The price of food has gotten ridiculous. And it’s not dropping any time soon. It’s time to take matters into your own hands. But how? We grow our own food or buy it in bulk, to store for the long term. So what foods can you store for long term survival? In this post you’ll get a list of healthy, tasty foods that are full of protein and nutrition. Foods great for storing in a food shortage, emergency or a natural disaster. You’ll also learn the 3 best ways to store food for long term survival so you can eat well, save money, sleep easy and get out in a hurry if you need to!

What foods can you store for long term survival?

There are two things that matter when it comes to what food you can store for long term survival. The type of food you store, and the food processing and storage method you use.

Once you read this article you’re going to know the best food for survival AND the best food for long term food storage. You’ll get a list of foods that meet both requirements.

What is the best food for survival?

The best types of foods to store for long term survival are those with high protein, high nutrition, low moisture content and high flavour. If you’re storing the food in your pantry or carrying it with you in a survival kit, you’ll also want it to be as lightweight and compact as possible.

So these are our 6 criteria for the best survival foods. The best types of survival food that meet these criteria are:

• beans
• grains
• legumes and superfoods (like chickpeas and quinoa)
• meat jerky
• protein powders
• mushrooms, kale, split peas
• banana, strawberries, apple
• Whole herbs, spices and seasonings.

With a well-rounded list of items from these categories you can make a delicious meal anywhere. All you need is a few simple cooking tools and some water.

They also make great ingredients for home-made ration packs or food rations.

So read on, to get the full list of foods, and their storage shelf life!

What is the best food storage for long term survival?

The 3 best methods to store food long term are (longest to shortest shelf-life):

1. Freeze drying and storing in mylar bags – 3 to 25 years
2. Dehydrating and storing in mylar bags – 3 months to 5 years
3. Canning / preserving in jars – 3 months to 1 year

Before we go through the pros and cons of each, let’s talk about about why storing foods long term is a smart idea.

5 stand-out benefits of storing foods long term

Why would you go to hassle of storing food for the long term? Especially when most of us can pop to the supermarket to get whatever we want, 7 days a week.

Here are the 5 stand-out reasons we do long term food storage:

1. Food security: 2021 showed us that food supply chains can be disrupted leaving supermarket shelves empty of your favourite foods. It’s worth being prepared for this.
2. Less waste: we grow food and there’s always too much in summer and not enough in winter. We don’t waste our spare produce. We store it.
3. Buy in bulk – save money: check out how we saved $140 just buying rice in bulk in 2021 to store long term using the methods in this article.
4. Avoid inflation – save money: you’re locking in today’s prices for food that gets more expensive each year. With inflation around 8%, the savings of buying in bulk last year and storying long term can pile up. Check out how much can you save in this food storage case study.
5. Home-made ration packs: you can put together your own healthy ration packs for camping, hiking, or to put in your survival kit. Store bought MREs (meals ready to go) and ration packs can be expensive! Use these in your Bug out Bag or INCH kit instead!
6. Packed, mobile and ready to go: in an emergency, like an immediate evacuation.

What are the best long-term food storage options?

Some of the ways humans have found to stop our food from going bad and to store it for ‘hard times’ are ingenious. From pickling and fermenting to curing and smoking, there’s a method for every taste.

But what if you’re thinking really long term? Like 5 years to 25 years. What are the best long term survival food storage options?

They’re the preserving methods that will keep your food safe from moisture, air, pests, and light.

The best principle to apply is ‘the less moisture and air, the longer the shelf life’.

The 3 methods that do this best, for really long term food storage are:

1. Freeze drying the food and storing in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, inside cans for pests
2. Dehydrating the food and storing it the same way
3. Canning or preserving the food and storing the jars / cans in a dark, cool place.

Freeze drying and storing in mylar bags

Food storage timeframe – 3 to 25 years, depending on moisture content of the food

This is the best option for long term survival as it preserves low-moisture food for decades. Freeze drying is a process that snap freezes and dries food at the same time.

Typically, freeze drying food removes 96% to 99% of the moisture in it.

Freeze drying is the best way to make food last years to decades, while also keeping the nutrients in and chemical preservatives out. It also retains the flavour, colour and texture of your food.

The benefits of freeze drying food for long term storage:

• Food remains nutritious and last up to 30 years (some food).
• Many freeze dried foods (like eggs, cheese, butter, milk, teas and coffee) can also be powdered. This makes them super convenient to store, carry and use.
• A huge variety of whole food types can be freeze dried.
• You can buy most of these food type already freeze dried in bulk at organic food stores and wholesalers.
• You can buy ready-made freeze dried meals – like minestrone, mexican chilli beef, mushroom pasta. This takes the hassle out of meal prep. Especially if you don’t know what to do with dried foods to make them into a delicious meal.

The disadvantages of freeze drying food for long term storage:

• Freeze dryers are expensive if you want to process your own food. They only work out to be economical if you’re freeze drying food for large families.
• Ready-made freeze dried meals take a lot of processing. You can’t make them at home. Manufacturers do add flavour enhances, acidity regulators and thickeners to these meals.
• Taste! There is just nothing like a meal made from fresh ingredients. You can reconstitute 100% of the food in a meal. But it’s just not going to be the same as cooking fresh, if you know what we mean…

Always store your freeze dried food in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to get the maximum shelf life.

Mylar bags are airtight and keep out moisture and light. Oxygen absorbers remove the oxygen from the air inside the mylar bag, once it is sealed.

Together, mylar bags and oxygen absorbers eliminate the things that make your food spoil – air, light, moisture. They keep your food dry and safe to eat.

You really need to get the moisture content of the food to under 10% in the drying process, to store it long term (5 years +) in mylar bags. Not all food types can reach this point.

