Food
Store what you eat, eat what you store. Everything else is detail.
The rule
- Buy a bit extra of what your household already eats.
- New tins go to the back, old ones to the front.
- A stash nobody likes is just an expensive shelf.
First three days
- Food that needs no cooking and no fridge: tinned fish and beans, crackers, nut butter, dried fruit, cereal bars.
- Something for comfort. Chocolate counts as morale equipment.
- Remember babies, allergies and anyone on a special diet.
Going deeper
- Rice, oats, pasta, lentils, beans, flour, oil, salt and sugar are the cheap backbone.
- Dry goods last years in sealed food-grade buckets, cool and dark.
- Write the month you bought it on everything.
- Do not forget spices. Month two of plain rice is a mood.
Fridge and freezer in an outage
- Keep the doors shut. A fridge stays cold about 4 hours.
- A full freezer holds about 48 hours, half full about 24.
- Throw out meat, fish, eggs and leftovers that sat in a dead fridge more than 4 hours.
- When in doubt, throw it out. Food poisoning without running water is a bad week.
More from official sources
Updated 9 October 2026.