There are lots of different food storage companies out there. How do you compare the food storage options apples to apples?

I recently overheard a friend say that it didn’t matter where you got your food storage – it was all the same. Wow! I didn’t say anything at the time but I have to respectively disagree. We’ve collected a few tips that you can use but also collected some tips that food storage companies use to try and trick people when comparing food storage supply kits.

Calories per day
One of the best ways to compare food storage is by comparing how nutritious your food storage is. After all, that’s the whole point of food storage – keeping you healthy and running in a stitch. The average person needs between 1,300 and 2,400 calories per day to maintain health. Children usually need between 1,000 – 2,000 calories per day.

If a company doesn’t advertise how many calories are in their food storage items, it’s probably because it’s not very flattering. You’ll also see companies make it very difficulty to find nutritional information about products on their websites. We have seen a variety of companies that sell kits with calorie counts as low as 500 calories per day! That’s the equivalent of eating a single Big Mac from McDonalds for your one meal a day!

Variety
Other companies will try and stuff their long-term kits with filler calories like sugary drink mixes or crackers in order to bump up the calorie count. Be sure that you get a variety of foods in your kit so it will be worth eating when the time comes. Some products on the market only come with 10 meals. Imagine eating just those 10 meals over the course of a year – that would get old pretty quickly.

Dehydrated vs Freeze-dried
Many times, companies will compare a kit of dehydrated foods with a kit full of freeze-dried items. This is a little misleading.

Dehydrated items typically have a shelf-life of 10 – 20 years and they typically require some a longer cooking time (increased fuel requirements too).

Freeze-dried foods typically have a longer shelf-life of 20 – 30 years and require less cooking and fuel. Some are great straight from the can like our fruits and veggies.

Don’t be fooled when a company claims a better price when they’re really comparing apples and oranges.

The Ready Store offers dehydrated kits, freeze-dried kits, or mixes of both.

Food sources
Most companies are hesitant to share where their food is grown. Be sure that your food is coming from a reputable place and that the company isn’t cutting corners by purchasing food from cut-rate growers from locations of the world with bad track records of safety and quality.

Food packaging
Your food storage will typically come in three different types of packaging:  pouches, #10 cans, or buckets.

Mylar pouches. Most meals inside of a mylar bag pouch will last 15 – 25 years.

#10 cans. Food inside of #10 cans will typically have a shelf-life of 10 – 30 years depending on whether the food is dehydrated or freeze-dried. Make sure that your cans are sealed correctly. Read our post about what to look for with #10 can sealings.

Buckets. When purchasing a bucket of food storage, your best option is to have the food come inside of an air-tight bucket with a Mylar bag inside that bucket.

Oxygen absorbers. It’s important to have an oxygen absorber inside of your bag or can. Make sure that the absorber is high quality and will help preserve your food. Some companies advertise that they will flush the food with nitrogen before they package it. An oxygen absorber will work better.

What the nitrogen flushing companies aren’t telling you is that they include an oxygen absorber because in the end that is what works best. Companies, like Oregon Freeze Dry – parent company of Mountain House, that have been in the business for almost ½ a century, have dropped nitrogen flushing altogether for 02 absorbers because they get the job done.

Shipping & additional costs
While many companies have comparable prices, don’t forget about the shipping costs. They need to be added into your overall purchase price. Some companies require tax to be paid on all orders. With The Ready Store, only customers from the Beehive State are required to pay sales tax.

Bad Apples: What NOT to look for when comparing food storage

While there are many things that you should look for in a food storage supply, there are also many things you don’t need to worry yourself about. Here are a few examples:

Number of cans
The number of cans in a food storage kit can be misleading. How much do they fill each can? What are the cans full of?

If you’re getting as much nutrition and food out of less cans, then you’re not losing anything besides storage space.

Saratoga Farms fills their cans and buckets, on average, 20-30 percent more than other competitor’s brands. This saves you precious storage space.

Servings
A lot of companies that skimp on the amount of food in their kits will typically highlight their serving count instead (like we mentioned above). Even when you’re comparing serving counts, be careful. Some servings vary by size (1 cup vs ⅓ cup) or preparation (dry serving vs prepared serving).

Weight of the kit
Freeze-dried foods weigh considerably less than dehydrated foods. A kit that has a lot of dehydrated foods will weigh more but have a shorter shelf-life.

More than anything, supply kit weight should only be considered when determining shipping costs. However, not all companies charge by weight.

