1.) Salt
2.) Sugar
3.) Rice (white and wild)
4.) corn starch
5.) honey ( a guy in my town sells 4litre pails of the good raw stuff for 30 bucks) I also wanna get my own hives but am worried about it in some ways, aaaaah stings lol
6.) distilled white vinegar
7.) baking powder
8.) dried items are getting expensive and some do not last all that long but can be cycled out
9.) canned foods, jams, and fruits also have to be cycled, but can also still be good well beyond their best before date as seen in previous posts, as well knowing how to make your own, will go a long way in keeping everyone healthy
10.) Ammo can of a bunch of packs of seeds used in garden each year I like to cycle out my old seeds for new ones in the ammo can's; make sure you have 2 to 3 times more then your garden requires as long term storage of seeds can result in lower germination. been trying to learn more about collecting my own seeds from my own garden but this is taking time to get down to a science.
11.) I eat a lot of wild meat and need to get better at drying it over a wood burning stove on racks. Also I haven't counted lately or adding much (which is a shame cause it is always getting more expensive to) but i think I have about 5000 rounds of various types of ammo.

Their is a lot of things and items and tools, but for food that should be a pretty solid start and all. I do believe 1-7 to be foods that can potentially outlast you if properly stored, but as always check each year or more to make sure they are doing well to avoid unforeseen issues sure as bugs, mould or whatever might potentially go wrong. keep all items in a cool dark dry place. Most are not direct eat and live items, but have huge needs to foods you might grow, hunt and cook with.

I know a lot of people here can add other items and tips and tricks and tool that you might need. I live in the country so it may or may not be for you, best of luck and I do hope this info has been a little useful to you. Opps almost forgot flour too

Great question.

My first answer is - depends on what you eat. Most people seem to start with food items that are on sale: rice, pasta, canned tuna/ham, dried beans(or canned beans).

I am one of those people that just buy / dry / can a bit more. So if say lentils are on sale I will buy 5 instead of 1. That way I have a little "extra" of everything. Fruit & veggies, I try to store a years worth at a time as it is cheaper.

If you are past the "stage" of having several months worth of "regular" food items, I would then start to add things like soap, shampoo, the non food items.

Sorry I can't give you anything specific as each person is different and has different eating habits.

A little bit of everything that YOU CAN MAKE MEALS OUT OF!

I find it much easier to think in terms of meals. Start with a weeks or months supply of breakfasts, lunches and dinners:

Oatmeal, brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon and canned or powdered milk.
Cold cereal and milk.
Pasta and sauce.
Rice, canned meat and spices.
Tuna, crackers and mayo etc.

Lots of rice and nothing to eat it with will get boring really fast. Remember this food may be for next month when the month is longer than the money instead of the end of the world. What do you like to eat?? then figure out how to store it long term.

Animal grade whole wheat from a feed store because its the single cheapest food source for bulk fall back long term storage. 20$ will fill 3 buckets.
Rice and beans because it lasts almost as long and Im more likely to eat it than the wheat.
Pasta. It wont store as long but Im more likely to eat it than the rice or beans.
Campbell's soups because they regularly go on sale and become a sauce that can flavour anything. A single 50 cent can of soup on pasta, rice, or beans(Mixed with whatever you can scrounge) can feed many.
Comfort foods...because stress or abrupt food change may cause you not to eat. This includes sugar to sweeten wild foods like wild apples that may never become fully ripe.

This is my economical system to make food storage as cheap as possible, thus more likely to continue.
The general rule is "Store what you use. Use what you Store. Use it or lose it."
Some of my stores are intended to never use if I don't have to but the majority is food I use dayly so that it can be rotated. One last point is to eat foods that are unusual to you now but you can get plenty of. This is training and adaption. Im training myself to eat that food I may not particularly like so its not a psychological shock. I know from experience that under stress, I may not feed myself if I don't like the food at hand. example. Im not a big fan of salad greens or wild apples but there is a lot of it here and the greens self seed. I might not like it but I try to eat it when I can so Im used to it or atleast know what it can be cooked into so I dislike it less.

1. Rice (I like Jasmine)
2. Beans (an assortment)
3. Powedered Milk ( I have kids... Also stocking vanilla extract to make it more palatable drinking it straight)
4. Veggies (canned and dehydrated)
5. Condiments (honey, vanilla, sugar, salt, spices)
I agree with "Store what you eat, eat what you store." Things like honey, salt, sugar, vanilla... will last forever

Pasta,
Rice,
Canned veggies and fruits,
Canned soups

Now, I'm 100% behind store what you eat and eat what you store, but we make one exception. Our family loves cooking, so we have a bit of a problem with eating Chef Boyardee and like canned food. We store quite a bit of it for the convenience of those being ready-to-eat, but wouldn't necessarily eat them in normal times. So, as a mean of convincing Mrs H. about stocking on those, we have agreed to buy them and give them to charity a couple of months before the best before date. I think this is a fair compromise. We rotate our stock by buying a few cans when they come on sale, so it's not like we would go drop 3 flats of Boyardee at the food bank at once.

