Food
Emergency food: what to store, and how to eat when the power's off
The Government asks every home to keep three days of food that needs no cooking. Here's how much that is, what keeps longest, how long your fridge and freezer hold out in a power cut, and how to cook safely when the hob doesn't work.
How much food you need
The NHS's guide is about 2,500 calories a day for an average man and 2,000 for an average woman (NHS). For three days, a family of two adults and two children needs roughly 22,000 calories. In an emergency, warmth and morale matter as much as the numbers, so store food your family already likes.
What to store
The Government's Be Ready checklist asks for three days of non-perishable food that needs no cooking, such as tinned meat, fish or vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, and a tin opener. It also asks for ready-to-feed baby formula, because you may not be able to boil water, and pet food. Good choices:
- Tinned fish, meat, beans, soup and vegetables. Tins are safe to eat cold (Food Standards Agency).
- Oatcakes, crackers, nut butter, dried fruit and nuts.
- UHT or powdered milk, and long-life juice.
- Freeze-dried meals, which need only hot water.
- Something comforting: chocolate, tea, coffee.
How long it keeps
A "use by" date is about safety; a "best before" date is about quality. Tins, dried pasta and rice carry best before dates and are usually safe to eat afterwards (GOV.UK). As a rough guide, the US food safety service says low-acid tins such as meat and vegetables keep for 2 to 5 years and high-acid tins such as tomatoes and fruit for 12 to 18 months. It says to throw away any can that is swollen, deeply dented or badly rusted (USDA, US guidance).
Freeze-dried food keeps longest. One British maker, Expedition Foods, says its pouches last up to five years (Expedition Foods) and its Survivor Foods tins up to 25, kept below 22°C (Expedition Foods). Whatever you store, check the dates every six months, as Be Ready suggests, and eat and replace the oldest.
The fridge and freezer in a power cut
The Food Standards Agency estimates that a closed fridge stays cold for up to 4 hours, a full freezer keeps food frozen for up to 48 hours and a half-full one for about 24. Keep the doors shut.
- Fridge food is fine while it stays below 8°C. Throw away use-by foods, anything marked "keep refrigerated" and leftovers that have been at 8°C or above for more than 4 hours.
- Eat in this order: fridge food first, then defrosted food that needs no cooking, then perishables kept at room temperature, and tins, jars and dried food last.
Cooking without power
Camping stoves, barbecues and bottled gas stoves can be used, but "most are designed for outdoor use only", the FSA says. The NHS is blunter: "do not use a barbecue or camping stove indoors or inside a tent", and it lists portable generators as a source of carbon monoxide (NHS). Cook outside, well away from doors and windows, and keep a carbon monoxide alarm in the house.
Beyond three days
Three days is the UK's minimum. Sweden and Norway ask households to manage for a week, and Germany for ten days if possible. Our guide to what to stockpile in the UK compares the advice. For a week or more, freeze-dried meals and a store of long-life food make far more sense than a garage full of tins.
T-MINUS T+3 includes freeze-dried expedition breakfasts and meals, ration bars and the Larder of tea, coffee, oatcakes and honey, all with five-year shelf lives, plus a stove for outdoor use. T+7 adds a store of 120 servings with a shelf life of up to 25 years, and the Rotation replaces anything before it expires.