What are the best foods to keep in case of an emergency?

A crateful of Curry! Good for every occasion, good or bad or in THE most dire of situations. Just gotta scrounge up some rice and I'd be ready to Rock n' Roll!

sashimi

Soylent Green

McDonalds

Something that would not require heat, water or special preparations. Crackers, peanut butter, etc.

High protein foods like canned fish (tuna & sardines), baked beans, and nuts. Crackers. Bananas if available. Dried/evaporated milk for young children. A few boxes of 2 liter bottled water for drinking. Nothing that requires heat, water or special preparations as @Dewaashita said.

"sashimi"

That don't keep.

"Soylent Green"

Charleton Heston doesn't recommend that.

"McDonalds"

We're talking about food fit for human consumption, ha ha!

"Crackers, peanut butter"

That's every day food, ha ha! The crackers have to be Ritz, though, not those awful tasting things in the tins in the emergency food kits you can buy.

SPAM ( the meat, not the e-mail )!!

Bananas if available.

What? They dissolve into mush within a few days of buying them.

Dried mangoes. Yum! Sweet enough to make your teeth hurt!

old school kanpan

Bottles of clean water, and Calorie Mate, as well as some essential vitamins and maybe some dried fish or fruit.

Genmai and nuts. You can survive on that for quite a while. But its more important to have a knife with you than any food. You can cut wild vegetables and - if you really have to - kill an animal like a rabbit. You don't even need a pan to heat that. Or you can protect yourself with a knife.

Anything in a can, including beer!

Crackers, nuts, cereals, power bars, dried fruits, canned tuna, salmon or chicken, canned vegetables, water and vitamin supplements.

Twinkies!!!

It'll survive thru any emergency, including nuclear!

"Twinkies"

Tastycakes!

Nothing, do not know what kind of emergency will it be...so? i shall wait for rescue teams with enough food-aid from the world over !

I keep the same food I use for camping trips. Standard re-heatable rations, cookies and MRE's(C-rations). Pemmikan if I cooked uo a batch. Actually most of my camping gear will double well for emergency gear.

Found that most of the so-called "Emergency-Rations" are way over-priced here.

When my son came back from Summer-Camp(by school) they were given emergency biscuits from the wards stocker. They were vacuum sealed "RITZ-Biscuits". ;)

"RITZ-Biscuits"

Well, if they're Ritz, they can't be bad!

Well, if they're Ritz, they can't be bad!

Nope, they were excellent, checked the packet it saids "Nabisco", just expected the standard emergency biscuits you know the ones you can use as a raft, etc.

I'll add a vote to those who mentioned tinned fish and meats. (My favorite is sanma no kabayaki.) Canned salmon is good too.

Also, packages of dried meats like jerky are good. Also, home-canned fruits, vegetables and pickles help to round out an emergency diet.

yabits.

Hope you remember to pack a Can-opener too. Many people forget that little item as they do other important stuff like photos of friends/family, one personal item, etc.

Zenny11:

Ever seen a P-38? One of the best things ever made!

Chia seeds,beans (lentils,chick peas,black beans, mung beans), nuts (walnuts,peanuts) and water..and happy ending ,hopefully.

What the heck kind of emergency are we talking here?!? In my small corner of Osaka City, there are 5 supermarkets, and 3 convenience stores within a 10 minute bike ride.... Do you honestly think I'm gonna grab canned tuna, beef jerky or Calorie Mate?

kansaifun.

Major earthquake, typhoon, etc in short a situation where there will be NO electricity, Water or gas-supply and you will need to fend for yourself for a few days.

Food in the combini, etc will soon get rotten once the refrigeration stops, rest won't last much longer when the looters(who didn't stock up) hit the stores. Ditto for batteries, etc.

Forgot water won't come out of the faucets as the pumps will be without power too.

Zenny11, are you preparing for these natural disasters? or hoping for them? There are about 20 vending machines within 500 meters of my place, so I think I'll be ok. Warm Coca-Cola Zero might not take so great, but it'll keep me alive for a couple of days!

Like I said I got a LOT of camping supplies and food stocked standard.

Have fun with those vending machines, they don 't work too well without power, if they haven't been trashed by falling debris, etc. Unless you are ready to break one open.

You'd be surprised what I can do with a 100yen plastic umbrella!

I'll take my city wits and conveniece stores over camping supplies and emergency food ration sets any day of the week!

A lot of people tell me they stock rice crackers. Those are fine if you want to eat a whole bag of rice crackers in one day. You'll probably want something high in protein, like canned meat or fish, or even peanut butter. Those sorts of foods stick with you a lot longer and satisfy you.

kansaifun.

Have fun. I did my military survival training, etc.

But I reckon you will be in for a shock and wakeup call.

Tins are nice but they also take up a lot of space/weight and create waste. Better have food that can be eaten cold and while on the move(if needed).

I have eaten Alpha rice hot and cold and they do come in some good flavours now.

Mr Donut Angel Creme donuts last a long time. I recently discovered one I had bought... can't remember exactly, but it'd been awhile, and it was still good! Mind you, it had been wrapped up pretty well...

Canned food, food bars, nuts, water.

Canned water?

Well I have (no Joke) cans of re-friend beans (pull top) and vacuumed sealed soft floor and corn tortillas as well as some cans of pork and beans chili, bottles of water and a few other things. From experience you can live a long time on beans and tortillas (even cold) but I also have a Trangia Swedish army alcohol stove (fits in your pocket) and one small pot and small fry pan also have a Platypus quick camping water filtration set and water purification tablets.

All fits in to a 40x30x15 cm, bag (except the bottles of water) and with the filtration system this is enough to sustain a family of 4 ( 2 A & 2 C) for about a month!

Also in there are small portioned vacuum sealed dried fruit, vegetable and nut. (more expensive but less change of losing the entire lot to spoilage)

Actually I have everything for a quick escape in 3 bags Food as described above, emergency medical kit (including sewing needles and various sizes of fishing line), and compact tent sleeping bag, tarp and some vacuumed packed clothing on the veranda (ground floor on the outside so you can get to it any time.

Snickers bar.

@yabits I still have my P38 found it and some C-rations at my grandparent’s cabin. My brother and I ate the crackers and peanut butter was still good! They were from the Korean War. I keep can food and some MRE's for typhoon season.

Cadbury eggs.

kansaifun. you will be shot as a looter. some crackers and a big jar of Kraft peanut butter will keep me for a while. but depends on what kind of emergency we are talking about.

Water and canned food -- they last for a long time (and make sure you have a can opener as well). Also suger (again, it last for a long time and it has high calories.

Canned chili con carne with beans. Saltine crackers to crush and sprinkle over the top of the chili. Packets of pre-steamed rice. Water. Beer. More beer.