I find myself agreeing with most people here, however, I disagree with having canned goods - or atleast having canned goods as a primary storing/preservation method where long-term food storage is concerned. This is because of the chemical leeching of BPA found in most canned products. We'll leave this discussion for another thread. What you should be really thinking about is nutrients. It doesn't matter what food you store unless you consider the following two questions:

1. What are the most nutrient-rich foods?
2. What is the most effective way to preserve these nutrient-rich foods for long-term?

Everyone here will have a subjective opinion based on what they like to eat, what they have easy access, what's cheap, and/or what they can grow themselves, etc. etc. But this doesn't matter because from a survivor/prepping perspective food is equivalent to energy and if you seek to survive then obtaining/preparing/consuming foods based on my two questions above will suddenly make sense - distinguishing any subjective opinion, based on (what is usually) 'what they like to eat'. This isn't to say that I don't have stock piles of beef stroganoff (because I enjoy beef stroganoff). However, I believe I've made my point.

Because I'm in a position where I've dealt with many amateur preppers asking the same or similar questions my advice to you would be to approach food storage or what to store in the following manner:

1. Think bulk: - This would include things that you use every other day, some of which have multiple purposes where food is concerned. Specific food types would be foods like salt (excellent preservative), sugar, soup base, honey (excellent shelf-life), oats, rice, wheat (not flour), dehydrated vegetables, dehydrated fruits, etc. In most cases the meals you like to eat will derive from raw, bulk food sources.

Ok, so now you have some bulk foods (pm for the best prices in Ontario - because (trust me) I've done the homework to find them). Now what?

2. Think meals and focus on what you like: - This is where you 'think' of how to combine all your bulk food sources into individual dishes. This occurred to me some time ago when I was sampling a 5 pound bag of mac/cheese powder mix.

Awesome, I've got my bulk pasta and cheese mix, I'm going to try it out!

It occurred to me that I didn't have 'all' the necessary ingredients to actually make this dish. What was missing was milk and butter. Powdered milk is a easy source from the LDS (alternative/other sources - I'll save for another thread). Storing butter for long term is another story (I've canned butter according to some old-school ladies on youtube that have been doing it for years but you may find it more convenient to use Ghee). The questions you should be asking yourself are: what ingredients are missing? What do I need to complete meal 'x'?

With that said - focus on foods you like and already eat: It will be easier to transition yourself in what could be a daunting situation to preparing meals that you're already used to eating. This is what you like to eat and foods that you already eat daily. Take this time to think about how to make that specific recipes for your favorite risotto from the 25 pound of rice that you have. If you've canned your 5 pounds of ground beef what would it take to make that great recipe (from Che) for Chili?

Ok. so now you've got some bulk food items and ways to make some specific meal ideas, now what?

3. Focus on nutrient rich-foods: A true prepper would focus on this from the get-go. This is because the foods you eat have a direct correlation with your energy, performance, mind, etc. However, it could be argued that going from beef stroganoff to a diet of spinach could be quite a shock to your system and even more-so considering the potential circumstances.

The best way to retain the nutrients of foods and/or preserve them for long-term is a completely different topic.

Nevertheless, my personal top 5 foods - (based on many factors which would exhaust this post at this time) would be as follows with the first one within each category being 'number 1':

1. Dehydrated vegetable flakes (spinach, broccoli, etc.)
2. Grains (Rice, Oats, Barley, wheat etc.)
3. Honey (make sure it's unpasteurized)
4. Legumes (black beans, kidney beans, lima beans)
5. Dehydrated fruit (black berries, blueberries, bananas, etc.)

Taste is subjective - however once the core competencies of what you personally like has been established the real focus should be on that of nutrients. This is because it doesn't matter what you enjoy eating. What matters is what is going to make you the most effective, clear-minded, energy-driven and healthy individual in a situation where you'll likely need such attributes more then ever. That's where my current focus is at where food preservation is concerned.

Che,
Well said.

I disagree on one point, well kind of - "This is because it doesn't matter what you enjoy eating. What matters is what is going to make you the most effective, clear-minded, energy-driven and healthy individual in a situation where you'll likely need such attributes more then ever. That's where my current focus is at where food preservation is concerned."

If you don't enjoy eating something, you are not going to eat it no matter how hungry you get. After my jaw surgery several years ago I stopped eating. It was only my doctor threatening me with putting me in the hospital that got me eating again. Mind you that was before I heard about food fatigue. So if you don't like eating something, I think that finding a way to make it enjoyable is needed. For example: if you hate eating cauliflower, it can be cooked, mashed and mixed in with mashed potatoes and you wont taste it.

Having a top 5 is great but you also need a way to vary the flavor too. Not really a "food" item but I think spices need to be part of the top 5.

I disagree on one point, well kind of...
If you don't enjoy eating something, you are not going to eat it no matter how hungry you get.

😆

No... if you're actually hungry, not just needing food/energy but hungry, you will eat whatever is available and LOVE it.