What questions do you  have?
We try really hard to provide you with a quality product that you and your family will enjoy. We also want to help you understand your purchase and be as transparent as possible. If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll try and answer it!

We also want to know your tips! Share below what things you have found helpful when comparing food storage supply kits.

Summer heat is upon us and it’s important to stay cool. With heat waves rolling across the United States, it’s essential to not get overheated and dehydrated. Many deaths have even been connected to power outages during the heat wave.

These tips will help you and your family stay safe in a power outage situation but might also help you save some money during the summer months.

Close Your Windows. Your first instinct might be to open your windows but often this will make your home hotter instead of cooler. Close your windows, blinds and shades during the day to keep the sun and heat out and trapping the cool in. Open your windows at night if it gets cooler outside.

Eat Cold Foods. Keep your body temperature down by consuming colder foods that will lower the temperature inside of you. This will also prevent you from using stoves and ovens that will raise the temperature in your house.

Install Attic Insulation. This is a great way to keep that cool air in your home and not escaping through the ceiling. This will allow you to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Plant Trees Strategically. Everyone loves sitting in the cool shade on a nice hot day. Where you plant your trees can have a large effect on where that shade is. Be sure to plant deciduous trees on the east and west sides of your home. During the winter, the sun won’t be blocked from getting to your home. You can also plant trees near sides of your house that have a lot of windows.

- Stay prepared with enough emergency water for your family -

Install Awnings. Just like a tree works to block the sun’s rays and provide you with shade, an awning can do the same thing.

Wear Light-Colored, Loose-Fitting Clothing. This will keep your body cool and breezy. Wearing dark or black clothing will absorb the sun and make you hotter. Wear light colors like white and tan.

Food and Refrigeration. If the power goes out for an extended amount of time, the food in your fridge might begin to go bad. You can use a cooler with ice to keep perishable foods good. You should also begin to eat the foods that won’t keep. If you have freeze-dried foods, you don’t need to worry, they won’t spoil!

Avoid Alcohol. To prevent dehydration, avoid drinking alcoholic drinks. Instead, stick to the water bottles and juices.

Drink Water. To avoid dehydration, continue to drink water. It’s recommended that you have about eight glasses of water per day.

Stay Out Of The Sun. This seems pretty intuitive but, to avoid the heat stay out of the sun!

What Ideas Do You Have? What methods have you used to stay cool during this heat wave?

A few years ago we set out on a quest to provide our customers with a high-quality egg product for their food storage pantries.

You’ll remember the powdered eggs that your grandma would serve up – disgusting! And while other companies tried to serve these on a silver platter – we couldn’t do that. Our motto here is that “If it’s not good enough for our family, it’s not good enough for you!” And we stuck by that.

- The 10 Mistakes of Raising Chickens - 

OvaEasy Egg Crystals
After years of searching, we finally found an egg product for your food storage that we really believe in. OvaEasy Egg Crystals taste like a real egg, have an long shelf-life, and prepare like a typical egg.

They are made from 100 percent all-natural, pure whole eggs. The eggs are made with a revolutionary new technology that keeps the nutrition of fresh eggs! You can use them like you would any other farm-fresh egg! They can be used in recipes or just eaten as a scrambled egg.

7 year shelf-life
According to the American Egg Board, “Plain whole egg solids [powdered egg] have a shelf life of about one month at room temperature and about a year at refrigerated temperatures.” That means that while other companies say they have a long shelf-life, powdered eggs have only been shown to only have a one year shelf-life.

However, OvaEasy Egg Crystals have a shelf-life of 7 years! And since Nutriom, the makers of Ova Easy, are military suppliers, they used the U.S. Army Labs shelf-life tests to prove it!

This photo shows how Ova Easy eggs compared to powdered eggs in an accelerated shelf-life test. After only a year and a half, the typical powdered eggs look more like stuffing than eggs. I wouldn’t recommend eating that!

- How do you compare food storage apples to apples? -

More nutrition than powdered eggs
In fact, the browning effect on the powdered eggs is due to chemical reactions that are degrading the nutritional value of the proteins in the egg powder.

However, OvaEasy Egg Crystals keep their protein nutritional value. And that’s what food storage is all about, right? You want a product that will keep you healthy and full.

Eggs that taste like eggs
The best part about OvaEasy Egg Crystals is that they taste like real eggs. They don’t have that powdery taste that you’ve had to bare eat in the past.

