Project Stock - A Newbie's Guide to Stocking Food

The following may give you some ideas on what types of food to stock up on:-

British Army Ration Packs

The British Army use a ration called the 24-Hour Operational Ration Pack. Previous versions of this ration were called the ration packs (GS for General Service). Those rations included a lot of food in cans. By 1999, the GS rations were phased out and the newer GP (General Purpose) ration packs became the primary operational ration pack. Each pack contains up to 4,000 calories - the recommended daily consumption is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men - and is designed to feed a young man aged 18 to 30 who has been involved in active operational duty.

Features of the 24-Hour operational ration pack are:

• An individual ration for normal use in the field
• Ration is designed to feed one person for one day
• It has been designed to provide a balanced nutritional diet
• Can be eaten hot or cold
• ORP provides an average of 4000 Kcal per ration
• Ration is 10% protein, no more than 35% fat, 55% carbohydrate
• Continuous consumption up to 15 days, ideally no longer than 30 days
• Hot meals in flexible foil pouches
• Rations packed in waterproof outer cardboard boxes
• All ORPs have a shelf life of at least 3 years

So what's in the box?

Here's a typical temperate climate GP ration pack, with all the contents laid out. You'll note that there's quite a lot in that 20cm x 18cm x 10.5cm box!
Note the three silver pouches on top of the box. These are your Breakfast, Main Meal, and Dessert packs. Most are very tasty and the Treacle Pudding has replaced the Soldiers favourite - Mixed Fruit Pudding.

So, what do you get in addition to the pouched foods?
All in all, it averages out at 30-odd separate packs of one sort or another:

• An Oatmeal block (really a sweet oatmeal biscuit - quite tasty!)
• Chocolate bars or a bar of Kendal Mint Cake, according to the menu
• Biscuits, brown (malted and hard, pack of six)
• Biscuits, fruit-filled (malted hard garibaldi-like, pack of six)
• Cheese, processed, or meat paté, according to the menu
• Tea, Instant, White, 4 x sachets
• Coffee, instant, 2 x 5 grams sachets
• Sugar, quick dissolving, 8 x 10 grams sachets
• Drinking chocolate mix, 1 sachet
• Vegetable stock drink mix, 1 x sachet
• Instant soup (varying flavours), 2 x sachets
• Beverage whitener (non-dairy creamer), 2 x sachets
• Gum, chewing, PK, 5 sticks
• Sweets, boiled, 1 pack assorted flavours
• Fruit drink mix, either orange or lemon (enough for 1 litre of drink)
• Tissues, paper (Kleenex individual pack)
• Waterproof matches (10) and striker (1)
• Water purification tablets (6)

www.surplusandadventure.com...

For more info on other nationalties Ration packs;-

www.mreinfo.com...


[edit on 27/7/08 by Wotan]

I just store my sugar in 2.5 gallon plastic buckets, usually the bakery dept. at the supermarket will give them to you for free.
Haven't had a problem with pests and the worst thing that will happen to sugar is it might get hard, easily fixed with an ice pick.

as for the camp stoves the one I have is the coleman dual fuel stove, Its a large table top unit (not for backpacking) It will burn white gas and regular unleaded gas, It also has an adapter for using propane. The one pound propane bottles store easily and have a multi year shelf life. Its a good setup for bugging in.

Agree, on the smoke minimalization. It's not a concern for us, as we have nowhere to bugout TO...... making our stand here. For life. Might well be a concern for folks that intend to bugout elsewhere in the world. What I've found is that it isn't so much the sight of smoke from a wood fire that has drawn my attention, but the smell. Woodsmoke and tobacco smoke smells travel quite a distance, and once a person is honed in, it's like a beacon pointing the way.

Agree also on peanut butter. Terrific stuff for long-term, and it's a long-term food even here in the tropics. Just a little tip: Once peanut butter is opened (and this works for tinned butter, canned milk and other canned/bottled goods) the trick is to keep the air from the food. If a person cuts a sized-to-fit piece of plastic sheeting, such as Visqueen, and places it atop the food, it will keep longer. I discovered this while trying to keep opened cans of gelcoat and other marine finishes alive after opening, and then applied it to foods as well. Most often, the lid of the container makes a good template for cutting a piece of (cleaned) plastic to place atop the food. I suppose transferring into a smaller, airtight container would do the same thing or better. This was all just part of the food preservation experiments for us.

OP, if you wish, we can talk about dehydration techniques. Your call.

I'd like to suggest stocking vinegar too. That with the salt & sugar already mentioned, you can preserve a lot of veggies (you grow yourself.)

You may want to also consider:
toothpaste (or baking soda)
aspirin
sanitary napkins (if female)
toilet paper
band aids
soap

Another thing to add to the list:
matches!

As some probably here have said, stock what you eat, and eat what you stock. Just keep rotating your stored food and you'll be good to go.

Canned stuff will be good for a while. Just check them to make sure that the seams aren't split/leaking, or they are swelled up. Other than that, you'll be fine. GIs were stuck eating canned C Rations from WW2 and Korea during Vietnam.

Pasta and rice are good, but you need water. It doesn't have to be boiling, but that makes it cook faster. Just letting rice soak will do the trick.

Remember, food is a necessity, hot food is a luxury.

Well, it was another stock day today.

This time I focused on dry beans. I got a whole multitude of cheap dry beans.

Pinto Beans - got a few they were only like 55 cents a bag
Small Lima Beans-
Navy Beans
Great Northern Beans
Red Beans
Black Eyed Peas.
Big Can - Instant Mashed Potatoes
A small box of Powdered Milk (8 quart) - was over 5 bucks! I can't imagine what it could get to if dairy keeps going up. I'm probably going to buy another box or two.

I also bought these Knorr flavoring cubes. I got 2 of cilantro flavor, and 2 of the onion flavor. I was pretty psyched because they were on good sale, but then I notice the ingredients(Salt, MSG) were the first two. Uggh, and then I notice that my 4 boxes of chicken bouillon have MSG near the top. This can't be healthy....

Is there anyway to get around MSG for certain items?

I'm also contemplating the shelf life of canned foods versus dehydrated foods, cans just seem the most efficient.

----------------------------------------------------
This morning, I had the time to add more to my pantry, and I was able to take into account some of the suggestions on here.

TrueLemon - 2 boxes (on sale)
12 pack Ramen
Powdered Gravy Mix
Peanut Butter - survival couldn't be tastier
Salt - Iodized 2 cans
Honey
Agave Nectar - organic sweetner with long shelf life.



[edit on 3-8-2008 by ThreeDeuce]