Emergency food supply: how much food for 3 days

What counts as emergency food

The test is simple: it keeps at room temperature, it can be eaten without cooking, and your household will actually eat it. Ready.gov’s suggestions are ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits and vegetables, protein or fruit bars, dry cereal or granola, peanut butter, dried fruit, canned juices, non-perishable pasteurised milk, high-energy foods, food for infants and comfort foods. The UK’s checklist gives tinned meat, fish or vegetables, dried fruit and nuts as examples, and adds that it is best to buy food you would usually eat. No-cook matters because a power cut can take out the cooker, the microwave and the kettle at once.

How the calculator counts

Get Ready Queensland suggests making a three-day menu plan for your household, so that is what the calculator does. It rotates three days of no-cook meals: cereal with shelf-stable milk or fruit for breakfast, canned fish, meat or beans with crackers for lunch, a ready-to-eat stew or beans and vegetables for dinner, and a snack. Each person gets one serving of each food at each meal, and the shopping list adds those servings up across the days. Servings, not cans, because can sizes vary: check the servings-per-pack line on each label and buy enough to cover the count. Children are counted as a full serving, which leaves a margin, as they usually eat less.

Worked example: the card above feeds two adults and two children for three days: 36 meals plus snacks. That works out at 20 servings of crackers, 16 of canned vegetables, 12 of canned fruit, 8 each of cereal, shelf-stable milk, canned meat, beans, bars and juice, and 4 each of fish, stew, peanut butter, nuts, dried fruit and a comfort treat. Tick “peanuts and tree nuts” and the peanut butter becomes sunflower seed spread, the bars become nut-free bars and the nuts become dried fruit.

What about calories?

We found no official calorie target for an emergency food supply, so the calculator does not invent one. The one official figure it shows is the US Food and Drug Administration’s: 2,000 calories a day is used as a general guide for nutrition advice, and your needs may be higher or lower depending on age, sex, height, weight and activity. For the two adults in the example, that general guide comes to 12,000 calories over three days, a useful check against the labels. Children’s needs differ, so the calculator doesn’t total them.

Allergies, special diets and babies

• Allergies: the swaps cover peanuts and tree nuts, gluten, milk and fish. They are a starting point: read every label, including “may contain” warnings, and stock the brands your household already trusts. Ready.gov’s reminder is simply to remember any special dietary needs.
• Babies: the UK checklist says ready-to-feed formula is best, because you may not be able to boil water to make up powdered formula safely; Ready.gov says to use ready-to-feed formula too. Plan for the days you are covering, and ask your health visitor, midwife or doctor if you are unsure how much your baby takes.
• Medical diets: if someone needs a specific diet for a condition, ask their doctor or dietitian what to keep.

Storing it and rotating it

Ready.gov says to keep canned food in a cool, dry place and boxed food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers, and to replace expired items. Cornell Cooperative Extension gives a rule of thumb for quality: high-acid cans such as tomatoes and fruit about 12 to 18 months, low-acid cans such as meat, fish and most vegetables 2 to 5 years, if the can stays in good condition. The card works out those windows, a six-monthly date check (the UK checklist’s advice) and a yearly rethink of the kit (Ready.gov’s) from the day you bought the food. Eat the oldest first and replace it as you go, so nothing in the cupboard is past its best.

When the power goes off

Eat from the fridge first, then the freezer, and keep the stored food for later. The CDC says that if the doors stay closed, food stays safe for up to 4 hours in a refrigerator, 48 hours in a full freezer and 24 hours in a half-full one. After a flood, it says to throw away food that may have touched floodwater, home-canned food, and cans that are bulging, open or damaged. For backup power to keep a fridge running, our sister site Watt Cottage covers generators and battery backup.

Common mistakes

• Food nobody likes. A stressful week is no time for a new diet; buy what you normally eat.
• Tins without an opener. Keep a manual can opener with the food, not in the kitchen drawer.
• Forgetting water. Dry food needs drinks; the water calculator works out how much to store.
• Counting on the freezer. It is the first thing to go in a long power cut.

The emergency kit list builder puts food and water together with everything else your household needs.

General information, not medical or dietary advice. For allergies, medical diets or feeding a baby, ask a doctor, dietitian or health visitor.