Take a look at a review that King5 in Seattle did. They tested OvaEasy Eggs in a restaurant to compare it to other eggs and everyone was surprised at how good they tasted.

What do you think?
Have you tried OvaEasy Eggs? Get a pouch size bag to test out and see what you think! We’d love to hear if you like them.

You might also be interested in:
How to Make Your Own Chicken Coop
12 Onion Uses That Will Make You Cry (For Joy)
10 Uses of Salt You’ve Never Used

What is a READYpack? These 6-can collections are a great way to test out new products while still getting the bulk savings!

READYpacks are collections of 6-can food storage items that are typically bundled with like items. So for example, the Gourmet Vegetable READYpack includes 1 can of Diced Broccoli Florets, 2 cans of Potato Chunks, 1 can of Zucchini Slices, Cauliflower Pearls and Asparagus.

If you were to purchase all of these items separately, you’d pay a little more than $116. However, if you purchased them together in the READYpack, you’d save $11!

We have a wide variety of READYpacks including collections of fruits, vegetables, just-add-water meals, meats, dairy products, breakfasts and more!

You can typically save 8 – 10 percent when purchasing READYpacks instead of cans individually.

Take a look at some of our selection of READYpacks here.

If you have any questions, please let us know! We’ll try and answer the question as quickly as possible!

While many of us are excited for the hot weather of summer, others are worried about another type of heat: Wildfires!

Groups like the Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams, based in Portland, Ore., spend weeks on end camping out fighting wildfires across the coast.

And while fighting fires to protect our communities, who do the Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams depend on? The Ready Store!

We were so excited to receive this letter last week from Kevin Hawke, Engine Boss and Emergency Medical Technician for the WWST.

“Dear The Ready Store,

On behalf of Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams from Portland, Oregon, I would like to extend a big “thank you!” for providing us with such great products for our busy fire seasons.

While out fighting forest fires all summer my engine crew is often “spike camped,” which means we must stay out in the woods for several weeks at a time, and we are in charge of our own food and water supply. Proper nutrition is vital while working 20 hour shifts, and we appreciate an easily prepared hot meal to keep us going strong.

The MRE’s, #10 cans, and freeze-dried food pouches store perfectly in our engine compartments, and can withstand the bumpy conditions of our engines driving up and over bumpy logging roads all day.

While covered from head to toe with black ash, and nodding off from exhaustion, the last thing I want to think about is how to prepare food for up to 16 firefighters. The MRE’s, the freeze-dried food in #10 cans, and the pouches are considered delicacies out there compared to the “food” we are given by the commanding agency.

We also have a few vegetarians in our company, so we appreciate the vegetarian options available.

We will continue to use The Ready Store exclusively as our food and water supplier!

Once again we extend a big THANK YOU, and we will continue to use your products while we are protecting life, property, and the environment. Have a great day!“

Kevin Hawke
Engine Boss & Emergency Medical Technician
Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams

Thank you Kevin for protecting us! We hope to continue making good products that your strike team will enjoy!

If you’d like to send us an e-mail about our products, you can e-mail customerservice@readystore.com. You can also review a specific product by clicking on “Add Your Review” next to the product photo after logging into your account.

You can also receive 50 ReadyRewards points for each review you do! (Limit 10 reviews per day.)

We often get questions about the manufacture dates printed on our #10 cans.

Cans of food.
Previously, The Ready Store placed a Julian calendar date on our #10 cans, however, we have recently simplified the everything by printing new, easy-to-read manufacturer dates!

MREs.
Meals-Ready-to-Eat are primarily used by the United States military, which uses a Julian calendar. Click on this link to see how MRE manufacture dates are figured.

Expiration Dates
Many times, people will ask us “Why don’t you just put an expiration date on the can?” The reason is because the expiration date depends on your storage environment. Ideally, you would store the food in an environment with temperatures between 60-75 °F.

Manufacture Dates
The Ready Store is in the process of changing the way we label our cans. While we previously listed a Julian Calendar date, we will now be labeling our #10 cans with easy-to-read dates!

MREs, which are manufactured by the same companies who provides MREs to the military, will continue to use the Julian Calendar system and we have no ability to influence a change. You can learn more about decoding the MRE manufacture dates here.

Julian Calendar
We realize that many people will have food they purchased in their food storage pantry with the julian date stamps. So, we thought it would be important to highlight how you can figure out the numbers date based on the Julian Calendar.

