Best Emergency Survival Food Kits, Emergency Meal Kits, and Emergency Food Options

In a disaster, survival or emergency situation, having access to adequate and reliable food supplies and nutrition is critical. In this guide we’ll take a look at the very best emergency survival food kits and and prepared meal solutions to see you and your family through any eventuality, wherever you are and whatever the budget.

From hiking in the wilderness to emergency and disaster preparedness at home or on the road, nutrition should always represent a key component in your strategy for maintaining all-round health and ensuring optimal performance during times of adversity.

Emergency meal kits and survival food systems represent an excellent way of ensuring that you have access to a continual and reliable source of energy in the form of calories while providing a holistic nutrition source as well as offering the powerful morale-boosting and psychological benefits of always having access to a good meal.

Whether you’re preparing for a global pandemic or stocking up for a prolonged period of uncertainty or unrest, creating an emergency meal kit solution in your home pantry is one of the critical foundations to minimizing disruption and maximizing resilience at home.

The best emergency meal kits and survival food solutions are lightweight, easily packed or stored (in a bag, on a shelf, or in the pantry), nutritionally well-rounded and generally have excellent shelf lives.

On top of this, some of the very best survival food kits on the market today can also be eaten either hot or cold, direct from the pouch, removing the need for heat in the form of a fixed or portable stove, making them an excellent solution for long-term power outages in the home as well as when out on the road or in the field.

It’s these characteristics (and a whole lot more that we’ll talk about later) which make the best emergency food kits survival foods, and ration pouches absolutely perfect for a diverse set of activities ranging from disaster and emergency preparedness through to camping, backpacking and hiking.

The best survival food pouches will also aim to strike the perfect balance between size and the overall nutritional benefit they offer.

When it comes to emergency food kits and survival food pouches for a bug out bag or hiking situation (both instances where ease of packing and carrying is everything), this basically translates to maximizing the weight/size-to-calorie ratio of the food you’re carrying.

As a result of this, when choosing the best emergency food kits and survival food solutions, you’re ultimately looking to achieve the maximum punch per pound.

If disaster strikes and you need to react fast and without a second thought or hesitation, survival food and nutrition should always be near the top of the priority list when ensuring the continued well being of you and your family.

Whether you decide to bug out to safety or are planning to ride out the storm at home, maintaining access to adequate food and nutrition is a crucial consideration when preparing for all outcomes.

In assessing the best emergency food kits and survival food meal options for different situations, the main considerations can be condensed down to the following:

1. Packed Size and Weight
2. Storage and Shelf Life
3. Nutritional Benefit and Calories
4. Number of Meals/Days Provided
5. Ease of Preparation
6. Variety of Meal Options

When considering the factors above, individual scenarios will ultimately determine the most important things to take into account and choosing the best emergency food kit will largely depend on the specific situation you’re planning for.

Take preparing your food supply for an emergency scenario as an example.

If you’re looking to stock up on the best survival food for storing at home, then shelf life will represent a major priority, whereas weight and size will probably be much less important.

On the other hand. if you’re planning to evacuate your home or are packing a bug out bag or vehicle, then size and weight become crucial factors, as is the ease of preparation of the food kits that you bring along.

Packing the best emergency food kits if you’re hiking or out in the wilderness follows a similar set of rules to those mentioned above, with packing space and accessibility taking priority although in this instance, it’s likely that you’ll not need to provide for the same number of days as you would for an unscripted emergency event.

In all cases, nutritional benefit is of course the most important overall factor that applies across the board.

So grab your mess tin and let’s get stuck in to some of the best survival food and meal kits for storing, packing, preparing, and eating.

The Best Emergency Meal Kits

Choosing the best emergency meal kits for your situation depends on a whole load of factors and picking the right one can be a challenge if you don’t know where to start.

From calorific value and average shelf life, to preparation methods and serving sizes, we’ve covered the essential elements of survival food pouches, ration packs, MRE’s, and energy bars to bring you the lowdown on the best emergency meal kits for every scenario.

In this part of our guide to the best emergency and survival food kits, we’ve broken down the very best nutrition preparedness solutions and kits for a range of timescales. Whether you’re preparing a bug out evacuation strategy or are looking to stock up your home preparedness provisions for a prolonged period of time, we’ve covered the essential considerations and best in class food options below.

72 Hour Emergency Food Kits

For anything from a short-term emergency situation such as a sudden winter storm or power outage through to a bug out scenario that means you need to evacuate your home quickly for up to 72 hours and ensure you have enough food to get you through, making sure you have up to 3 days of emergency food on hand is critical.

One of the major advantages of planning enough nutritional provision for this length of time is the relative ease when it comes to storing and carrying with the possibility to pack and carry in a bug out backpack or store in your home pantry if space is at a premium.

Augason Farms 72-Hour 1-Person Emergency Food Supply Kit

5 meal varieties make up the 72-Hour Food Supply Kit which is designed to provide a substantial 7680 calories over a 3 day emergency period.

Divided into 42 servings and providing a single person with 2560 calories per day, the 72-Hour Food Supply Kit comes in a ‘grab and go’ pail for easy transport, stacking, and storage.

This 72-hour emergency meal kit is an excellent addition to a survival pantry where a low profile container for the survival food pouches within makes storage a breeze while also being an excellent choice if you’re after a 3-day emergency meal option for a bug out vehicle strategy, providing the ability to quickly load up when you need to get out fast.

Wise Company 72-Hour Emergency Food Supply

Offering 34 servings in mylar sealed pouches the 72-Hour Emergency Food Supply from Wise Company provides enough sustenance for a single person over a 3 day period.

Including breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrees as well as drinks, this emergency meal kit is an excellent kit if you’re considering assembling a 72-hour bug out bag or bug out vehicle to call upon in an emergency situation with the survival food pouches included providing an extended shelf life of up to 25 years.

Preparation of meals is simple – just add boiling water to the pouch contents and wait for 15 minutes before enjoying nutritious food ranging from pasta and rice based dishes through to soups, beans, and rotini.

Mountain House 3-Day Emergency Food Supply

The 3-Day Emergency Food Supply from Mountain House provides a complete 72 hour supply of survival food for one person, offering a variety of 6 nutritious meals ranging from beef stroganoff and teriyaki chicken, through to pasta primavera and scrambled eggs with bacon.

Just add water preparation combined with individual pouches (which also make this kit perfect for packing and storing) make this an excellent choice as the nutrition compliment of a comprehensive bug out bag plan, ensuring you have access to an emergency food system that’s both nutritious and varied, while offering a low profile, easy to prepare solution.

When it comes to storage, Mountain House stand by a 30 year taste guarantee for these meal kits and have the longest proven shelf life in the industry. What this means of course, is you’ve got an emergency meal solution that’s going to be good to go for years to come.

Whether you’re looking for a 3 day survival food kit for your home preparedness pantry, or a lightweight, varied, and nutritious meal pouch kit for taking on the road, the Mountain House 3-Day Emergency Food Supply is perfectly suited for an individual over a 72 hour period.

Wise Company 72 Hour Ultimate Dried Food Kit

This emergency meal kit from Wise Company is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a survival food solution to cover two people over a 3 day period, providing 72 servings of freeze dried and dehydrated meals.

Providing two adults with 2000 calories a day, the 72 Hour Ultimate Dried Food Kit comprises a variety of entrees as well as also including a water filtration bottle, fuel, and a fire starter to ensure you have everything you need to prepare your food.

Main Features

• Includes 72 Servings to cover two people for 3 days.
• 25 year stated shelf life.
• Individual Mylar pouches with 4 servings per pouch.
• Kit includes water filtration bottle and fire starting kit
• Packaged in easy to store grab and go bucket.

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

This emergency meal kit includes four entrees, two breakfasts and two beverages for a total of 72 servings and 13,120 calories (2,186 per person, a day for 3 days).

Beyond just the survival food provision however, the Wise Company Kit also includes a premium 28 oz Seychelle Water Filtration bottle and 3 one-cup pouches of ‘Wise Fire’ for starting fire in an emergency.

Combine these features with a 25 year shelf life and convenient carry bucket that ‘s perfect for storing at home or grabbing quickly to load into a vehicle, and you’ve got one of the best 3 day meal kits for covering two people.

Things to consider

The Mylar pouches in this survival food kit each contain 4 servings which is highly beneficial when it comes to streamlining your packing footprint (particularly if you’re loading up a bag), however this is definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to opening and using each pouch to ensure nothing is wastednothing.

If you’re after an emergency meal solution for your home preparedness planning strategy or even to throw in the trunk as part of your bug out vehicle load-out, the Just in Case Classic Assortment from Mountain House is a solid choice for providing an excellent variety of almost ready to eat nutrition.

