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Here are my thoughts on prepared meals of any kind from MRE to the #10 cans,

Here’s my thoughts on these kits:

I often get asked questions about various 30-60-90 and more food kits, buckets of prepared food that store for years as a quick and easy way to be prepared.

Now I’ve not tried the food in very many of these kits and so I can’t really say if the food is good or bad, but here’s the problem as I see with these prepared meal kits. Say you have a 60 day kit that comes with 10 different dinners six of each dinners A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J and since you never tasted their food the odds are that there will be 2 to 3 of these meals that you really like 4 or 5 that are ok, 1 or 2 you can choke down if you have too and another 1 or 2 you wouldn’t feed your dog!

That means two things; One: You run the good chance that twenty percent or more of your storage you won’t eat and Two: After a while what you will have left is mostly stuff you don’t like and won’t eat unless forced and that will get OLD very fast.

I think that you are better off storing 100% things you know you will eat and in as much a variety as possible. That’s my thoughts.

Kart, I’ve been more or less prepping for years. I used to buy things that were considered “good” for prep purposes but in reality I just don’t normally eat such foods. Many of them went to the food bank after a while.

Also in dire straits people often lose their appetites, and appetite fatigue can set it in with emotional stress and boring food or food you don’t like. Especailly dangerous for the elderly, pregnant women, children and those with heath problems.

So IMHO it’s best to store ONLY what you know you like and best if you eat it regularly already.

“Here are my thoughts on prepared meals of any kind from MRE to the #10 cans,...”

I didn't buy any prepared meals either because they were too expensive when thinking of storing for a year.

However, last year before hurricane season, I bought 12 MRE type meals with the heater included in each box and put them in a rolling bag I will take with me if a hurricane comes. There are two huge oak trees behind my back fence belonging to houses behind me. They are as tall as the Empire State building (they look that tall) and the heaviest part of those trees is facing my townhouse. If one or both come down my townhouse is smashed.

I went through Ike hoping I wouldn't get killed in this house if they came down. I was very worried about that. Next time when one comes, I'm taking the dog, the backpacks and that rolling bag and going across the street to a hotel and staying there until the hurricane passes. That's what the MRE type boxed meals are for.

If the house isn't smashed by the trees, I'm back at the house with my dog.

During Ike, which came through here in the dark of night, trees came down all over town and the countryside. One woman was killed in her bed - those trees I'm worried about would first hit my upstairs bedroom and I don't want to be in there if that happens.

Another death was just awful. A lineman was working up on a power line at one place and a tall tree that had loosened due to the storm, fell, he couldn't get out of the way fast enough and the tree hit him and killed him.

This is also pine tree country and right now their yellow pollen is falling and every car in this area is yellow. I have to use the windshield washer before I can see out the windshield when I go somewhere.

So, we are subject to tall trees falling during a hurricane. If the wind doesn't destroy part of your house like the roof, the trees might.

Sometime after Ike, we went south to Houston and from here all the way there were blue tarps over the roofs of houses and businesses and apartment buildings everywhere you looked and part of that destruction was caused by falling trees.

So, I think boxed MREs with heaters in the box have a place if you have to leave your house fast. I know there are 12 prepared meals in that rolling bag and I picked meals I knew I wouldn't hate.

“That means two things; One: You run the good chance that twenty percent or more of your storage you won’t eat and Two: After a while what you will have left is mostly stuff you don’t like and won’t eat unless forced and that will get OLD very fast.
I think that you are better off storing 100% things you know you will eat and in as much a variety as possible. That’s my thoughts.”

Sir, my thoughts too, are not unlike what I think yours are...

I am always in favor of fresh, we prepare vs packaged whatever it might be. We can prepare from shelved items, or from garden or from game hunted, and we can do it better than any of the MRE’s.

We prefer to stock canned ‘staples’ such as fruit and veggies in 16 to 35 oz cans, though we might stock some things in #10 cans.

What is done with what we would prepare depends on what preservation techniques are available to us when the shtf...canning, freexing, etc.

I might add, that we have determined we are in a location that is defendable and is not subject to most catastrophic situations that might mean ‘bugout’...this is our ‘bugout’ location.