I’ve been asked by many people “With no MRE Flameless Heater, how will I be able to heat my meal?“  You would be amazed to know the different ways people have heated up there entree’s. In our blog post “What is an MRE heater and how does it work?“, we had a comment from Vince.  He wrote “When I was in the Army we used to heat them up on the block of the old jeep motor (pre-hummer)” and that is a great way to heat up your meal if you’re dealing with a Grab-n-Go™ situation. But if you were dealing with a situation that you would be based in one location or as we call it a Shelter-in-Place™ situation, then the most common way to heat up a MRE is with a pot of hot water.

The only items that you would need are the following:

• Pot/Pan/Kettle.
• Heat Source. (Ideas: you can use your BBQ grill, fire place, camp fire, or a emergency cooking system)
• Water.
• Fuel Source.

For this post I’m using a portable electric hot plate and I took a basic pan & added enough water to fill it up 1/2 way. (see figure 1)

I waited for a medium to high boil till I added the MRE’s to the Hot Water.    (see figure 2)

The MRE will start to absorb the heat from the hot water due to the aluminum pouches ability to transfer the heat easily.    (see figure 3a)

With the MRE Ultimate Self-Heating Full Meal you will receive a side with your full meal and in this demonstration I had Spiced Cinnamon Apples and I added it to the water to heat up the side.    (see figure 3b)

Once you have the MRE Entree and side in the water for around 5 min then I rotated the meal to make sure that it will be heated throughout the meal. (see figure 4)

Once you allowed it to heat, you will need to remove the pot from the heat source. WARNING: Please be careful it is extremely hot, ideal to have an adult handle the last steps.

You can eat out of the MRE Entree pouch or if a plate/bowl  you can poor your re-heated content into it.     (see figure 5)

Bon Appétit!

<—-Figure 1

<—-Figure 2

<—-Figure 3a

<—-Figure 3b

<—-Figure 4

<—-Figure 5

Shellfish allergy is one of the most common food allergies. Shellfish include marine animals with shells, such as clams, lobster and shrimp, as well as octopus and squid. So if you know some one that suffers from a Shellfish allergy please forward this information to them & let them know that they have a source for shellfish free products.

There are basically 7 areas of concern when it comes to purifying water.  They are:

• Protozoa – Cryptosporidium & Giardia
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Parasites
• Particulate
• Chemicals
• Taste/Odor

When it comes to purifying water because of these risks you basically have three options.

Boiling – By boiling water you bring the temperature of the water to a high enough degree that it kills living bacteria and viruses.  This makes your water bacteriologically safe to drink.  One of the challenges with boiling water for water purification is the need for a heating source.

Chemical – If boiling is not an option, the next option is to use a chemical which will actually kill the bacteria.  A popular option is iodine, and you can get this in tablet form.  The challenge with iodine is that it has an after taste.  However there are options like Potable Aqua + PA Plus which removes the iodine after taste. If you’re on the move Iodine tablets are a great choice because a packet of iodine tablets are extremely light weight and easily transportable.

MSR has recently introduced a purifier which uses the same technology that is used in municipal water treatment plants.  The MSR Miox Purifier was developed in conjunction with the military.  Basically it creates a powerful dose of mixed oxidants (MIOX) which inactivates all viruses, bacteria, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium.  A little salt and some camera batteries and you’re good to go.

If you’re staying put and you have large amounts of stored water such as a water storage barrel; I would recommend bleach (which contains chlorine).  With a very little amount of bleach you can purify a large amount of water (1 teaspoon of bleach for every 10 gallons of water).

Filtration - Water filtration is a process where a mesh filter with miniscule holes allows the water to flow through but limits contaminates.  When selecting a water filter, to insure that it will pick up most major contaminates you want to be sure that the filter pore size is 0.2 or smaller.  This pore size will take care of everything but viruses.  There are packages likes the MSR Sweet Water Microfilter Purifier System which includes both a filtering and a purifying system and addresses all 7 contaminates.

So you’ve finally got your 30 gallon barrels and you’ve filled them with water.  What steps do you need to take so that when disaster hits you know that you can tap into your emergency supply of water and have confidence that the water is safe to drink?

The first thing you need to do is treat the water to insure that it’s safe to consume.  So what is the best method for treating your emergency water for long term storage?

I frequently see websites that recommend the use of a small amount of household bleach to treat your water.  And in a pinch it will do the job.

However, household bleach is an industrial-grade product that is not tested, approved, or recommended by the manufacturer for safe consumption in drinking water. When you look at ingredient lists and MSDS’s for cleaning chemicals, like household bleach, it’s worth remembering that they are not made for human consumption.  The numbers given are typically within tolerances and ingredients less than 1% do not have to be listed in most cases, but this doesn’t remove the fact that there is potential for unknown chemicals within the product. There could be other substances that are byproducts of the production process that are poisonous and could be potentially harmful found in household bleach.  If you’re in a true emergency situation, using household bleach would be better than using nothing, but it’s definitely not your best option.

Due to the potential risks that come from using common household bleach to treat your emergency water supply we recommend the use of Water Preserver™.   The number one reason for using this product over household bleach is that it has been specifically manufactured for human consumption.  In fact, water preserver is the only product registered and licensed by federal and state EPA and approved for this purpose.