Including 29 total servings of breakfast and entrees in a resilient and easy to store container, the Just in Case Classic Assortment has what the company calls a “taste test guarantee” shelf life of 30 years making it perfect for long-life storage in a closet, on the shelf, or under the stairs as part of your home-front prepping plan.

Simply add water to the pouches to get going and you’ll be eating in no time with calorie dense meals ranging from Chicken Teriyaki to Beef Stroganoff.

Main Features

• Includes 12 total meals and 29 meals to feed a single person for over 3 days.
• 30 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare survival food option – just add water.
• Good choice of nutritious meals.
• Easy to store bucket containing individual meals in grab and go pouches.

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

With 29 servings included in each bucket, the Just in Case Classic Assortment is perfect as an emergency food kit for one person for up to a three day or 72 hour period.

Due to this, the Mountain House offering represents an excellent choice as a nutrition element in a bug out strategy, either by packing the pouches in a bug out backpack or simply loading the bucket into your car if your plan is to evacuate by vehicle.

Alternatively, if you’re intending to stay in your home during an emergency situation but want to ensure you’re fully prepared when it comes to survival food provision, the incredible shelf life of these freeze-dried meals makes them ideally suited as a backup plan. When paired with the easy-stack design of the outer container, the Mountain House Just in Case Classic Assortment becomes a natural choice for storing as a survival food kit in your pantry or supply area.

Things to consider

While the pouches within the Just in Case Classic Assortment are individual units in their own right (meaning they can be packed and carried individually as and when required) the full complement of emergency meals here are probably better suited to either home preparedness storage or bugging out in a vehicle if you’re looking to utilize all 29 servings.

One of the very best things about these Mountain House Just in Case range is the number of additional emergency meal solutions offered by the brand including the Essential Bucket which offers more servings as well as an alternate selection of meals, and the Breakfast Bucket an early morning selection of survival food pouches which does exactly what it says on the tin (or should that be bucket?).

The ability to stack and store until needed for use makes the Mountain House Just in Case range perfect for keeping on hand within the home, as a survival food element of your bug out plan or just to grab and go if you’re camping or hiking.

2-4 Week Emergency Food Kits

If you’re looking for the best survival food kit to see you through an emergency situation lasting anywhere between 2 weeks and a month, there are a number of great options out there which offer coverage for a medium length of provision.

The major consideration when planning the best emergency food supply for any period of time over two weeks is the size and weight implications of storing or carrying this amount of food whether you’re bugging out or staying put.

Chances are that if you’re preparing nutrition coverage for this length of time, then you’ll likely also be doing so either as part of a home readiness stockpile or for a bug out vehicle – in either case, the survival food and emergency meal kits listed here are perfectly suited to the job.

Wise Company Grab and Go Food Kit

The Grab and Go Food Kit from Wise Company is a portable bucket of 60 self-contained survival food servings designed to provide rounded nutrition when you need it most.

With an impressive stated shelf life of up to 25 years, the Grab and Go emergency meal kit provides 2 entree servings per day, designed to last one adult for up to a month.

Included meals in the kit range from Chili Macaroni and Pasta Alfredo through to Lasagne and Teriyaki with each individual entree offering between 190 and 300 calories per pouch.

Main Features

• Includes 60 Servings to feed a single person for up to a month or four people for a week.
• 25 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare survival food options – just add water.
• Meals are packed in air-tight Mylar pouches for freshness and reducing need for rotation.
• Easy to store bucket containing individual meals in grab and go pouches.

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

If you’re looking for the best emergency meal kit to see you through adverse conditions for a longer period of time, then this option could be for you.

The Grab and Go Food Kit is basically a self-contained emergency meal solution which will allow you to maintain your nutritional requirements for up to one month and with minimal preparation required.

Things to consider

While this particular survival food kit focuses on entrees only, Wise Company also offer fully-featured emergency meal kits including breakfast-only selections as well as kits featuring solely vegetables, freeze-dried fruit and protein.

Learn More About the Wise Company Grab and Go Food Kit Here.

Augason Farms 30-Day Emergency Food Storage Supply Pail

This 30 day emergency meal kit from Augason farms contains a considerable amount of survival food packed in a 7 gallon watertight pail for carrying, storing or stowing for when you need it.

Containing enough survival food options to feed one person for a month, the 30-Day Food Storage Supply Pail is ideally suited as a backbone to your home preparedness stockpile with a shelf life of up to 20 years before opening and enough easy to prepare meals to keep you going when times are tough.

Main Features

• Includes 307 servings spread across 35 food pouches.
• 20 year stated shelf life – 1 year once pail is opened.
• Simple to prepare survival food – just add water.
• Watertight 7 gallon pail for storage.

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

One of the stand out qualities of this emergency meal kit is the high caloric content of the survival food included, with the meals offering an impressive 1822 calories per day.

Providing enough survival food and emergency nutrition for a person to eat well for a month means that this kit is also a great option if you’re looking to find an emergency meal kit solution to feed a family of 4 for a week, with staples such as instant potatoes and oatmeal through to calorie dense soups and rice meals.

Things to consider

As with most emergency freeze-dried meal kits designed for longer periods of use, the Food Storage Supply Pail from Augason Farms requires water to rehydrate so keep this in mind when stocking up. If you’re preparing an emergency pantry at home, keep enough clean water on hand to provide adequate supplies for both drinking and cooking.

Another thing to consider with this survival food kit is that it does not include dessert pouches as can be found in some other emergency meal kits. In this case, think about complimenting with a dedicated dessert kit to boost morale and energy during adversity.

Valley Food Storage One Month Value Food Supply

This survival food kit from Valley Food Storage contains 85 servings of healthy and easy to prepare emergency food to help you weather any storm for up to 30 days.

Featuring a variety of emergency meal options and resealable Mylar pouches for freshness (offering protection from light, oxygen and moisture), this emergency meal kit is an excellent choice for balancing a month’s worth of nutrition with a shelf life of up to 25 years.

This survival meal kit represents a great solution if you’re looking for a good tasting meal system with food pouches as at home in your bug out bag or hiking pack as they are in your home emergency pantry or the trunk of your vehicle.

Main Features

• Contains 85 servings of varied emergency meals for one month of nutrition
• Stated shelf life of up to 25 years
• Individual Mylar pouches are resealable and reusable
• No GMOs, Hydrogenated Oils, MSG or Trans Fat

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

One of the awesome things about the One Month Value Food Supply is the fact that it combines enough survival food servings to allow you to meet and maintain nutrition requirements for a month while also offering enough variety of meal choices to ensure you don’t get tired of eating the same thing everyday.

The fact that the survival food options in this kit don’t include MSG, GMOs, Trans Fat or Hydrogenated Oils is a huge plus for making sure that you eat well while still gaining the nutritional benefit you expect from one of the best emergency meal kits.

Finally, the inclusion of Mylar pouches for each meal is a huge bonus, not only keeping the food fresh until needed, but also allowing you to reseal and reuse the pouches going forward.

Things to consider

The freeze dried survival meals in this kit require water to prepare so always make sure when planning that you have enough on hand to prep your food and stay hydrated.

Numanna Grab-n-Go Emergency Meal Kit

When you’re planning emergency nutrition for a home pantry stockpile or just need the best survival food for taking on the road, eating just to survive isn’t where the consideration for the best food kit should stop.

Numanna understand this point and their survival meal kits are designed around the principle that the best emergency meal kits will keep you going and offer health and nutritional benefit at the same time.

The Grab-n-Go food kit from the brand is packed with 76 emergency meal options ranging from Sweet Habanero Chili to Mac and Cheese, with all meals formulated around a zero-tolerance approach to GMOs, MSG and high-fructose corn syrup.

Main Features

• Contains over 70 servings of varied emergency meals including entrees and breakfasts
• Stated shelf life of over 25 years
• No added Preservatives
• Soy-free, No GMOs, No MSG, No high-fructose corn syrup

Detailed Specifications:

Why we love this kit

Numanna pride themselves on the fact that their survival food options and emergency meals don’t include some of the less favorable elements of some other emergency meal kits such as MSG and other artificial preservatives. There’s also a focus on providing more entrees in the kit as opposed to a large ration of breakfasts – another bonus when focusing on well rounded emergency meal planning throughout the day.

With almost 80 meals contained in an easy to handle storage pail, the Grab-n-Go meal kit is an excellent option if you’re looking for a solo survival food kit or as a starter solution for a family.

Things to consider

If you’re looking to ensure you have enough emergency preparedness and survival food options to cover you and your family for a month, a good alternative to buying individual meal kits comes in the form of the Numanna Triple Family Pack, containing 432 servings in total with the same quality specs and impressively long shelf life.

6-12 Month Emergency Food Kits

If you’re looking to build a longer-term of resilience into your preparedness planning, then choosing an emergency meal kit covering a period beyond a month is a good way to go.