I hate fish, no matter how it's filleted, cooked or served or what it's served alongside... i find it disgusting. But when I'm out on a long trek, days/a week without a significant meat source, working hard and logging long miles and a buddy or I are able to catch a couple fish, you can be darn sure I'm scarfing that disgusting mushy meat into my face for dinner and gleefully licking the fishy juice off my fingers because i'm hungry!

Any prepper has numerous "work weekends" per year. If you've stocked stuff you don't like eating, find an interesting way to work it into the recipes on those work weekends when you're pushing your body to its max and when it'll be hungry enough to eat anything. Almost anything can be baked into a homemade bread loaf and turned tasty that way.

I have basics like oats and pasta and rice, chickpeas and lentils but I fill it out with a bit of everything as mentioned above. Spices and sugar and salt too. And I run my storage food as my pantry I use stuff from all the time .

I disagree on one point, well kind of...
If you don't enjoy eating something, you are not going to eat it no matter how hungry you get.

😆

No... if you're actually hungry, not just needing food/energy but hungry, you will eat whatever is available and LOVE it.

I was just passing buy to answering someone's question when I noticed this and thought "Outch! I better chime in on this."

I've known hunger(more than once). I've known extended periods of malnutrition. I think we are trying to talk about stressed based eating.

During the worst part of my PTSD, during the period that I was quite literally dieing from the stress as organs began to rebel, past the period of arrhythmia and having not taken a solid shit in a year and even my body was trying to just let go. During the period, that I now look back on and realise I was 6 to 8 months away from death, where I cried myself to sleep each night wile praying to any god or demon that would listen to please let me not wake up again, I had pretty much stopped eating. I was living on coffee and nicotine to keep going as apatite suppressants(as well as beer for the calories alone). Each day I would walk to the store and walk through the isles looking for anything I could force down. Force past the gag reflex. I might eat a proper meal once a week....or two, but the reality was that most days I could only force down a bag of chips or a box of cookies, to stave off the nausea.
I kept going as best I could for as long as I could but I understand there are some experiences not worth living through and I don't judge those that just let go. I kept going until luck presented an opportunity...and I made it. I survived. I found a way and place to heal and then rebuild. My survival lifestyle and preps kept me going for a few years and really helped. I lost old friends during this point that just didn't want to watch me die...and they wont be re invited to share in my success and prosperity. I learned a few things from the experience that I share now. No one is arguing against nutritious choices but my experience taught me that calories and comfort outweighs nutrition. Im not worried about being an ubber ninja suddenly only eating seaweed and raw fish on rice backed up by protein drinks as a survival plan. BTH laced canned goods aren't a big concern to me when thinking about how to make very nutritious but calorie and fat weak foods like dandelion, rose buds and jack rabbit...be forced past a stressed gullet.
I read an article, this week, by Selco, the Survival writer that made it through the Bosnia war experience. He talked about one of his family members that creaped him out because he wore pink fuzzy slippers and mits when in the house because it soothed him and reminded him of (probably grandma) and positive memories. It helped him survive. Him surviving helped the group survive. The subject he was trying to point out (and I am trying to mirror by being so personal about my experience) is the necessity of thinking about protecting human dignity to survive brutal levels of stress. The SHTF is not a great time for social experiments or food ideology. Better to make things as easy on yourself as possible.

Strangely, This weekend, I'll be giving a public talk on food storage. This post has given me some prep work as I know some of these questions and assertions will probably come up. Thanks, everyone, for the opportunity to mentally wrestle with the subject maner.

One of the most popular foods to store is rice.
I HATE RICE...
That being said, I do make rice at least once a week for dinner, but rarely eat much of it if any.
The trick is to make it in a way that I actually will eat, and possibly even enjoy it.
Be creative..I found that using a can of minestrone soup instead of just water worked for me.
I guess there is a balance between storing what you eat and eating what you store.
Now, to go stock up on minestrone soup!
This is just one example of how seasoning can be just as important as the staples.

I think it's a balance thing too. I wish I could eat 100% organic, backyard grown/raised, but this isn't possible. In a long term survival situation, my family won't care much if the canned peas are GMO'd, so long as they still get a somewhat balanced and calorie rich diet, they will still be better than the vast majority of the population. As for cans releasing chemicals, I'll take my chance with long term illness as opposed to immediate hunger and starvation.

T.M.I. LOL
I realised after writing it...that I sent a Too Much Information post, last time. Nothing to be done about it now...but wile waking up, I realised I wanted to clarify it abit more. Sam Sheridan, the writer of The Disaster Diaries, wrote that after (Zombies or alien invasion) disaster, PTSD would be the norm more than the exception. After prolonged stress, you have to consider the affects of nausea on your food preps. With myself, It was the accumulation of the perpetual emotions of Rage, Sorrow, Terror, Hate, Loss Etc. that was causing the body to pump in all kinds chemicals. Think, running a Datsun on rocket fuel continually for years. It felt like my blood had become acidic from the moment I woke up to the point I passed out.
The point I am trying to make is to think about this in consideration to what you store. What foods do you eat when you are sick, when you have a cold or flu...or hang over. What did you eat after a break up. Store plenty of this on top of The nutritious food.