Water Preserver is manufactured with high-purity ingredients using a proprietary process to produce a highly effective form of stabilized and pH-balanced Sodium hypochlorite. The product is safety-sealed and date-coded to insure purity and potency, and it’s guaranteed 100% effective.  It’s guaranteed to kill bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungus and will remain bacteriologically safe for drinking for 5 years.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also be interested in:

How to Clean, Prepare and Fill a Water Barrel

The Top 5 Priorities of Emergency Preparedness – Priority #4 – Clean Water

Tired of Rotating Your Water all the Time?  Me Too.

For those who do suffer from lactose intolerance, or know someone who is lactose intolerant, today is your lucky day.   I’ve put together a list of our  Dehydrated & Freeze-Dried products that are lactose free.

If you are not affected, or have never herd of lactose intolerance here is a simple definition:

Lactose Intolerance - is the inability to metabolize lactose, because of a lack of the required enzyme lactase in the digestive system.

I hope this list is helpful & please feel free to forward this to your friends or family and have them pass it along to anyone that is lactose intolerant, next weeks

Allergy & Specialty Part 4 -Pork Free Products.

Food in your pantry

This is the starting point for your food storage. Depending on your family size, having enough food to last you at least two weeks in your pantry is one of the most cost effective ways to have food stored. I came from a large family, so we had a large room where we stored many weeks worth of food. It worked great for the family because my mom rarely had to run to the grocery store in a hurry. She would use our storage room as her grocery store and then restock that when she went shopping. I strongly recommend having a well stocked pantry with food that you are eating and will eat.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you buy food that you’ll eat – I see people make the mistake of buying canned food at a case lot sale, but it is food they never want to eat. So even though the food was a great price, the food just sat in their pantry.
• Shelf life – This brings me to my next point of the shelf life of wet packed canned from you local grocery. The best rule of thumb is that your canned food will last at least 2 years. A lot of canned food will last much longer than that, maybe even up to 5 years. Foods that are high in acid content such as tomatoes and fruits will be closer to the 2 year range. If the canned food is past the expiration date, you should carefully inspect the food (the sniff test) and then make your best determination whether it is still safe to eat.

Once your pantry is stocked and you feel comfortable there, you need to consider more long term food storage products. These fall into three main categories:

1. Dry bulk food items

2. Dehydrated foods

3. Freeze-dried foods

Dry bulk food items

The items in this category include wheat, beans, rice, rolled oats, sugar and other staples. They are typically bulk packed in either cans or buckets. These items can be good to have around, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Preparation - It is difficult to turn these dry bulk food items items into something edible. If you are going to store food in this way, then you have to go all the way. You will need wheat grinders, lots of fuel (to cook these items into something edible) and additional ingredients to make the food usable. Just the fuel alone will be difficult to store and in the quantities you will need. So just remember, you have to go all in with this approach or you won’t be able to use it when you need it.

• Shelf life – Most of these items will store for a very long time. If stored properly, the wheat, beans, rice and oats will store for many, many years and probably many decades.

• Taste and Nutrition – These dry bulk storage foods typically will give you excellent nutrition. As for taste, that depends on what you can make out them. A pot of beans, doesn’t taste that great without some other ingredients added to it.

Dehydrated Food

This type of shelf stable food is processed using high heat. The high temperatures remove the moisture from the food which gives allows for the extended shelf life. The two things that really affect shelf life are moisture and oxygen. Here are few things to consider with dehydrated food:

• Shelf life – because of how the food is processed, the shelf life for most dehydrated items is 5-10 years. A few items might be a couple years longer and a few items might be a couple years shorter (such as dairy). So all that being said, dehydrated food is on the shorter end of the spectrum for long term shelf life.

• Taste and nutrition – again, because of how the food is processed using high heat, it actually damages the food and removes nutritional value as well as flavor. You will find with dehydrated food that it just won’t taste quite as good (sometimes it will taste awful!) and the food will look a little off.

• Preparation – most dehydrated food requires that you add and cook it. This requires fuel and a stove to be able to do so. It is easy to prepare, but it does take time. For example, dehydrated soup mixes will require cooking for up to 30 minutes. Over time that will use a lot of fuel.

Freeze-dried food

Freeze-dried food uses a unique process to make the food shelf stable. Rather than using high heat, it uses low heat in a vacuum chamber to slowly remove the moisture from the food. Because of how it is processed, the food retains nearly 100% of the natural nutrients, enzymes and taste. Freeze-dried food is my choice for long term food storage because it is the best in all three categories. Here are a few things to consider with freeze-dried food:

• Shelf life – freeze-dried food will give you the longest shelf life. You will get at least 25 years and more than likely much longer. I have heard of 40 year old freeze-dried food being tested and it has lost very little taste or nutritional value.

• Taste and Nutrition – This is another outstanding quality of freeze-dried food. It tastes like fresh food. The entrees, fruits and vegetables taste fresh and not processed. The flavor isn’t muted or dull. It will also retain the same texture, color and look of the fresh food. Because it is processed in low heat, the food retains 99% of all the fresh vitamins, nutrients and enzymes of the fresh food. This food tastes so good that I eat it regularly for my lunches and I know many other people that do the same.

• Preparation – again, another exceptional quality of freeze-dried food is how easy the preparation is. This food is designed for just add water simplicity. All you have to do is add hot water, stir and wait about 5 minutes and you have a meal. Because of that, your fuel costs are very low and you don’t have to spend valuable time in the preparation.

Remember with food storage that the most important thing is to start. But, I want to make sure you are spending your hard earned money on a product that you will use and will last.

]]> http://www.thereadystore.com/blog/1165/freezedried-dehydrated/feed/