The Julian Calendar has been around for centuries. In our day, it is widely used on a wide variety of manufactured products as a standard means of dating. It is also used by parts of the military and as an astrological measurement. The Julian Calendar is basically a continuous count of days starting January 1, 4713 BC.

The Ready Store used a modified version of the Julian Calendar. Let me show you some examples:

So in the first example, you can see that the Julian date is 10229. This means that the product was manufactured in 2010 on the 229th day of the year.

In the second example, the Julian date is 11067. This option includes a bath reference number and a product code. The Julian code will show that 11067 was manufactured on March 8, 2011.

The third example highlights the Julian date a little more. It puts a dash between the batch reference number and the Julian code. 11143 would translate to May 23, 2011.

The last example is what shows on the label of some Saratoga Farms cans. It shows the Julian date in red. That day would translate to the 289th day of 2012 – or October 15, 2012.

Print Out
We’ve also prepared a printable sheet that you can keep with your food storage documents in order to reference the dates in case of an emergency or power outage.

Click here to view the PDF.

You might have noticed while shopping for food storage that you have come across cans of meat TVP and others without the TVP distinction. For example, Saratoga Farms offers a Freeze-dried Ground Beef but they also offer a Beef Crumble TVP. What’s the difference?

What is TVP?
TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein. Basically, TVP is high-fiber, high-protein meat substitute. It’s made from soy flour after the soybean oil has been extracted. It is cooked under pressure and dried. You might have also seen TVP being called Textured Soy Flour (TSF).

Another major difference is that TVP is dehydrated instead of freeze-dried. So, when you prepare the TVP you will need to cook it for a bit before it’s ready to eat.

Uses of TVP
You’re probably more familiar with TVP than you realize. TVP is used on a wide scale at restaurants and in public schools. The TVP is rehydrated and has a great shelf-life, so many companies use it for the benefit of storage and shipping.

You’ve probably seen TVP on pizza toppings, as bacon bits, in sloppy joes and more!

Benefits of TVP
TVP is more affordable. Since cuts of meat can be pretty expensive, this is a great substitute that doesn’t lack for taste. You get the similar taste for less price.

It’s easy to prepare. All you have to do is add water to the TVP, simmer it for a few minutes and it’s ready to use in your family’s favorite recipes. You can also substitute it in meals by just adding a bit more water and letting it simmer for a few minutes longer.

Substitute for diets. TVP is a great substitute for vegetarians or people on a Kosher diet.

Would you rather have meat?
Higher level of protein. While TVP is a great substitute for protein, if you compare a cup of TVP to a cup of meat, the regular freeze-dried meat will have more protein in it.

Less sodium. Since salt and other flavoring is added to the TVP to make it taste good, more often than not they have higher sodium levels.

Less soy. TVP will have higher soy levels than meat. If you are on a low-soy diet or want to avoid soy, meats will be a better choice.

Everyone knows that you just need to add water to a freeze-dried meal to prepare it! However, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that your freeze-dried meals turn out perfect every time!

I’ve had many opportunities to prepare freeze-dried foods and meals. And throughout the years, I’ve collected a few pointers on preparation. Here they are:

Shake the can
Yes, that’s right! Step No. 1 is to shake the can.

You’ll want to mix all the contents in the can to ensure that they are mixed evenly. Sometimes powders can settle on the bottom of the can while broader contents (like noodles) will stay at the top. To ensure that you have enough flavoring on your food, shake the can before you open it.

When you’re shaking, don’t go crazy, you don’t to open your can to find that you’ve smashed all the contents inside.

Add water little by little
On the side of the can, you’ll find preparation instructions. This will give you a ratio of water and mix. So, for example, the label in the picture explains that you’ll need 1 cup of water and ½ cup of dry mix.

If you’re preparing all of the can’s contents at the same time, you can just add the required water that you need. I’ve noticed that many times stirring and mixing the food is easier as you add water little by little.

Add a little water, stir that in and then add a little more water. This will allow you to fine-tune your meal to your desired consistency! It will also make mixing a lot easier!

Put a lid on
When creating a hot dish, you’ll want to use boiling, or near boiling water. I’ve noticed that the food will reconstitute faster if there is a lid on the bowl or mixing cup. This will trap in the moisture and keep heat rotating inside your bowl.

When you put a lid on the food, it reconstitutes faster and more fully.

Your recommendations?
What have you found? What pointers would you give others on the best way to prepare freeze-dried foods?