Many of the best survival food options and emergency meal kits for longer periods will offer enough nutritional provision to see you through for 3, 6, and even 12 months, meaning you can stock up your survival pantry with enough survival food to see you and your family through a prolonged period of adversity.

Valley Food Storage One Year Value Food Supply

The One Year Value Food Supply from Valley Food Storage provides all of the nutritional benefit you need to stock your pantry up with enough emergency food to weather any storm – man made or natural – for up to a year.

With the simple addition of a cup of boiling water, the premium airtight pouches can be heated up and are ready to go, as well as offering the option to eat dry if the need arises.

A 25-year shelf life means that you’ll have a flexible and viable survival food source in place for up to a quarter of a century, allowing you to build long-term resilience planning into your emergency strategy, decades ahead of any potential event.

Main Features

• Includes enough servings to last 1 person for a year or a family of 4 for up to 3 months
• 25 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare survival food pouches – just add water.
• Good choice of nutritious meals.
• Airtight, resealable pouches.

Detailed Specifications:

Nutristore Deluxe 1 Year Emergency Food Supply

This emergency meal kit food supply from Nutristore contains enough servings to cover 1 person over the course of a year.

Providing 750,000 calories over more than 6,500 servings, this emergency food supply is a great choice if you’re looking to combine long shelf life (up to 25 years) with excellent variety and a solid nutritional base of around 2000 calories per day.

The survival food ingredients in this emergency food kit are packaged in 150 airtight #10 cans which are perfectly suited for long-term storage in a pantry, garage, or basement.

From protein and dairy, to fruit, vegetables, and grains, the nutrition options within the Nutristore Deluxe 1 Year Emergency Food Supply will ensure that you’re able to keep a varied diet throughout a period of adversity as long as 12 months.

Main Features

• Includes enough survival food servings to last 1 person for 1 year.
• Up to 25 year shelf life.
• Wide variety of high quality ingredients for preparing meals.
• 150 airtight #10 cans, perfect for easy storage.

Detailed Specifications:

Augason Farms Deluxe Emergency 1-Year Food Supply

Providing 30 varieties of shelf-stable survival food spread across 86 cans and 5227 servings, the Augason Farms Deluxe Emergency 1-Year Food Supply will provide you with a solid 1064 calories per day while maintaining a good variety of meals to help you keep things fresh without sacrificing on nutritional value.

This emergency meal kit includes the ingredients you need to assemble a wide range of meals using the essential component ingredients of any fully balanced meal including grains, protein, freeze dried fruit and vegetables, dairy, and eggs as well as soups and bread.

Offering a total nutritional energy value of 388,190 calories, this 1-year emergency meal kit also provides a variety of drinks, desserts, and snacks with the contents of the kit requiring no refrigeration and offering a shelf life of up to 30 years.

Main Features

• Includes 86 cans of meal ingredients to feed a single person for 1 year.
• 30 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare survival food ingredients – just add water.
• Good choice of nutritious meals.
• 30 varieties of emergency food for 5227 servings.

Detailed Specifications:

Chefs Banquet 1 Year Food Storage Supply

This 1-year food supply kit from Chefs Banquet contains 3768 servings worth of meals in zip-seal mylar pouches for storage and maintaining freshness.
With 15 years of stated shelf life, the individual survival food pouches in this one-year emergency meal kit are designed to sustain one person for a year with a variety of meal solutions and beverages including a good range of carbs, soups, pasta dishes, and stews.

Oxygen absorbers in each pouch and stackable containers make storage a breeze and make this meal kit a good survival food solution if you’re looking for a one-year emergency meal kit solution that can be easily and quickly moved if needed.

Main Features

• Provides one person with 2000 calories per day for one year.
• 15 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare survival food options – just add water.
• 3768 servings.

Detailed Specifications:

The Best Emergency Meal Kits for Families and Groups

So far, we’ve looked at the best survival food kits for one person covering different timescales. These emergency meal kits can of course be broken down to provide nutrition for multiple people, however you’re going to reduce the length of time covered as you increase the number of people the kit’s catering for – for example a six month supply split between two people will only provide coverage for three months in total.

The obvious way around this is to double up on the survival food kits in question, but this isn’t always the most cost effective way of preparing for a potential disaster or emergency situation.

With this in mind, if you’re planning an emergency food supply for a couple, a family, or a larger group, it’s a good idea to look at a dedicated supply that provides adequate nutrition for everyone in your party to ensure there’s enough to go around.

The Best Emergency Food Kits for 4 People

The following emergency meal kits are designed to sustain four people through periods of adversity and food insecurity.

Whether we’re talking about nutritional coverage for one day or one year, these emergency meal kits are formulated to give a family or group of 4 enough of what they need to see them through anything.

Augason Farms 1 Year Deluxe Emergency Food Supply for 4 People

Comprising 360 cans and a total calorie count of almost 2 million, this 1 year survival food supply from Augason Farms contains enough provisions to provide on average 1317 calories per person, per day for a family or group of up to four people.

The cans within the Deluxe Emergency Food Supply are easy to store and are rated up to a 30 year shelf life before opening and the no refrigeration composition of the kit means this kit is designed for multiple storage options.

With an impressive 20,923 total servings included in the kit, you’re getting a lot of variety in this survival food supply which in an emergency situation ultimately means you’re going to have a wide range of long-life ingredients on hand and meal options from which to choose on a daily basis – a huge advantage both in terms of maintaining both a nutritious diet and of course, morale.

This one year emergency food supply incorporates a combination of long-life ‘ingredient’ elements covering all of the major food groups, effectively giving you access to a one year ‘grocery store’ within your own home survival pantry

The 1 Year Deluxe Emergency Food Supply covers meals from breakfast through lunch and dinner entrees, desserts, breads, and drinks for up to 4 people.

Incorporating everything from protein, carbs, eggs and dairy, to fruits, vegetables, and a broad spectrum of store cupboard ingredients to prepare a ton of meals and entrees during any emergency situation, this 4 person survival food supply kit has your back, whatever goes down in the outside world.

Main Features

• Provides four people with 1317 calories per day for one year.
• 30 year stated shelf life.
• Simple to prepare and store – no refrigeration required.
• 20,923 servings.

Augason Farms 1-Month 4-Person Emergency Food Package

This 4-Person Emergency Food Supply Kit provides a wide range of nutritious meals to see you and three other people through a period of up to one month.

A 20-year shelf life makes this selection of emergency entrees perfect for long term storage in your home preparedness pantry for calling on during a disaster or times of general adversity while 1,116-servings ensures you and your party are covered with enough survival food and nutrition options for 30 days.

Broken down into 10 separate carrying pails each containing individual, ‘just-add-water’ survival food pouches, this comprehensive emergency meal kit is designed to mean you’re able to use only what’s needed during an emergency.

Main Features

• Provides four people with a total of 202,960 calories over one month.
• Up to 20 year shelf life.
• Individual emergency meal pouches each with just add water preparation.
• 1116 servings across 158 total food pouches.

Valley Food Storage Emergency Preparedness Grab and Go Bucket

The Valley Storage Grab and Go Bucket provides 85 servings of survival food to see four people through one week of challenging times.

All the emergency meal and nutrition supplies that four people need for one week are assembled in this easy to carry bucket. Just grab and go to take complete nutrition and protection with you wherever you go.

On top of providing adequate nutrition for four over a one week period, the Grab and Go Bucket also includes a selection of preparedness supplies including a survival blanket, fire starting supplies, a water purifier, and light sticks as well as multiple medical supplies.

Ideally suited for use in an emergency preparedness or survival situation, the Valley Storage Grab and Go Bucket is also an excellent choice for use on camping and hiking trips with the family – simply pack in a vehicle with your other gear and you’re fully covered with survival food and supplies for up to a week.

Main Features

• Provides four people with one week of emergency food supplies.
• 25 year stated shelf life.
• Grab and Go style bucket also contains survival and medical supplies.
• No MSG’s/Non GMO.

The Best Emergency Food Kits for 2 People

If you’re looking to plan a survival food strategy for two people there are basically a couple of ways to go to ensure the perfect balance between securing adequate nutrition and cost effectiveness.

Firstly, you can look to double up on one person emergency meal kits to extend the coverage. The advantage here is that you’ll potentially be able to explore a wider range of survival meal options, splitting the contents of several one person kits between two people.

Your second option is to look at a larger four person emergency meal kit and effectively view it as a two person kit that will last twice as long. While you’re not necessarily going to benefit from the same level of choice as investing in multiple single person food kits, this approach may be more cost effective, particularly if you’re looking to provide emergency food coverage for two people for any length of time.

Wise Company 240 Serving Emergency Food Supply

This two bucket emergency meal kit combination from Wise Company contains a bucket of entrees alongside a bucket of breakfast meal options totaling 240 servings.