Have a read of our article on ‘How to store food with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers‘ to see what you can store in mylar bags, and how long it will last.

If you are worried about pests such as mice or rats, store the mylar bags in galvanized metal bins or cans, with lids.

Dehydrating food and storing in mylar bags

Food storage timeframe – 3 months to 5 years, depending on moisture content of the food

Dehydrating food is a good option for long term survival as it also removes moisture from food, making it less susceptible to spoilage.

Dehydrating food is not as effective at taking the moisture out as freeze drying. The moisture content is typically around 5 to 25%.

This means the food doesn’t last as long.

To get the longest life out of dehydrated food, store it the same way you do freeze dried food – in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.

If you haven’t used them before, mylar bags will cost around $100 (full set up cost).

The benefits of dehydrating food for long term storage:

• It’s everywhere in the supermarket. You likely already use it in your cooking – think mushrooms, dried apricots, lentils etc.
• The biggest benefit of this method is that you can do it at home, affordably.
• There are different ways to dehydrate. Like sun drying or air drying. Most people buy dehydrators (air dryers).
• You can eat the food dried. You don’t have to reconstitute it by adding boiling water (but you can). Things like jerky and fruit leathers are chewy, delicious morsels eaten ‘as is’.

The disadvantages of dehydrating food for long term storage:

• You don’t get the same long shelf life as freeze dried food.
• More of the nutrients are lost in processing.
• Dehydrated fruit may require conditioning – where moisture content is uneven in the fruit pieces after dehydrating. If you don’t condition the fruit, it become susceptible to mould.

Why canned foods are a good option for long term storage

Food storage timeframe – 3 months to 1 year, depending on food type

Preserving or canning is a process of adding liquid and other preserving ingredients to foods and using heat to store the food in an air-tight environment, inside jars or cans. You cut up food, add acids, and heat the storage jar to seal the food away from air.

Salt, vinegar. lemon and sugar are common canning ingredients. These can help prevent bacteria growing in your food.

Canning is a good option for long term survival, for the right types of foods.

Canning / preserving is best used for high acid foods, such as tomatoes, fruit and pickles. You can also use it for low acid foods, but you’ll need to can under pressure to make sure the oxygen is removed from the can or jar.

The advantage of canning / preserving is that:

• It’s a cheap way to store food medium term.
• You can do it at home, with regular kitchen equipment.
• A huge variety of foods can be canned / preserved – meats, vegetables, fruits, sauces, soups and stews.
• You can preserve already prepared foods – like meat – that you can’t freeze dry or dehydrate.
• There are plentiful shop bought options. Commercial canning lasts a lot longer than home canning does too!

The disadvantage of canning / preserving is that:

• Food poisoning – botulisum to be exact. The right acidity and the right heat are important in canning. If you don’t get the science right, it can make you pretty sick.
• It takes more time and effort (and mess) to process the food.
• You need to have the right equipment – canning pots, jars, lids.
• Sometimes canning fails – air gets in and the food grows mould. Your food goes to waste.
• It’s heavier, less compact and more difficult to lug around in an emergency or survival situation.

The best way to preserve food for long term survival is to use a combination of all three methods – freeze drying, canning / preserving and dehydrating. This will give you the most variety in your food storage, if SHTF.

Top 8 high protein foods with a long shelf life

Lucky that protein is critical for a healthy human. Because I love to eat meat. And we get our main proteins from lean meats. But meat is also difficult to store for really long periods. And many folks don’t eat it. So it’s a good idea to have high-protein alternatives in your long term food storage.

Here’s a list of high protein survival food with a long shelf life, that isn’t dominated by meat:

High protein survival foods

Don’t forget off-the-shelf protein powders!

These 8 long-life, high protein foods should feature in any survival food storage supply. They’re also great food options (properly stored) in a multi-day survival kit like a Bug out Bag. They’re excellent additions to any camping or hiking trip menu too!

24 healthy foods with a long shelf life

While meals ready to eat (MRE) are convenient, they can be full of salt and preservatives. We prefer to have a long term survival food store that keeps us healthy. You can get a balance of ready-made and whole foods with these healthy and tasty options:

Health foods with a long shelf life

By adding seasonings like like salt, pepper, paprika, and curry spices you can easily make healthy dishes like soups, stews, curries and pasta using these ingredients.

Conclusion

So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your long-term food storage plan today! With a little effort, you can have a pantry full of delicious, nutritious meals. Food for survival that will last for years and save you money in the process. You’ll also be better prepared for emergencies with this type of food ready in your cupboard. And don’t forget to pick a balance of ready made as well as high-protein foods and healthy options. Are you ready to take the plunge?

FAQs

What is the best food for survival?

The best food for survival shares these characteristics:

• Lightweight and compact – so you can carry them with you
• High protein – because survival requires stamina
• High nutrition – to keep you healthy
• Long lasting – so it won’t spoil.

Here is the 5 best food for survival with all 4 of these characteristics:

1. Dried Edamame
2. Beef jerky
3. Dried mushrooms of all varieties
4. Dried milk powder
5. Dried split peas

These 5 foods all have more than 20% protein, and can be stored for 3 years or more.

They won’t meet all the needs of a balanced diet, but they will keep you going longer than most other food types in a survival situation.

You can also combine them (except the milk powder!) into a tasty meal with just boiling water and some spices and seasoning!

What is the longest shelf life survival food?

The longest shelf life survival foods are beans and legumes, white rice, oats, pasta, instant coffee and freeze dried fruit and vegetables.

These items will all last 20 to 30 years if stored properly in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.

Salt, sugar and honey will last indefinitely and should also be on your long life survival food storage list.