Are you a last-minute shopper? Do you still not know what to get that special someone? Well, you’ve come to the right place this Valentine’s Day! (Seriously though? It’s Valentine’s Day morning. I’m sure they’ve realized you’re not ready yet. You need to plan better next year…)

The Ready Store has all the romantic items that you’ll need to make this day something special. Choose from the classic V-Day gifts like the following:

Chocolates
Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be complete without a supply of rich, wonderful chocolates. Of course you can always buy them Saratoga Farms Chocolate Instant Breakfast mix. What says “I love you” more than 20% of their daily Dietary Fiber, 130 calories per serving, and 50% of their daily Vitamin C.

You can also consider some Saratoga Farms Instant Premium Hot Cocoa Mix or an MRE Fudge Brownie!

Strawberries
Freeze-dried strawberries are a favorite snack in our office. (No, I’m not hinting at anything … unless you want to.) This #10 can will allow you and your loved one to share over a pound of strawberry slices after a romantic meal. Plus, these heart-shaped fruits are aphrodisiacs.

Flowers Flours
Guys, don’t forget to get your wife a nice set of flowers. Woops, I mean flours.

Why not get your loved one a set of flours that lasts for 20 years or more. While a bouquet of flowers will last a few days, Saratoga Farm’s flours will last for a couple decades. This is the Valentine’s Day gift that will continue to show your love for a long time to come.

Consider Whole Wheat Flour, White Flour, or Peanut Flour for your Valentine’s Day gift.

And now a Valentine’s Day video:
(The commercial isn’t loading lately but the video will play after a short wait;)

Freeze-drying has been around for decades as a reliable source of food preservation. In a nut shell, the material is subjected to very low pressures that extract up to 98 percent of the water from the food. This allows for very long shelf-life – many times 30 years or more.

What is it?
Freeze-drying, also known as lyophilisation, is a dehydration process that extracts the majority of water out of a meal or food. The items are prepared and then placed on racks and placed inside the freeze-drying machine.

The machine subjects the food to a quick physical change – it is not a chemical process. The water in the food is quickly changed from a solid state to a gaseous state, skipping the liquid state.

Origins
Most consider Clarence Frank Birdseye II to be the father of the freeze-drying process (Sounds like a fake name, I know, but it’s true!). He started creating the freeze-drying process in the early 1900s.

The freeze-drying process really took off during WWII as a way to transport serums and other medical supplies. Doctors found that medicines that required refrigeration were spoiling by the time they were transported to other parts of the world. The freeze-dried process was invented and allowed for materials to retain their chemical properties and drastically increasing the shelf-life.

In a short matter of time, the process was adopted for other areas including food preservation.

Freeze-drying process
The process is typically broken down into four stages:

1. Pretreatment. Sometimes items need to be prepared before the process. There are professionals that spend days and hours making sure that the physical and chemical components of the food will be the same after the process.

Sometimes the pretreatment process can include making the food more concentrated, increasing the surface area or adding components to increase the food’s stability during the process.

This stage of the process is not always used. However, this stage is in place to ensure that your food will return to its original taste, texture, and physical state.

2. Freezing. This is probably the most important step in the process. If this is not done correctly, the food will spoil.

In mass quantities, the food is typically placed on sheets and put inside the freeze-drying machine. The food is then quickly cooled to freezing temperatures between -58 to -112 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the process is done too slowly, crystals will form on the food and destroy the food’s texture and nutritional value.

3. Primary drying. Now that the food has been brought to a very cold temperature, and heat is added to bring the frozen moisture to a gaseous state. This is typically done in a partial vacuum to speed up the process.

Sometimes this process can take a few days. If too much heat is added to quickly, it could ruin the structure of the food.

4. Secondary drying. Sometimes, even after the primary drying stage, the food can still have moisture in it. The secondary drying stage tries to remove the unfrozen water molecules. Even thought this stage isn’t always necessary, the food is brought to a higher temperature (sometimes above 32 F).

This ensures that by the end of the four stages the food typically has 1 – 4 percent of its original water levels.

Sealing
The freeze-dried food is typically stored in #10 cans or pouches to ensure that moisture doesn’t enter back in to the food. There are a lot of factors to help freeze-dried food maintain a 20-30 year shelf-life. Read our article about some of those factors.

Conclusion
Freeze-drying is a great way to preserve food that has been tested and proven. The freeze-drying process causes less damage to foods then other dehyrdration methods that use higher temperatures.

Freeze-drying is a great, reliable method to create food storage that lasts for 30 years or more.