What this means is around 4 servings a day for two people incorporating a range of meal options to stave off repetition and maintain both morale and nutritional benefit.

The survival food in these two meal kits is safely sealed in Mylar pouches for freshness and shelf life and each pouch contains 4 servings to minimize total packing footprint.

A 25 year shelf life and easy storage buckets make this emergency meal kit the perfect choice for two people either stored as part of a home preparedness planning strategy or implemented into a bug out vehicle packing list.

Longer-Term Food Preparedness Solutions

If you’re looking to implement a survival food preparedness strategy that looks to the longer-term provision of nutrition, there are a couple of essential things to consider and put in place to ensure continuity in the long run.

There are a number of emergency situations that could arise in which a breakdown in the food logistics chain could see food and adequate nutrition hard  (or even impossible) to come by for months, if not years following an initial incident or event.

In these cases, having a long-term food preparedness strategy will prove a decisive factor in ensuring you have access to adequate nutrition going forward.

Growing Your Food Supply – The Best Survival Seed Kits

If you have access to any land suitable for growing, one of the very best things you can look to do is establish a survival food garden which can be called on in times of adversity.

The best survival seed kits take this philosophy a step further and will provide an invaluable inventory of seeds (often heirloom – see heirloom seeds below for more info) which can help you establish a longer-term food viability strategy as a fallback if things deteriorate.

One of the best emergency food survival strategies you can put in place is to combine a definitive survival food kit provision with a comprehensive kit of survival seeds for growing a dependable crop of vegetables and fruit over a longer time period.

Having access to a selection of high-quality heirloom survival seeds not only gives you a second line of nutrition provision in an emergency but if implemented strategically alongside an emergency food kit which covers many months, will allow you to add variety to your survival meal planning in the mid-later months of your meal kit stockpile.

Wise Foods Everlasting Vegetable Heirloom Seed Bucket

Wise Foods have built a reputation as one of the best survival food and emergency meal kit suppliers out there (see Wise Company Grab & Go Food Kit above) and it’s therefore little surprise that their range of heirloom survival seed kits are among the top choice if you’re looking to build a long-term nutrition resilience plan which incorporates growing vegetables and fruit.

The Everlasting Vegetable Heirloom Seed Bucket contains 16 large individually sealed packets of non-hybrid open pollinated vegetable seeds.

With enough seeds to plant almost 3/4 of an acre of garden, these non-GMO seeds include a variety of the most popular vegetables including cabbage, onion, spinach, and corn as well as many others.

Contained within a durable Ropak bucket and with complete planting instructions, each pouch is resealable and the total amount of seeds provided is equivalent to more than 100 average sized seed packets.

The non-hybrid nature of these seeds means that as with other heirloom seed kits of the same quality, those found in the Wise Foods kit can simply be harvested at the end of the season and replanted in the next growing year.

In terms of storage, you can expect the seeds to last up to 4 years if kept at 66-70 degrees and considerably longer if you’re able to keep them at colder temperatures.

If you’re looking to extend your growing potential and significantly increase the variety your long term food storage plan beyond vegetables, check out the additional Heirloom Seed Buckets from Wise Foods which includes options for Fruits, Herbs, and even Medicinal Plants.

Survival Essentials 135 Variety Premium Heirloom Seed Bank

Containing over 23,335 heirloom seeds, the Seed Bank from Survival Essentials contains 135 different varieties of Non-GMO seeds ranging from vegetables and fruits through to medicinal and culinary herbs.

The wide variety of seeds included in the heirloom Seed Bank has been put together to accommodate growing conditions across a variety of hardiness zones meaning you’ll have growing coverage no matter where you’re based.

As well as providing an incredible range of plants to get underway and growing, this survival seed collection also comes complete with detailed information on how to successfully store seeds.

Patriot Seeds Heirloom Survival Seed Vault 20 Variety Pack

The Survival Seed Vault from Patriot Seeds contains 20 easy to grow varieties of heirloom seeds for both vegetables and fruits.

Contained within a storage can and sealed for a shelf life of up to 5 years, the Seed Vault includes 100% heirloom, non-GMO, and non-hybrid varieties that are high yielding and able to grow in most growing zones.

From beans, cabbage, and carrots, to tomatoes, onions, beets, and watermelon, the Survival Seed Vault is the perfect low-footprint backup to keep in your emergency preparedness pantry to plant either today or when an unexpected crisis strikes in the future.

Heirloom Futures 55 Variety Heirloom Seed Bank

Incorporating 55 types of vegetable seeds and totaling 15,000 seeds, this seed bank includes everything you need to get started in growing a huge range of heirloom plants that can be propagated each year.

With each set of seeds enclosed in moisture proof and resealable mylar pouch (and each including a desiccant), you can expect to be able to store your seeds for prolonged periods of time dependent on temperature and storage conditions.

The Heirloom Seed Bank includes a seed list as well as other vital information such as as germination rates to help you plan out a successful and productive plot.

Containing the A-Z of vegetables (literally, Asparagus – Zucchini), these heirloom survival seeds have US origins and are seed to seed ready, allowing you to bolster your survival food supplies across a huge range of natural vegetables year after year.

Survival Food Preparedness 101

Just mentioning the topic of food can be enough to make you feel hungry and with this in mind, the need to provide an adequate amount is understandably often a key priority for most people when preparing for disaster and potentially adverse conditions of an emergency situation.

At the drop of a hat, the usual access to the reliable and widely available levels of food that we’re all accustomed to from the local store can disappear instantly.

While the human body can survive without food longer than it can water, this doesn’t diminish the importance of sufficient nutrition as soon as possible in order to maintain optimal energy levels during times of physical exertion and stress as well as ensuring overall health.

Whether you’re choosing between the best emergency meal kits for storing in your home or are simply looking to better understand the key requirements for survival food and nutrition for emergency preparedness, there’s a lot to think about.

So what are the main things to consider when preparing a stockpile of survival food or putting together a solution for emergency nutrition?

Doing the Math

In a disaster or similar situation where the normal system of food distribution goes down, being armed with the knowledge and peace of mind that you’ll be able to maintain a healthy diet is crucial.

The key here is to have a decent understanding of what you and your family need to succeed in a situation like this and preparing your nutrition requirements accordingly.

There are ultimately two starting factors to consider when securing your emergency food plan in order to survive and thrive.

Understand Physiological Requirements

While figures tend to vary slightly between sources, it’s estimated that the average male needs somewhere around 2500 calories per day to function normally, while the average female requires about 2000.

The main thing to remember here, is that these figures are highly personal and there’s really no such thing as the average man or woman, with these requirements scaling up or down depending on various factors like age, height, weight and overall health condition.

It’s also important to remember that the level of physical and mental stress and exertion that you’re likely to be under during an emergency situation will increase the energy requirements here, so expect these figures to be on the higher side during a survival situation.

As a starting point however, these basic energy requirements are a good place to begin thinking about what you want to be aiming for on a per-day calorie basis if possible.

Using these estimates as a base (and maybe tracking your eating habits over a normal week), you can start to get a good idea of the levels of survival food and nutrition coverage you’ll want to plan for to be prepared for an emergency situation.

Keep Adequate Supplies

In terms of how much to store when it comes to emergency food provisions, the general rule of thumb is to keep enough food on hand to last a minimum of 72 hours per person to cover you for unexpected emergency situations.

While a 3-day supply is an excellent place to start, you really want to be using this figure as a foundation and build a larger stockpile up over time as soon as possible.

Aim to gradually increase the per-person supply of food in your stores to a two-week supply if you can and then for longer periods after this if you’re able.

If you’re looking to maintain your current dietary intake, this can be done through building up a supply of the dried and canned foods you usually eat, although be aware that these will have a limited shelf life and fresh ingredients, meat and dairy will be off the table here for the same reason.

A good alternative (even if mixed with the above), is to store pre-prepared emergency meals and survival food kits, as many of the best (many of which are covered in this guide) offer full meal solutions as well as meat, vegetables, fruit, and dairy, with each often having a shelf life of over 20 years while being easy to prepare when under duress.

A slightly different approach is to build an emergency food supply or survival food pantry comprised of long-life ingredients. This is absolutely one of the best options in a home preparedness strategy where the need to carry your supplies isn’t a consideration and the best survival food ingredients offer a ton of variety for long-term, long-life meal planning, making them ideally suited for use in building a resilient emergency food supply.

Where possible, you want to maintain a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fat in you survival food supplies while also building in as many options for vegetables and fruit at every opportunity. A larger survival food kit will generally look to offer this level of nutritional balance and so are a great option if you want a pre-prepared emergency meal solution that’s already run the numbers for you.

Choosing the Best Emergency Food

Knowing which survival foods and emergency meal kits to choose as well as how much of each to store can be challenging if you’re just starting out and while the advice above is a useful starting point, there’s really no ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to deciding on the best food and nutrition for a survival situation or emergency preparedness planning.

