Are we being misled about freeze dried kit portions in days?

[Omega]

I am looking at 3 Month Fuel Your Preparation Emergency Freeze Dried Food Kit - 12 tins containing ‘Fuel Your Preparation’ freeze dried food range and each tin is 6-8 servings, so about 90 servings. However, each serving is about 400-500 Kcal while you need 1500-2000 Kcal per day... So, if you rely solely on this kit, then you will be getting a quarter to a third of your required calories
Am I wrong in my calculations? I do not think I am. Anyway, this means that you should have much more and other food to sustain yourself in addition to this kit

[pseudonym]

Anyone purchasing food should be calorie counting, whether fresh, frozen, dehydrated or freeze dried. For someone who is starting out on the prepping journey a quick one stop shop to get you started is there.

A small 72 hour purchase will get you a foot on the ladder so to speak and the ability to taste test what you prefer.

I have mentioned elsewhere that I cannot stand porridge/oatmeal etc for breakfast so I am more dinner based meals for breakfast. My "wet" MRE retort pouches reflect this.

I would base my preps on these kit portions as a base starter and add to them.

[pseudonym]

I have just done an inventory and have enough for 3 meals a day for 5 months.

4 months wet MREs

1 month dehydrated MREs ( enough to bug out with)

These totals do not include canned goods or fresh and frozen.

So I would say in total 6 months of meals in house. that would cover me a winter and hope I could garden enough to survive. If not "goodnight Vienna"

I have a years worth of prescribed medicines after that if I can't get hold of anymore "goodnight Vienna"

I could go onto stricter rationing of both food and medicine to extend my life but my helpful out put would be reduced to watching the cooking pots or babysitting kids whilst able bodied adults worked.

[Omega]

That's an impressive amount of food. I wonder how do you intend rotating the food? I know canned food lasts longer than prescribed on the can, but...

[pseudonym]

That's an impressive amount of food. I wonder how do you intend rotating the food? I know canned food lasts longer than prescribed on the can, but...

Dehydrated meals (25 years plus) so not worried about them.

Wet MREs I add into weekly meal planners and purchase more as and when (5 year minimum shelf life)

Same for the tinned ( 3 years), fresh ( 1 week) and frozen (3 months).

This is my second rodeo, the first cost me big due to medical reasons and I had to get rid of 3/4s of it and am still not near what I had before. What I have now suits my lifestyle and I won't be changing this time around.

The simplicity of heating water to warm up or re-hydrate a meal takes one stressful item away from you during TSHTF

[jennyjj01]

I am looking at 3 Month Fuel Your Preparation Emergency Freeze Dried Food Kit - 12 tins containing ‘Fuel Your Preparation’ freeze dried food range and each tin is 6-8 servings, so about 90 servings. However, each serving is about 400-500 Kcal while you need 1500-2000 Kcal per day... So, if you rely solely on this kit, then you will be getting a quarter to a third of your required calories
Am I wrong in my calculations? I do not think I am. Anyway, this means that you should have much more and other food to sustain yourself in addition to this kit

Your maths is sound.

I see that kit advertised as follows...
"3 Month Fuel Your Preparation Emergency Freeze Dried Food Kit"
Original price was: £659.99. Current price is: £539.95. Incl tax

Get a bundle of emergency freeze-dried food in this 3 Month Fuel Your Preparation Kit. Contains 12 large tins

with 50,000 calories and a 25-year shelf life. It’s the ultimate emergency food kit for all survival situations."

So if 3 months is 90 days, they give you 50,000/90=556 kCal / day..... On which you'd pretty much starve.
At a cost of £539/90= £6 / day
You could probably survive 3 months on 556kCal per day, but expect to be emaciated and near death.

I recommend you add a bottle of cooking oil and fry up the cardboard boxes for a tasty treat

You are buying the 25 year shelf life and some prep simplicity. T'aint cheap

I don't buy into the MRE or freeze dried MRE routines. If starting out an extended pantry, load it with long life 'white kCalories first and augment with meal making sauces, then further augment with 'nice stuff' like tins of fish, meat, Baked Beans, Tomatoes etc. Flour and Oil are the divine duo for cheapest and most versatile source of kCalories.

My way actually costs virtually nothing, because (almost) everything rotates through my regular diet.

Tinned beans and dried rice and pasta are easily good for 5 years. Since stored food is just to buy you some time into a shtf crisis, why would it need 25 year shelf life, unless it was a buy and discard proposition.

[GillyBee]

The table below is from the UK's SHTF time in WW2. The guide is the minimum amount estimated to keep a child or young adult healthy in a world with LOTS of physical activity. (No cars or labour saving devices, no telly or smartphones, extra chores like firewatching/ salvage/ gardening etc.
NB the huge amount of bread is because wheat contains 10% protein so this is a major protein source if meat/cheese are restricted. Even potato is 4% protein which adds up if you are eating a lot of it as is shown here.

Clearly this is all fresh foods but it does help for some more "real" quantities and food types than the MRE starvation packs or today's extravangant habits. Full fat ration for butter/marge was around 4oz/100g a week. Cooking fat was 2oz - hence the love of plain mashed or boiled spuds.

[pseudonym]

Snip> This is my second rodeo, the first cost me big due to medical reasons and I had to get rid of 3/4s of it and am still not near what I had before. What I have now suits my lifestyle and I won't be changing this time around.

For me, no rice, pasta, bread, oats, root vegetables, fresh fruit or vegetables with exceptions, tropical fruit or juices, the list goes on

Each to their own I suppose.

[Ara]

Pseud, I'm impressed that you have managed to get to a year's worth of prescribed medication saved. I'm slowly building up my supplies, having had a recently added new drug. Keeping a stock in is useful for those times when the pharmacy runs out of things (as happened to me last year but I had some stocked) rather than living from one month to the next or however long your surgery prescribes for. (Slightly off topic there I know but I thought it deserved a reply.)

[pseudonym]

Pseud, I'm impressed that you have managed to get to a year's worth of prescribed medication saved. I'm slowly building up my supplies, having had a recently added new drug. Keeping a stock in is useful for those times when the pharmacy runs out of things (as happened to me last year but I had some stocked) rather than living from one month to the next or however long your surgery prescribes for. (Slightly off topic there I know but I thought it deserved a reply.)

Reorder as suggested by my GPs 7-10 days early (always 10 days) gives me a weeks spare every 8 weeks. Ask for a 2 weeks holiday back up once a year....adds up after 9 years... worst bit is rotating the BB dates