Best Emergency Foods With a Long Shelf Life

Start with what you already eat

Ready.gov recommends choosing foods your household will actually eat, avoiding foods that make you thirsty, and favoring items that need no refrigeration, cooking or water. During a stressful time, familiar food helps, especially for children.

The best everyday emergency foods

• Canned meat, fish, beans and soup (ready to eat, no cooking needed)
• Canned fruits and vegetables
• Peanut butter and other nut butters
• Crackers, whole-grain cereal and granola or protein bars
• Dried fruit, nuts and trail mix
• Shelf-stable milk or powdered milk
• Formula and baby food for infants, and food for pets

Long-term options

Freeze-dried meals are light and need only hot water. Many are sold with shelf lives of 25 years or more, which makes them good for a deep pantry you rarely touch. Emergency ration bars are dense, calorie-rich bars that tolerate heat and are popular in go-bags and cars, typically with a five-year shelf life.

How much food do you need?

Plan on three meals per person per day: 9 meals for a 72-hour kit and 42 meals for a two-week supply. A household of four needs about 168 meals for two weeks. Our Bunker Kit Builder calculates this automatically.

Storage and rotation

• Keep food in a cool, dry, dark place, ideally between 40°F and 70°F.
• Store boxed food in sealed plastic or metal containers to keep out pests.
• Use "first in, first out": put new cans behind older ones and eat the oldest first.
• Throw away cans that are swollen, dented at the seams or rusted.
• Keep a manual can opener with your food supply.