If you’re building an emergency food stockpile as part of a home preparedness plan, issues around storage, weight, and accessibility are less of a problem then would be the case if you’re working out the best emergency meals for your bug out packing list, and if these considerations are not a problem, then the rule of thumb should always be “more is better”.

After all, you rarely hear people complain about being ‘over-prepared’ when disaster strikes.

Sometimes however, size, weight, and storage considerations are the key issues when planning and in these cases, it’s important to know the optimal amount of nutrition to pack to ensure that your requirements are met.

Freeze Dried vs. Dehydrated

The majority of emergency food kits and survival food solutions you’re likely to come across will almost certainly fall into one of these two categories. Generally speaking, freeze-dried survival food choices tend to offer a superior shelf life over dehydrated, while the latter is thought by some to have a better texture.

If you’re preparing a survival food kit solution from scratch and can’t decide which choice is going to be best for your situation, consider investing in a single serving pouch of each type and try them out either at home, or if possible, while out camping or hiking.

Store what you eat

Maybe one of the most overlooked parts of emergency meal planning is the consideration given to actually storing food and emergency meals that you enjoy eating.

Food preparedness planning doesn’t have to involve survival food you hate the idea of eating and one of the key advantages of preparing your nutrition plan with time to spare is that you can store meals that are in sync with your usual dietary habits.

Choosing the best emergency meal kit that harmonizes with your daily eating will minimize disruption to your schedule should you need to implement your survival nutrition strategy.

Never underestimate the effect good food can have on morale as well as your overall health in an emergency situation and factor this into the survival food and meals in your preparedness plan.

Keep it varied

We all know that a balanced diet during normal times is a key contributor to living a healthy lifestyle. This logic holds true during an emergency survival situation and in many ways, becomes more relevant than ever.

Avoid survival food monotony at all costs if you have the time to plan, ensuring wherever possible that you supplement your supplies with a variety of meals as well as protein, fruit and vegetables if you have the time and budget to incorporate them as well.

After all, variety is the spice of life – (which reminds me, also try to store additional herbs and spices if you can!)

Invest in enough food for every eventuality

If you’re bugging out on foot, weight is (almost) everything and the chances are that you’re likely to only be planning a bag to see you through 72 hours on the road – getting you from A to B, safe and sound. In this instance, the size limitations, and purpose of the kit will determine how much survival food you bring along with you.

On the other hand, if you’re preparing an emergency food supply for your home, thinking much bigger is definitely not a bad thing. If storage space isn’t an issue, plan your food preparedness stockpile for the long haul and get into the habit of food rotation.

Also, as the price of food continues to climb upwards, storing enough today to see you through an emergency or a disaster situation tomorrow is quite literally one of the best investments you can make. Get into the habit of rotating your stockpile, moving items with shorter expiry dates to the front and using when required and you’ll be able to ensure that your stores will keep for when you need them as well as hedging against food inflation in the interim.

Storing and Preservation

If you’re prepping your home survival food supply, there are many things to consider when it comes to keeping your stockpile fresh and your family fed.

One of the most important things to start with when looking at building an emergency food supply is how and where you’re going to store your inventory.

While refrigeration is undoubtedly the best way of keeping food fresh for the longest possible time, the reality of the situation may see you without electricity and where there’s no power, there’s no more refrigerating.

This doesn’t need to represent a problem to your planning however, and in actual fact, you want to be building a stockpile that operates outside of the dependency of electrified cooling.

One of the best assets at your disposal when planning a disaster preparedness food storage area is to allocate a spare closet, cupboard or sheltered area for your food stocks. If it’s a cool, dark space with room to store, you’re on to a winner.

With refrigerated food out of the question when it comes to preparing your stockpile, your allies in the home preparedness nutrition arsenal take the following forms:

Emergency Meal Kits

The ultimate form of survival nutrition is the pre-prepared emergency meal kit. With each meal contained in an individual pouch, not only do the best emergency meal kits last for a long time (often 25-30 years), but should you need to get out of your home in a hurry, they’re perfectly suited to throwing in a bug out bag or vehicle.

MREs

With a foundation in conventional military ration packs around the world, ‘Meals, Ready-to-Eat’ or MREs are a pre-cooked food source that can, if needed be opened and eaten directly during an emergency situation. Alternatively, an MRE pouch can also be heated in boiling water with some even including a chemical heating system which heats the contents when the pouch makes contact with water.

Dried Food

Go back in time and you can be pretty sure that someone, somewhere has always been drying food in order to preserve it – and for good reason. Perfect for keeping fruits, vegetables, herbs, and cuts of meat preserved for long term storage, look to either buy pre-dried food or consider drying with your own dehydrator to get the job done yourself. This is an excellent option to include in your home preparedness inventory, particularly if you’re planing alongside a survival garden.

Canned Food

Keeping a stockpile of canned food is the classic home preparedness tactic, mainly due to the fact that it’s incredibly simple to get hold of this type of food at the local grocery store or supermarket at almost any time. Canned food is a good choice if you’re looking to get started quickly but store bought cans are heavy, can be difficult to move in an emergency, and almost certainly won’t offer the same long shelf-life of dedicated kits or emergency pantry provisions. As with all things related to emergency preparedness, if you have the time and budget, go for variety, including an element of canned goods as just one part of your overall emergency food supply strategy.

And of course, Water

As well as building up a stock of the types of food mentioned above, also remember to buy in sufficient supplies of drinking water for your home emergency preparedness pantry. Rule #1 – buy more than you need for you and your family. Always.

Keep all water in your supplies out of sunlight and in a cool, dry area, and supplement your supplies with multiple methods of water purification including physical water filters (invest in multiple types/sizes if possible), chemical filtration methods, and a reliable method for boiling water in the event that you find yourself without power.

Check Out Our Guide to the Best Survival and Home Preparedness Water Filters to Find Out More

Preparing and Cooking Food in an Emergency

It doesn’t matter whether you’re bugging out on foot or holding up at home, if an emergency or disaster strikes, there’s every possibility that you’re going to need a plan for preparing and cooking your survival food.

From power outages and gas line breaks, through to simply being somewhere without access to the regular amenities of a modern functioning kitchen, arming yourself with the tools and knowledge to cook your food whatever the situation is an invaluable asset in your preparedness plan.

Portable Camp Stoves

One of the first and best tools at your disposal for cooking in the event of an emergency is a portable stove that can be folded away when not in use and broken out when you need to prepare food or boil water.

The two main options here are gas stoves systems such as the JetBoil Flash or MSR Pocket Rocket and solid fuel stoves like the Esbit Ultralight.

In each case – either if you’re packing as part of a grab bag or stocking up your home preparedness kit – be sure to also buy in enough fuel for your stove, whether that’s extra gas or solid fuel tablets.

Grills and Makeshift Stoves

When you’re bugging in during an emergency situation and if you have access to outdoor space, then (weather conditions permitting) a standard grill can represent an excellent cooking backup if the grid goes down.

If you don’t already own a grill, consider investing in one with enough fuel to store and see you through both good times and bad.

If budget or time don’t allow this, or if you’re planning on bugging out and need a reserve cooking method in the back pocket, then a good fallback option is to scavenge some rocks or bricks, form them into a circle and place a griddle or grill over the top of your new makeshift fire pit stove.

Solar Ovens

If you live in an area where access to sunlight is not an issue, then a solar oven can represent an amazing option for heating up meals as well as drying foods such as fruit and herbs.

While it’s possible to build or buy a fixed solar oven, the better alternative is to go for a portable solar oven that can be easily packed up and taken with you on foot or in a vehicle, at a moments notice should you need to evacuate.

The Best Emergency Survival Food Kits for Every Requirement

In an emergency situation, being able to reliably access the right types of food at the right time is essential.

With that being said, there are a lot of different kinds of emergency meal kit out there ranging from individual pouches through to home preparedness nutrition solutions for surviving over a year at a time.

Finding the best survival food kit for your particular requirements and situation therefore becomes a priority consideration.

We’ve taken a look at the best emergency meal kits for a whole variety of situations to help you choose the best option for you.

The Best Bug Out Bag Emergency Food Kit

If you’re putting together an emergency preparedness plan to evacuate by foot in the case of a disaster or developing situation, the chances are you’ll be thinking of assembling a bug out bag to help you get out as quickly as possible.

Most bug out bags look to offer enough provision to cover survival for around 3 days, so the primary nutrition consideration when bugging out by foot is to ensure at least 72 hours of survival food to see you through any periods of adversity.

The best bug out bag survival food kit needs to consider the same essential factors as other emergency meal kits (nutritional and caloric value, ease of preparation, variety etc) as well as the additional element of portability and the ease of packing your chosen solution into a three day backpack or bag.

