) and a packet of sugar (15) is 435 calories and pretty filling. Whole milk would be better.
That brings us up to 1343 calories/day and now you are no longer staving to death.

Add a slice (4 oz) of SPAM! @ 250 calories to your beans and rice at dinner and you now have -
1593 calories per day.

This exercise is well worth the time to take in menu planning for your storage food.

1 cup of whole wheat flour gives you 407 calories
1 cup Wheat Flour, White, All-purpose, Enriched, Bleached is 455 calories...and on and on.

 

@DKR you make some good points here and it depends on how you are eating the grains you store.

if you just soak and cook your beans and grains you get some nutritional value out of them... if you sprout them you get more nutritional value plus the phytonutrients the body needs.

So as a different perspective i would rather store grains i can sprout and store fat for added dense calories. Spam is a good one for having lots of fat as mentioned above in DKR's post, but also oils, and crisco, which i know isn't fashionable right now, but crisco stores pretty well if you keep it in an even temperature environment.

you do have to rotate grains because they dont all sprout after1 -2 years. Sprouting is a good way to test viability of your seeds. I just have a little different twist on grains and storeage... I still think they are important but i dont store much rice anymore, i do store a variety of legumes and seeds... sunflower seeds in particular as they are highly nutritious sprouted and highly prolific .... one seed gives you thousands of more seeds. Its a win win. For gardening and eating.

I dont have the fat storage mastered because everything goes rancid in the heat. So its someting to keep exploring

 

sunflowers do produce massive amounts of seed. Even a few plants will provide pounds of sprouts.

 

Wheatgrass is the freshly sprouted first leaves of the common wheat plant, used as a food, drink, or dietary supplement
(Wheatgrass - Wikipedia)
Wheatgrass is a source of potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E (alpha tocopherol), vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium. Wheatgrass is also a source of protein (less than one gram per 28 grams).

Alfalfa sprouts: (Alfalfa - Benefits, Nutrition Facts & Side Effects)
...they are typically high in vitamin K and also contain many other nutrients, including vitamin C, copper, manganese and folate.

Mung bean sprouts (Mung bean sprout - Wikipedia)

Black bean sprouts - Nutrition Facts for Sprouts Black Beans. Calories, carbs, fat, sugar, protein & more.

you get the idea. Sprouts add the missing micro nutrients lost in processed food.

 

1 SEPT 2020

SHELF LIFE...PEANUT BUTTER, SMUCKER’S NATURAL CREAMY in a glass jar, 6 years


27 AUGUST 2020….OPENED A JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER with a “BEST IF USED BY:” date of DEC 6,2015

OVER 4.5 YEARS PAST THE “BEST IF USED BY:” date

that is 2 years after they make it

the last jar I opened had the same date

TOOK A FEW MINUTES TO MIX THE OIL ON THE SURFACE BACK INTO THE PEANUT BUTTER

IT SMELLED GOOD,

IT TASTED GOOD,

IT IS GREAT

a 16 oz. Jar, 454 g, has 14 servings of 2 Tbsp (32g) with 8 g of protein

ONE OF THE BEST PROTEIN FOR LONG TERM STORAGE

RECAP

PEANUT BUTTER IN A PLASTIC JAR WOULD BE RANCID BY NOW

(ANYTHING IN A PLASTIC CONTAINER WILL HAVE SHORTER SHELF LIFE THAN A GLASS CONTAINER.)

 

it is all about the O2. Keep that out and you have a fighting chance to keep oil longer

 

I rotate food...FIFO. we keep track of food shelf life and try to minimise waste. Fruit and vege no longer edible goes to the worm farm.