Best tinned food options for a seven-day emergency food hamper

[Linnende]

In light of the recent government guidelines in preparedness for any emergency. I am trying to put together a 7 day emergency food hamper. I do not normally eat tin food. What are your favourite tin food options? Is there really any difference between supermarket own brands. Have you started preparing, if so, what are you storing away?

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Using ur list. Same here. Just me. I thinking in case of powercuts/adverse weather. Don't want to consider other possibilities

Am I misunderstanding? If you are buying tinned food because you won’t be able to cook, how would you heat this food up?

Obviously in the warmer months defrosted freezer food with no fridge available would have to be binned. However in the the middle of winter I am sure some could be stored outside for a few days. After all people used to manage without fridges or freezers in ye olden days.

Living in an area with frequent power cuts, I definitely recommend having an emergency non-electric method of cooking food or at least heating water.

Living on cold food and drinks, especially in Winter, becomes miserable very quickly and really lowers your body temperature, making it difficult to stay warm. Plus if you can heat water for hot drinks, you can also fill a hot water bottle for extra warmth.

Lidl Greek Week is good for tins:
Dolmades (stuffed vine leaves)
Butter beans in sauce
Aubergines in sauce

We have a camping stove (that we regularly use for camping so know how to work with it) and have;
Baked beans
Beans with sausages
Tinned soup, cream of tomato
Corned beef
Tuna
Chickpeas
Black beans
Mixed beans
Chilli
Sweetcorn
Peas
Jars of pasta sauce
Jars of curry sauce
Passata
Pasta
Rice
Cereal
Lots of oat milk (I don't like uht)
Oats
Tortillas
Tinned fruit, peaches, pears, pineapple, mixed fruit
Rice pudding
Cereal bars
Potatoes and onions that last reasonably well in the bottom of the pantry
Bottled water
I also keep a loaf of bread in the freezer which would obviously thaw in a power cut but I'm assuming we could get the best part of a week out of it after it thaws, and cheese lasts reasonably well if you wrap it well

Meals we could get out of that would be;
Tuna pasta
Veggie chilli
Chickpea curry
Bean quesadillas
Corned beef hash
Jacket potatoes with chilli or tuna
Beans on toast
Soup with bread and butter
Then cereal and/or porridge and plenty of fruit.

We live rurally and have been cut off before so that's generally what's in our cupboard going into winter, plus loads of condiments. We usually eat the vast majority of our food fresh so I have to go out of my way to use it in the spring/summer before restocking but we rarely throw anything out. I reckon based on that we could get through about a fortnight of extremely boring food without anyone going hungry.

Hi there - I spent years working for the fire department in California working with communities on disaster prep. My advice is just to do one small thing at a time - people can easily become overwhelmed and so then do nothing. Ideally you should have 3 - 5 days supply of food but most importantly think about water. Don't try and do it all at once - if you see a deal in the supermarket then pop an extra tin of something in your basket. Choose food you actually like and want to eat and more importantly check sell by / use by dates - I always recommend using the clock change to go through your supplies. But honestly you do not have to be a survival expert... just take a few small steps .... hope this helps - happy to answer any more specific questions based on my experience....

Gas canister camping stove

Thank you so much for your response. Eveything feels overwhelming in the UK at the moment. One small step at a time is invaluable advice. I personally need to look at water, this is my weak area at the moment💜

Or BBQ, gas hob, woodburner. Tinned food is cooked so it only needs to be heated.

On the subject of freezers, cheese freezes well and once defrosted will last a couple of weeks at room temperature.

Just to be clear if the power is out according to the Food Standards Agency this is how long things will be ok for with the doors closed of course -

• Refrigerators: Keep food safe for up to 4 hours. Discard perishable items if the fridge reaches 8°C or higher for more than 4 hours.
• Full Freezers: Keep food frozen for up to 48 hours.
• Half-Full Freezers: Keep food frozen for about 24 hours.

And yes camping stoves are a great and low cost addition - don't forget the matches though! I made many a good cuppa during a power cut on a stove. Another top tip is to fill flasks of tea / hot water if you think there is a risk of a power cut - we all have so many Stanley cups etc at home now, just get them filled!

Cant edit original post but I have 5 x 5 litres bottles of water, plus 60 bottles x 0.5l water plus 24 x bottles x 0.5l sparking water,
plus 2 x 24 cans Pepsi Max.

Add to food list nuts, dates, ketchup, mayonnaise, oils and salt. We’ve always got herbs etc at home.

Add to Equipment list: strong foil, baking paper, cold bag, wooden skewers, extra scrubbing brushes and heavy duty gloves.

In process Of writing out recipes in case of internet failure or teens needing to cook.

is it wrong that I’ve really enjoyed prepping 😂

Would you share some of your recipes please

I need to prioritise my water situation. Would it be ok to re-use plastic bottles, that had lemonade or cola in. I thought I could sterilise them with 'Milton' first?

Deluxe

I can't face anything in a tin, it just reminds me of cat food. Fruit fine, anything else, bleugh.

If it comes to it, I will live off cheese and bread and apples. It's what I eat every day for lunch anyway, so I will be happy 😊

i know what you mean about tins. i can make bread in my dutch oven on a campfire but i think the issue is how long will bread last if not made fresh

second comment above about freezing water if you have freezer room. in a power outage they can start as ice packs and then be used for fresh water.

plenty of things can be frozen and survive a few days after being defrosted so i’d try and work through my freezer before using cans and jars

I also have a some water in cartons which i prefer for long term storage over plastic bottles.

you can get or could, granite cheese sauce, parsley sauce and curry sauce

I would, especially for toilet flushing. The only concern with drinking water would be residual sugars as even tiny amounts could lead to bacteria growth, but that probably depends if the drinks were sugar free.

I've re-used sparkling water bottles for drinking water by washing them with soapy water, rinsing well and allowing to dry before filling and labelling with date etc. I'm slowly increasing our collection of water butts for loo flushing water. I figure that if we're as self-sufficient as possible, then available help can go to other people first. I suspect that if there were a longer crisis, then DD plus partner and child would arrive on our doorstep, so I'm trying to over prepare as much as possible.