In addition to this, the best emergency meal kits for bugging out by foot need to be straight forward to prepare by simply adding water and heating.

Mountain House 3 Day Emergency Food Supply

The 3 Day Emergency Food Supply from Mountain House combines the essential elements of a portable emergency food kit while providing enough provision to sustain a single person through 72 hours on the road.

Combining a blend of breakfasts and entrees spread out through 9 individually sealed meal pouches, the Mountain House 3 Day Emergency Food Supply includes 20 servings of survival food offering up 1650 calories per day.

While the pouches themselves are stored in a stackable outer box ideal for home storage before use, the individual meal pouches are perfectly suited for economical packing in a bug out backpack or bag even when spare space is at a premium.

Mountain House pride themselves in having one of the longest shelf life offering in the industry with a guarantee to taste good for up to 30 years on all of their emergency meals.

With a total weight of 2.9 lbs (46.4 oz) the 3 Day Emergency Food Supply also only requires 15.75 cups of water to prepare making it a practical choice during times of adversity.

Variety and food that actually tastes good is often a sacrifice of some lesser pouch-based emergency meal kits, however this is another area in which the Mountain House offering delivers above what you might expect from this kind of solution.

Meals are nutritionally balanced and range across the day from pasta primavera and beef stroganoff through to chicken teriyaki and even scrambled eggs and bacon meaning you’ll be able to keep repetition and food boredom at bay while still getting high quality nutrition on the move.

The Best Bug Out Vehicle Emergency Food Kit

Evacuating or bugging out by vehicle may be your preferred choice for dealing with an impending emergency situation if you’re looking to leave ahead of time or will be leaving with more gear than you’ll be able to manage on foot.

In this case, the considerations around weight and packing space of a survival food solution are less restrictive and this means two things right off the bat.

Firstly, you’ll be able to carry a larger amount of survival food allowing an extension of your range beyond 3 days, provision for more than one person, and almost certainly both.

Secondly, restrictions and constraints around preparation of your food are less prohibitive if you’re preparing a bug out vehicle with the ability to carry you and your gear to safety during a disaster.

Family Storehouse Cobra 1 Week Emergency Food Rations

Being able to move any equipment and supplies quickly and effectively into the back of a vehicle is the absolute priority when it comes to evacuating an area by road and the Cobra 1 Week Emergency Food Rations system is perfectly designed for this kind of event.

It’s likely that in the case of an emergency where you choose to leave by vehicle you’re going to opt for provisions that will see you through beyond the usual 72 hour period allocated for a traditional bug out strategy and again, in this case, a solution like the Cobra system has this longer range covered.

Providing enough servings to last one person for a week, this emergency meal kit from Family Storehouse is contained in a high quality, versatile Plano ammunition box for carrying.

Waterproof and easy to carry, this case can be simply grabbed and thrown into the trunk along with your other supplies if disaster is imminent.

The meals within the Cobra Emergency Food kit have a stated shelf life of up to 25 years and are formulated without the use of GMO, MSG, and Hydrogenated Oils, while also being low in sodium.

Where weight is less of an issue but you still need to be able to quickly grab any supplies from your vehicle, you’re going to want to opt for a bucket, pail, or storage container food system that incorporates carrying handles and for the money, the Family Storehouse Cobra is an excellent way to go.

The Best Emergency Food Kits for Home Preparedness

Contingency planning and emergency preparedness for the home is a considerably different game to preparing emergency meal kits for use when on the move, however some of the core principles still remain the same.

The obvious advantage offered to those planning to ride out a storm in their own home is that of storage space, with the potential utilization of closet, shelf, and floor space allowing the storage of emergency food supplies for months if not years at a time.

With many of the best emergency food kits designed with a shelf life upwards of 20-30 years, the limit to the amount that can realistically be stored will most likely be down to the amount of storage capacity available as well as your budget considerations and personal preference.

Check out our definitive guide to building an emergency food storage supply here

In terms of planning an emergency food strategy for use at home, the ability to store more supplies opens up the option to build a survival food storage system of considerable resilience that will get you through a potentially prolonged period of time.

The Best Choice for Flexibility:

Valley Food Storage 3 Month Premium Food Supply

The 3 Month Premium Food Supply includes everything you’d expect from one of the best pouch-based emergency meal kits while also being particularly well suited to preparing a survival food pantry at home.

Storing emergency food provisions in your own home allows you to hold significantly more food reserves than you would be able to with a dedicated mobile alternative such as a plan utilizing a bag or vehicle for home evacuation.

The Valley Food Storage 3 Month Supply provides a long shelf-life solution that can easily be stored in a spare closet or in the basement while still offering a high degree of flexibility should you need to get out of your home at a moment’s notice.

Each resealable pouch has a stated shelf-life of up to 25 years and is resealable after use. On top of this, a just add water formula makes preparation as simple as boiling a cup of water.

The meals included in the 3 Month Premium Food Supply are high quality and contain no hydrogenate oils, MSG, or GMO’s, making them a healthy source of nutrition to fall back on at home if your food supply chain is unexpectedly cut.

If you’re looking for a good hybrid emergency meal kit solution that will cover you for an entire season and that’s equally at home on a shelf as it is in a backpack, then this is a solid choice.

The Best Choice for a Static Home Preparedness Pantry:

Augason Farms 6-Month Emergency Food Supply

If you want a long-life emergency food solution that doesn’t need to leave the home, then you’ll be hard pressed to beat the Augason Farms Emergency Food Supply which combines a massive variety of nutritionally balanced food options with a shelf life which provides significant resilience for the future.

The 6-Month variation of the survival provisions from Augason Farms consists of 60 no. 10 cans providing a total of 274,665 calories spread out across 2,822 total servings.

A 30 year stated shelf life and an easy to stack design mean that the Augason Farm system is about as good as you can get when it comes to storing shelf stable survival food at home.

Every high-grade steel can in the pack is FDA approved, pest proof, and completely airtight meaning they’ll be able to withstand any emergency or disaster that strikes – including severe flooding (the unopened cans will float).

The truly great thing about the Augason Farms 6-Month Emergency Food Supply is the impressive variety which contains everything you need to wait out a disaster from your home or any other pre-designated location including:

• Wheats and Grains – 12 Cans (3 Varieties)
• Proteins – 14 Cans (7 Varieties)
• Vegetables – 16 Cans (8 Varieties)
• Fruits – 4 Cans (2 Varieties)
• Eggs and Dairy – 6 Cans (3 Varieties)
• Bread and Desserts – 4 Cans (2 Varieties)
• Breakfasts – 4 Cans (3 Varieties)
• Drinks – 5 Cans (2 Varieties)

If you’re looking for a home preparedness nutrition solution that doesn’t need to be taken with you, or if you’re looking for an option to supplement a pouch-based emergency meal kit solution (one for home, one for the road), then this 6 month supply is hard to beat when it comes to nutritional value, shelf life, and excellent variety.

The Best Specialist Emergency Food Kits

If you adhere to a particular diet when it comes to meal planning, preparing an emergency meal kit that meets your particular requirements can feel like a daunting task.

The awesome news however, is that there are now a lot of choices at hand when it comes to survival food kits that are catered to specific dietary considerations and we’ve taken a look at some of the best specialized emergency food kits currently available to help you minimize disruption to your everyday eating habits while building up your emergency resilience.

The Best Organic Emergency Food Kit

Organic and survival food kits might not be two terms you’d usually expect to see together but there are now more options to ensuring you’re able to build an organic-only diet into your preparedness provisions.

If organic food is a core component to your everyday diet and meal planning when times are good, knowing that your emergency preparedness rations will allow continuity of this can offer a peace of mind that’s easy to overlook until you find yourself faced with disruption.

NuManna USDA Organic Family Pack

The USDA certified organic meals in the NuManna emergency food kit are the reason the brand prides itself in being the world’s first organic food storage system.

Highly regarded by users and containing 162 one cup servings in each bucket, the NuManna Organic Family Pack includes a variety of emergency meal options, all of which are free from pesticides, MSG, artifical colors, corn syrup, and chemical flavor enhancers.

The NuManna Organic Family Pack builds a range of meals from soups and oatmeal through to pasta dishes, chili, mac’n cheese and even an organic pancake mix to ensure variety when needed.

The Best Vegetarian Emergency Food Kit

Many of the best survival food and emergency meal kits will usually include some degree of non-meat based protein in the meal options provided however it can be difficult to find a pouch based nutrition solution that caters to vegetarians without resorting to bulk buying of pulses, lentils, and vegetable and doing it yourself.

The disadvantage of this approach of course is the fact that it can very easily tie you down to your home, limiting flexibility during a rapid onset emergency situation.

Thankfully, there are suppliers out there who’ve covered this eventuality and have removed the need to carry heavy cans around with you should the need to evacuate quickly arise.

