Safecastle
Emergency Essentials Store
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These are not "compressed", they are mixed and carefully baked like a thick, dense cookie. When the package is opened and food separated, they are 400 calorie blocks about 1.5" square and a half inch thick. They taste like a thick, dense cookie. Flavor varies by brand, but lemon, vanilla, or coconut are typical and they're not sweet. I keep the lemon flavored (Mainstay brand) and cinnamon-apple flavored (UST brand). They also have extra vitamins added since they are a survival ration. The food is vacuum sealed inside a thick foil package. That package can be carefully stored for at least 5 years in extreme conditions (hot/cold, wet/dry) like say on a lifeboat. Rations like this are US Coast Guard approved for use on...... Lifeboats! The food will be fine for years so long as the foil package is not damaged letting even small amounts of air inside, just like mountain house freeze dried food. I suppose you have a problem with mountain house food as well. Both are expensive and serve a purpose.i dont know why people dont read the ingredients on all those "emergency food bars" !
They are just raw uncooked wheat flour, crisco, white sugar, and salt, compressed into a bar with artificial flavoring (lemon, vanilla etc.) and some few vitamins.
You could make them yourself FOR PENNIES!
Compressing them adds nothing, you just think you are eating food, you might as well just zip lock the paste mixture. Try it, see how long you can eat it instead of real food. Bet it's not even a week, more likely a few days, at most.
After that dry dog or cat food would be more appetizing.
I understand why you look at it that way, but they can be useful, especially in certain environments where you are on the go from point A to point B. In fact, 1911's last paragraph summed up the usefulness of these rations in my AO quite well…i dont know why people dont read the ingredients on all those "emergency food bars" !
They are just raw uncooked wheat flour, crisco, white sugar, and salt, compressed into a bar with artificial flavoring (lemon, vanilla etc.) and some few vitamins.
You could make them yourself FOR PENNIES!
Compressing them adds nothing, you just think you are eating food, you might as well just zip lock the paste mixture. Try it, see how long you can eat it instead of real food. Bet it's not even a week, more likely a few days, at most.
After that dry dog or cat food would be more appetizing.
The reason they are expensive is they are tested and certified to provide the stated nutrition for LONG-TERM STORAGE (Years) in HARSH, HOT CONDITIONS without needing to be replaced every month or 2. It's that simple.THEY ARE A COOKIE!
(no more nutritious than a sugar cookie, with an added multivitamin pill!)
WHY Do they COST more than Japanese STEAK?
You can vacuum seal multi vitamins w/better tasting cookies and get the same nutrition in a more tasty survival ration for $1.25 at the dollar store.Or make your own "sandies", or oatmeal or sugar cookies! bake em hard, rather than soft.
My 80 year old yugoslavian neighbor (who had lived through many wars in yugoslavia,,) still made " survival bread" which was a sweet roll dough, baked with egg, flour , sugar, and yeast, and slowly dried rock hard in the oven
and the rolls were stored in tightly closed popcorn tins , for times when due to war or other reason FOOD WAS UNAVAILABLE. You ate it dipped in hot water or tea to soften it, it was sweet bread.
She also served it to company and at tea time and talked about the wars.