How Much Food Storage Do You Really Have?
For those of you who have food storage, do you really know how long it would last if your family had to live off of it? You might be surprised when you find out you don’t have as much as you think you have. I sure was.
Well, just the other day, a friend of mine pointed out a great online resource that helps you to figure that out. The Food Storage Analyzer — provided by Emergency Essentials — helps to calculate just how long your food storage would last based on the caloric requirements that are given by USRDA guidelines (according to sex and age). It also calculates the current nutrition levels of your food supply helping you to understand what nutrients are lacking.
I decided to go through this exercise to determine how much I really had. Here’s the process:
Enter the Number of People and their Ages
Enter your Food Storage
What’s great about this process is that you can create custom foods that may not be on this list if required.
Calculate your Final Results
I was quite surprised to see that I had didn’t have a full years supply. With 235 days of storage for my family of three I am 4 months shy of one years worth. Fortunately this calculation doesn’t include my 3-month supply (if that is calculated correctly) so with that I have close to one year total.
Another eye-opening point taken from the nutrition chart was the low amount of protein in my stored food — I don’t have any meat stored away. While meats can be purchased freeze dried for long-term food storage it is very expensive so I hope to supplement this with hunting.
Looks like it’s time to purchase more food…:)
If you’d like to get started with your own food & water storage but don’t know where to begin, be sure to check out my Getting Started with Food Storage series. It gives you a step by step process to get you going. Check it out!
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I am still new to this, but Wal-Mart has the huge tins of teanuts or honey roasted peanuts for around $4.80. Since you’re in England this would be different I don’t know about 1 pound per cup of peanuts. Don’t buy the regular spam though (SO salty!!) I’ve been messing around with salmon and tuna and have found some ways to eat it that I like). Salmon is also inexpensive and has the Omega 3 & 6 oils in it.
Hey James,
First off thanks for visiting. No matter how much experience you have, your comments and suggestions are always welcome here!
Walmart is a great place for cheap somewhat-longterm food storage.
Btw, I live in New England not England so we share similar prices, but you’re right peanuts (and peanut butter) are excellent sources of protein and fats.
Keep the comments coming!
Great site.
I’ve given this calculator a couple of shots and end up getting distracted somewhere along the way. Reading your review, I might have to give it another shot. I’d love to know how many days I DO have….since I’m sure I’m short on the year mark. I really like the calculation about the protein too.
The Survival Mama
Yeah the calculator helps to keep things honest. It was an eye opener for me.
The Emergency Essentials food storage calculator was a real eye opener. We added many foods based upon nutritional content. The real surprise was the lack of fat in our food storage. We ended going to Wal-Mart and purchasing storable lard at room temperature.
Thanks for the comments William. I’m glad it was helpful.
any oil stored at room temp, will go ransid. The most stable oil I know of is Crisco. It has a great shelf life. Oil is a real problem. I think the pioneers got oil from the pigs they butchered in the fall. During ww2, I understand, as oils were turned in to make explosives, the lack of oil was a problem, for the duration of the war.