Harmony House Foods Backpacking Kit

The Backpacking Kit from Harmony House Foods includes 18 pouches of 1-cup pre-measured lentils, pulses, and vegetables that simply require water to be added before they’re usable.

Coming in at a dry carrying weight of 4.5 pounds, the Backpacking Kit yields up to 70 servings when prepared, making it well suited as an option for including as part of a bug out bag or vehicle strategy as well as keeping on the shelf in the case of an unexpected emergency.

You’re looking at a 10-15 minute cooking time for each pouch once water is added, after which you’ll be left with a range of plant-based nutrition options as a stand-alone meal solution or as an accompaniment to other meal kits.

This vegetarian emergency meal kit is gluten free, high in protein, and is also suitable for those adhering to a vegan or kosher diet.

The Best Gluten Free Emergency Food Kit

If you have an intolerance to gluten or simply want to adhere to a gluten free diet, it can be a tough thing to accomplish at the best of times, let alone when thinking about preparing for an emergency or unforeseen event.

The great news is that there are some excellent dedicated gluten free emergency food supply kits available that remove the need to worry about this if you have a dietary requirement that influences what you need to keep in store for a rainy day.

If you’re looking for a gluten free emergency meal kit that contains enough nutritional provision to see you through a month while also being kosher, suitable for vegans, and GMO and gluten-free, then the 30-Day Emergency Food Supply from NorthWest Fork is an awesome choice.

This gluten free meal kit contains over 90 servings of emergency food to see you through a 30 day stretch and ensure you can maintain a healthy meal plan without having to break any dietary requirements.

Utilizing certified gluten-free oats, the meals in this emergency food supply are packed in Mylar bags with a 10 year shelf life and are easily prepared by simply adding hot water to each serving.

From Black Bean Chipotle Stew to Strawberry Banana Oatmeal, and Seasoned Green Pea Soup, this gluten free emergency meal kit contains an excellent variety of nutritionally balanced, vegan friendly survival food that’s perfect in either a home preparedness pantry or as part of a bug out strategy if needed.

The Best Low Sodium Emergency Food Kit

If disaster strikes, it doesn’t mean your dietary requirements need to go unmet and a little preparedness ahead of time can go a long way to minimizing disruption and ensuring business as usual during challenging times.

This 2 week emergency meal kit is perfect for seniors and those who need to adhere to a low sodium diet.

Providing 2,000 calories a day, the Heart Healthy Food Bucket delivers a total of 28,640 Calories divided between 104 large servings.

This emergency meal kit contains 15 unique and easy to prepare survival nutrition options covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as snacks and drinks.

100% certified GMO free, this low sodium survival meal kit is simple to prepare with the included meals just requiring you to add water to get started.

In terms of storage, this emergency meal kit has a 25-year shelf life and for freshness all of the included meals come in 4-serving Mylar pouches and are packaged in a heavy-duty, BPA-free waterproof plastic buckets.

An ideal long term home storage solution for disasters and emergency situations if dietary sodium intake is an important consideration in your everyday.

Additional Supplies, Emergency Ingredients, and Meal Extension Kits

Once you’ve taken care of the essentials of survival nutrition, you’ll want to look at the wider picture when it comes to providing food during a disaster.

At the most basic level, this means thinking about being able to extend the range and variety of your food supplies past base level sustenance.

In this case, there are a lot of high quality emergency food solutions that look to tackle this specifically, delivering everything from freeze dried and dehydrated ingredient kits for extending the offering of your provisions, through to dedicated meal kits covering breakfast, lunch, and even desert.

Moving beyond the basic requirements of daily nutrition can be an invaluable aid in times of crisis and something as simple as a regular morning coffee, varied breakfasts, or deserts after a meal can have an almost incalculable benefit on morale during adverse situations.

The Best Breakfast Emergency Meal Kits

The most important meal of the day is almost always covered in most of the top emergency meal kit solutions, whether we’re talking about 3 days of provisions or a full year. With that being said however, the ability to bring real variety to the breakfast offering in most survival food kits can be a challenge and this should become a serious consideration if you’re planning to store a food preparedness solution for periods beyond a week.

With this in mind, there are some truly awesome emergency breakfast meal kits out there and having one of these on hand during difficult times can make all of the difference when it comes to starting your days the right way.

Mountain House Breakfast Assortment Bucket

The 29 serving Breakfast Assortment from Mountain House is easy to prepare, easy to carry and store, and filled with enough morning meal variety to keep the survival food offering fresh at the start of each day.

Based around a core of 16 individually sealed meal pouches, the breakfast offering in the Mountain House kit includes Scrambled Eggs (with Ham and Peppers or Bacon), Blueberry Granola, and Breakfast Skillet.

What this means is a variety of 4 meal types to choose from, providing the nutrition you need to kick start your day without sacrificing on taste.

Preparation of the food in this breakfast meal kit is incredibly easy, simply requiring you to add water before you’re good to go.

In terms of storage, Mountain House cover the meals in this kit with a shelf life and ‘taste guarantee’ of up to 30 years, meaning you’ll be covered whether you need to call on it tomorrow or in 10 years time.

Nutristore Breakfast Granola and Fruit Kit

This breakfast emergency meal selection from Nutristore contains a 6 can selection of granola, freeze dried fruit, and instant milk powder.

Providing everything you need for up to 258 servings of delicious granola breakfast varieties, this kit is unique in that includes freeze dried bananas, strawberries, and peaches to provide breakfast that go well beyond merely ‘getting the job done’ if you need to call on your supplies in an emergency situation.

Perfect for long-term storage in an emergency food supply, home preparedness pantry, or throwing in the back of a bug out vehicle, the survival food and ingredients in this emergency breakfast kit have a shelf life of 25 years.

Breakfast may well be the most important meal of the day and with the Nutristore Breakfast Granola and Fruit Kit, you’ll actually look forward to it every morning.

Patriot Pantry Ultimate Breakfast Kit

The 138 total servings in this breakfast kit from Patriot Pantry make it an ideal solution for emergency morning meals if you’re looking to stock up your home preparedness supplies or bug out vehicle loadout.

Offering 7 breakfast meal options, the variety provided in the Ultimate Breakfast Kit includes Buttermilk Pancakes, Potatoes O’Brien, Oatmeal, and Scrambled Eggs meaning you’ll be able to mix up your morning nutrition offering.

A 25 year unopened shelf life makes this emergency breakfast meal kit a great choice for long term planning, particularly when you also take into account a not inconsiderable life of 1 year once opened.

The meals within this kit are easy to prepare, come in resealable pouches, and are made in the US from non-GMO ingredients.

Augason Farms Breakfast Emergency Food Supply

The Breakfast Emergency Food Supply from Augason Farms contains 6 varieties of breakfast ranging from Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal to Buttermilk Pancake Mix, and Six Grain Banana Cereal.

Augason Farms have a well earned reputation as one of the leading providers of emergency meal kits and survival foods and their Breakfast meal kits are no exception to this high quality pedigree.

Containing enough early morning provision to see you through 162 servings, this self-contained emergency breakfast kit contains a total of 20,120 calories to make sure your day starts right.

With meals packaged in individually sealed pouches and the whole kit contained in a 4 gallon pail, you’re looking at an exceptionally easy to transport survival breakfast solution with a shelf life of up to 20 years making it perfect for keeping in an emergency home preparedness pantry or packing up in a vehicle as part of a bug out strategy if you need to leave home quickly.

Franklin’s Finest Survival Coffee

This freeze-dried emergency coffee is the first of it’s kind and has been formulated to store for up to 25 years.

100% pure gourmet Colombian coffee that’s been gently freeze-dried to preserve its flavor, this instant coffee just needs boiling water to be added for preparation.

Perfect for camping, taking on the road, or keeping in the pantry as part of your home preparedness strategy.

60 servings of delicious, long life coffee in a resealable pouch to help you start every day right.

The Best Emergency Dessert Kits

In a crisis situation, calling on a supply of emergency food doesn’t have to begin and end with the sole task of keeping you fed at the minimal nutritional level and the ability to store or carry a dessert solution with a long shelf life is one of the very best ways to introduce a crucial morale boosting element to your survival food provision.

Much like emergency meal kits and survival entrees, dessert pouches designed for use as an emergency food addition are perfectly suited to this role, providing the essential elements of being easy to store/pack, requiring no preparation, delivering high nutritional content, and providing long expiry dates.

Oh, and they’re delicious.

In this part of our guide to the best emergency meal kits and survival food pouches, we’ve broken down the current best in class emergency dessert options for storing in you pantry or packing in your bag for consumption away from home.

Mountain House Apple Crisp

This emergency dessert meal pouch kit brings a classic option of probably one of the most popular desserts in a shelf-stable, easy to store offering.

