Simple Emergency Food: Stocking Up with Canned Goods

Ready to build your emergency food storage? Canned goods are the perfect place to start. They’re simple, affordable, and readily available at your local grocery store. This article covers the basics of using canned food to create a reliable emergency pantry, helping you prepare for anything from supply chain disruptions to rising food costs.

Why Use Canned Food for Food Storage?

Remember the 2023 tragedy of the mass shooting that occurred in a small town in Maine? For the sake of the safety of the townspeople, government officials locked down nearly all nearby businesses, including grocery stores, which caused many unprepared people to panic as they realized they didn’t know how long the lockdown would last. As one Facebook commenter who lived close by to the site of the shooting put it, “I am watching Facebook posts of people who are panicked because the stores are all closed. It has been less than 24 hours and people don’t have food in the house.”

That’s where canned food comes in handy as a back-up emergency pantry.

It’s affordable, easily accessible, and doesn’t require extensive preparation to eat. Back in 2012, my husband and I made an initial trip to the grocery store to stock our emergency food storage pantry. If you review the list of foods we bought, you’ll notice a significant amount of canned food for these very reasons. However, if balancing prepping items with current needs, it’s also easy to buy a few extra cans of food each time you grocery shop.

Here is a short list of some of the pros and cons of using canned food as a staple in your preparedness arsenal.

Pros and Cons of Canned Food

Here is a short list of some of the pros and cons of using canned food as a staple in your preparedness pantry.

Pros

• Already sealed from contaminants
• Long shelf life that lasts beyond the marked date
• Variety!
• Versatile
• Heavy but still easy to pack up and move if necessary
• Available anywhere
• Can be eaten directly from the can in a pinch
• Already cooked, saving time and energy

Cons

• Heavy, so not ideal if you have evacuation plans that involve walking or hiking
• Unusable if you don’t have a way to open the can!
• Shorter shelf-life than dehydrated or freeze-dried food storage

Tips for Your Canned Food Supply

• Think about how you can combine canned goods to create complete meals. Stock up on ingredients that work well together, like canned tomatoes, beans, and corn for chili. Learn about meal-stretching ingredients to help with this.
• Don’t just stock up on basic vegetables. Consider canned fruits for vitamins, canned fish for protein and omega-3s, and canned beans for fiber. A balanced diet is important, even during emergencies. Be sure they’re ones you’ll eat, though.
• Use a marker or label maker to write the purchase date on the top of the can. This can help with FIFO, when best by dates are far out. I also find it easier to read quickly and quicker than flipping the can over if the date is on the bottom of the can. Also…
• Even if you think you’ll remember, label boxes or storage areas with the contents and “best by” dates of the cans inside. This saves time and prevents confusion later.
• If you have pets, remember to include canned pet food in your emergency storage. Pet food shortages can be just as problematic as human food shortages.
• Canned goods can become boring. Storing spices and herbs can make a huge difference in the moral of those that are eating only canned goods.
• Don’t keep all your cans in one spot. If one area is compromised, you will not lose all of your supplies. Read more about creating mini food caches.

The Best Ways to Store Canned Food

One of the greatest enemies of food storage is heat. This can speed up the deterioration of your food storage and even have a negative effect on the containers it is stored in.

To guarantee your stash of canned food lasts as long as possible, keep it far away from places in your house that get especially hot during the day or in the warmer months of the year. These locations could get too hot for food storage. Attics, garages, or other non-air conditioned areas are places you will want to avoid. Otherwise, you can stash your food storage just about anywhere.

Practical Storage Locations

The great thing about cans of food in particular is that you can pack a lot of them into a relatively small amount of space. It’s easy to find discreet places to stash a few dozen cans, such as under beds, the bottom of closets, in unused drawers, under sinks, in the basement, and so on.

The key is being able to access them easily, so you can maintain a rotation of your cans to guarantee you aren’t keeping them too long after the “best by” date. Keep in mind that the food is not necessarily spoiled or unusable after the “best by” date, but it is a good general practice to stay on top of it and make sure your canned food is as fresh as possible.

Organizing Your Canned Food

You can use any kind of box, bin, or palette to keep your cans orderly and neat. Here is how one follower organizes her cans of food–in empty soda can boxes!

Rotating Your Stash of Canned Food

FIFI Method Explained

“FIFO,” or “First In, First Out” is a good principal to live by with your food storage. If you know the expiration date is coming up for some of your food, the best thing to do is try and use it up! If you are consistently buying canned goods your family regularly uses, you can easily incorporate them into your weekly meals before they expire.

Creative Rotation Strategies

One brilliant reader buys about two dozen cans of food at a time all with approximately the same “best by” date, then stores them all together in a box marked with either Thanksgiving or Easter of the year the food expires–whichever holiday is closest to but not after the “best by” date.

Then, if she has not been able to use up the cans of food before the date on the box, she takes the rest to her local food pantry to donate. This way, the food does not go to waste in the trash or get forgotten in storage.

FAQ

Related Food Storage Content

• Food Storage: Where do I begin?
• The 15 Commandments of Food Storage
• Protect Your Food Storage Investment from These 6 Enemies
• The Food Storage Companies I Recommend and Why

Build Your Canned Food Supply FAST with this Workshop!

With global uncertainties on the rise, having a solid food storage plan is essential. I bring my years of expertise to my Quick & Ready Pantry workshop! Forget complicated ‘survival’ kits. This workshop focuses on practical, affordable canned food – the backbone of a reliable emergency supply. You’ll receive:

• A 30-day checklist: Know exactly what to buy.
• Price comparison tools: Find the best deals in your area.
• Simple recipes: Make delicious meals from your canned goods.

All designed to make building your pantry easy and stress-free. Take action now and secure your family’s food supply! Click here and start building your Quick & Ready Pantry today.

Final Thoughts

Don’t wait to get started on your food storage journey! Building a reliable food storage pantry with canned items ensures not only convenience but also peace of mind. The accessibility, affordability, and long shelf life make canned foods an indispensable ally in times of crisis.

What role does canned foods play in your emergency food storage?