I thought olive oil lasted forever
No! Olive oil does NOT last, forever.
Months, at most....especially if in plastic (yuck).
Buy it in glass (dark, preferably) jars, or large tins and you’ll get the longest/best storage.
It will smell ‘off’, when it has gone bad/past use time.
My Dad was a HUGE Prepper. When I moved him out of his apartment to Assisted Living, he had his spare bedroom stacked to the ceiling with CRATES of large cans of dried foods, freeze-dried soups and casseroles, etc.
None of our local Food Pantries wanted the stuff. And, in reality it IS pretty awful. E-foods Direct was the company.
We’ve been pecking through it for nearly 10 years, now. I’ve found uses for some of the grains and of course the powdered milk was used as a milk substitute in baking and cream soups. The dried veggies reconstitute well in soups, too. Carrots, peas and potatoes, mostly. I still have 2 HUGE cans of cornmeal, but that will come in handy, I suppose.
After that ‘experiment’ my strategy changed to mainly canned fruit, veggies and meats along with my own preserving from the garden. Dried beans & rice, of course. 20# of flour in the freezer, rotated through Christmas baking and re-stocked when on sale at Christmastime for the next round.
We raise meat animals, have a HUGE garden and a private well for water. We also have a creek on our property (UPSTREAM from the dairy herd in our pasture!) and decon straws and bottles and such. Water is probably more important than food in the long run. Ever eat a Pine Tree? Many parts ARE edible. (Euell Gibbons. Remember him?)
If it’s ‘just’ a Civil War we’re up against, I’ll fight to protect what’s mine. If it’s a Nuke or Yellowstone blows? I’ve saved a bullet for myself. I’m no Hero. ;)
Coconut works as solid and as a liquid fat.