Providing 6 pouches of this dessert in a bulk case for keeping in a pantry or store cupboard until needed, the Mountain House Apple Crisp also offers an incredible 30 year taste guarantee, putting it on par with some of the best emergency meal kits when it comes to shelf life.

Each pouch in this survival dessert meal kit contains two 3/4 cup servings meaning you can effectively split a pouch between two people for almost a week or can benefit from just under two weeks of dessert provision per person.

Ease of preparation is always a major consideration with any emergency food pouch system and the Mountain House dessert pouches are no different, simply add water to the pouch and you’re good to go in under 10 minutes.

Mountain House New York Style Cheesecake Bites

Mountain House’s reputation for high quality emergency food kits gives them a well deserved position as one of the premium survival food and meal kit providers and this pedigree is clear in the number of emergency dessert options the brand offers.

The 12 pouches of dessert options included in this meal kit are covered by Mountain House’s taste guarantee for up to 2 years making them a good emergency dessert choice for short-mid term pantry storage as well as a great dessert option if you need to bug out.

With one serving per pouch, this emergency dessert solution is going to represent around a week and half of nutritional coverage when paired with an emergency meal kit entree or as part of a survival food pantry or emergency food storage strategy.

As with all of the best survival food kits and emergency meal pouch options, this dessert kit from Mountain House requires minimal preparation and is effectively ready to eat from the moment you open the bag.

Mountain House Ice Cream Sandwich 12-Pack

This set of freeze-dried ice cream sandwich pouches is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a shelf stable dessert option that’s both delicious and ready to eat right out of the bag.

Providing 12 pouches of this classic dessert, the Mountain House Ice Cream Sandwich brings what would otherwise seem like an unlikely dessert option to an emergency food pantry or bug out packing list.

Each pouch in this set contains 1 serving so you’re looking at enough provision here to see one person through just over a week and a half of desserts, while you’re get just under a week’s worth if there are two of you.

A bulk case makes emergency food pantry storage simple and the individual pouches are a good packing profile for inclusion in a bag or as part of your vehicle loadout if you need a road-ready emergency dessert solution.

In terms of shelf life, the dessert pouches included in this emergency food kit offer a 2 year taste guarantee which is shorter than many of the other emergency food options out there, but still a decent length of time if you’re planning a crisis food supply for up to 24 months ahead of time.

The Best Survival Food Preparation, Cooking, and Eating Equipment

Making sure you have the best survival food or rations on hand is one thing during an emergency situation such as a pandemic or power outage, but the ability to effectively prepare, cook, and eat what you’ve brought along definitely comes in a close second.

From lightweight gas and solid fuel powered camp stoves that pack into a backpack or car at a moment’s notice, to self-contained mess tins and solutions that allow you to both cook in and eat from them, ensuring you have the supplementary elements of an emergency food supply strategy in place is crucial to minimizing disruption when times are bad.

Survival Food Cooking – The Best Emergency Stove Systems and Cookers

Portable cooking systems and camp stoves play a crucial role in almost any serious emergency situation or event where you find yourself without access to the regular utilities for heating water and food.

Whether packed into a bag or vehicle as part of a bug out strategy, or kept in a home preparedness kit for use in the event of a power outage or other disaster, a portable fuel powered stove or cooking system means you can safely boil water and cook food, no matter what’s going down on the outside world to cause disruption to your everyday routine.

MSR WindBurner Personal Stove System

The WindBurner from MSR is a highly reliable and portable stove that’s ideal for everything from backcountry and weekend camping through to use as an emergency cooking solution in a disaster situation.

Built around a radiant burner and unique windproof design this personal stove system is able to boil water fast and operates in a range of highly challenging environments and weather conditions that leave conventional burners in the cold.

This personal stove system integrates cookware with a built-in heat exchanger to efficiently transfer heat to the lock-on pot so you can quickly cook food or boil water wherever you find yourself.

An all-in-one system nests inside the pot for easy packing, assembly, and use, making this the perfect cooking solution for a bug out bag.

Jetboil Flash Cooking System

The Jetboil Flash is one of the best portable cooking systems on the market and is designed to deliver a simple and reliable source of heating for food and water, wherever you are.

One of the key design features of the Flash is that it captures and focuses heat more efficiently than other traditional cooking systems, allowing you to boil two cups of water in just two minutes

A 1-liter insulated cooking cup made from hand anodized aluminum connects directly to the Flash’s burner to minimize heat loss during the cooking process while a an in-built windscreen protects the burner from the elements, allowing the system to function at optimal efficiency even when conditions are less than favourable.

As well as being insulated to hold in the heat, the cup itself features a sip lid to reduce the loss of heat and spills when cooking, heating, serving, or drinking straight from the cup

In terms of portability, the Flash weighs in at just 15 oz and is effectively self-contained when packed down, reducing to a packable footprint of just 4.1″ x 7.1″.

As with all gas powered camp stoves and portable cooking systems, you’re going to want to ensure that you’ve got enough fuel on hand to see you and your party through the required period of use, whether at home or on the road or trail. With this in mind, each standard Jetpower fuel canister provides enough range to boil 12 liters  (around 100 cups) of water or equivalent liquid.

BioLite CampStove 2 Wood Burner Stove

The CampStove 2 is a unique biofuel wood burning camp stove that allows you to both cook and generate electricity when in use.

Capable of generating 3 watts of usable electricity, the BioLite stores it in its internal powerbank, at which point you can charge anything from LED lights to mobile phones via a USB charging connection.

The advantage here is that the internal, rechargeable 2600 mAh battery stores excess power for you to then charge devices at a later point without a live fire.

An LED Dashboard on the CampStove 2 provides real time feedback on everything from the strength of your fire, to power output, and current fan speed settings

Inside the BioLite,  4 fan speed internal jets are used to circulate air for improved combustion and heating efficiency with the result that you can boil 1 liter of water in 4.5 minutes.

The CampStove 2 Wood Burner Stove is lightweight enough to carry in a backpack and its aluminum legs fold up for nested portability and durability when packing and on the move.

Whether you’re camping, preparing for a blackout, or planning a bug out strategy, if you’re looking for a highly versatile, efficient and naturally powered cooking and device charging system rolled into one piece of kit, then this is an excellent solution to have on hand.

Survival Food Preparation – The Best Lightweight Pots, Bowls, and Mess Tins

MSR Alpine Stowaway Pot

If you find yourself on the trail or road and need to prepare your survival food, emergency meal kit, or simply need to boil water, then having a resilient and lightweight pot on hand is a absolute godsend.

This durable backpacking pot is constructed from scratch and dent resistant stainless steel and is a great addition to a survival kit for use when you’re away from home.

Featuring a dual purpose handle which doubles up as a lid lock to securely keep the lid in place when transporting, this pot is ideal for nesting smaller equipment inside when packing in a bag or vehicle.

Outdoor Anywhere Anodized Non-Stick Mess Kit

This 13 piece cookware mess set is constructed from durable, non-toxic anodized aluminum which means it’s light, strong, and resistant to corrosion and scraping

Providing everything you need to cook for 2 people on the go, this lightweight mess kit contains everything from pots and pans to bowls, sporks, and folding cups. What makes this even better is that everything nests into one compact packing footprint making it perfect for carrying in a backpack.

The Outdoor Anywhere Anodized Non-Stick Mess Kit Contains the Following Utensils and Cookware:

• 1 Pot
• 1 Frying Pan
• 1 Lid
• 1 Ladle
• 1 Wooden Spoon
• 1 Wash Cloth
• 2 Bowls
• 2 Sporks
• 2 Folding Silicone Cups

GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless Bottle Cup

If you’re looking for an ultra-lightweight cooking and drinking/eating solution that folds down and packs perfectly with your kit, then your search is over.

This multi-purpose camp cup is constructed from durable Glacier stainless steel, is lightweight, and is designed to fit over standard 1-liter water bottles when packing.

Folding wire bail handles mean that this cup folds flat for transport and storage, while naturally lending itself to use as a durable backpacking pot when doubled up with a fire or camp stove.

Whether you’re looking for a solution for cooking food on the go, or simply want to enjoy a hot cup of coffee courtesy of the stove and some instant, the Glacier Stainless Bottle Cup is perfectly designed for the job while still remaining lightweight and durable enough to handle the wear and tear of even the most challenging environments and situations.

The Last Word

With all of our rundowns and reviews, we reference as many expert sources, and real world user reviews as possible so we’re able to provide the most relevant and educational information on the ins and outs of the best emergency food kits.

Finding the best emergency survival food kits for your specific situation is ultimately a highly personal activity with individual needs and preferences sometimes varying considerably between people, locations, and uses.

With these considerations in mind, this guide looks to provide advice on our own opinions of the best emergency food kits available today, however, it’s always important to carry out your own due diligence to find the best solution for you when picking a nutrition solution that’s perfect for your situation.