There’s lots of products and brands to choose from as you navigate the food storage market. I decided to gather up all my favorites — and ask around to others — in order to compile an unbiased list as to what’s been opened, tasted and passed off as being of good quality you can depend on. If you’re storing foods that are not on this list, please be sure to open them up yourself and TRY them! If they’re good, let us know in the comments!
Most people want to save these foods for an emergency rather than open them to try. I understand, they’re pricey and you don’t want to open the can. However, please don’t do that! You might find out at the worst time (when it’s a crisis) that you’ve stored an inedible product and worse yet, that you don’t have the ingredients you were depending on after all.
As far as what’s out there, I can speak from personal experience that some of the things I’ve bought and opened have been awful. I don’t care how hungry my kids found themselves, there would be *no way* they would eat some of the things I’ve been forced to throw away. The good news though is that there are some very good products out there along side the bad ones.
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Before getting into all of this though, I’m going to update you on a few food storage “housekeeping” items I’ve been trying out and discovering lately since I haven’t been blogging much.
- Something that’s worked really well: I’ve been streamlining my bread making day (from my post here) by using the pantry meal idea of measuring out ingredients ahead of time. Usually, as you saw in the post, I make the same recipe 3-4 times to make all the bread we’ll need for a few weeks. Simply by getting rid of the re-measuring each time by doing it ahead of starting I’ve cut a good hour off of my overall time. I think it’s been the distractions in between all the measuring that have been costing time but with this I start by measuring everything first and set it aside until I need it.
- Tiffin Boxes!! A reader tipped me off to these as a container idea for Wonder Oven cooking. I love them!! They’re a great size, made of thin metal (which is exactly what we want) and be able to cook multiple things at once. You have the option of taking them apart and only using one at a time with it’s lid (inside a pot of water) or getting the boxes hot and filling each one with hot food (being sure to not leave much air space, in order to keep everything hot) before locking together and placing in the Wonder Oven to cook. They have them at World Market stores, but you can find all types both large and small by shopping on the internet.
- Brownie Fail: Continuing my attempts to get brownies to work in the Wonder Oven, I tried them in the container I use normally to make muffins in (the dredger cup/ salt and pepper shaker which are about the size of a soup can) as well as my new tiffin box. Neither worked. Even with the smaller container sizes the brownies didn’t cook through. I don’t have a lot of hope in getting brownies (or cake, anything with a lot of sugar I think is the problem) to work for Wonder Oven cooking, but if any of you have figured it out we’d all LOVE to hear it!
Favorite Products I Buy and Use
Okay, time to start the ingredient run down! I begin many of the classes I teach with the following picture emphasizing (albeit humorously) how we’re all a little weirded out by food storage foods and cooking with them. They’re a mystery until you open the can! Well, fear no more my friends, fear no more.
I’m going to break my list into sections to simplify it a little bit, but first I’ll mention that all of these opinions are my own. I’ve never been paid by a manufacturer to promote a product so this is all “from my own can opener” so to speak.
My motivation is simply that I don’t want you to waste any of your money on terrible food storage products! Most food storage opinions out there aren’t based on trying (and tasting) the products so much as selling the products, so an unbiased opinion is called for. Also, there are *a lot* of other ingredients I use in my cooking but I’ve had to narrow this post down to the ones I’ve had either a brand or other opinion on.
I hope it’s helpful! Here we go!!
Products sold in a #10 can
Rainy Day — Egg powder
I’ve never had need to try another brand with this one! I’ve been happy with the way it behaves in baking, in homemade pasta and even as an “egg” wash on homemade bread. Another brand for egg powder I’ve been told is good is Augason Farms. Julene commented (over in these comments) it was the brand she switched from and has been very happy with it.
The next brand I trust is…
and there are a number of products I only buy from them based on trying other brands. Here’s my “only from Thrive” list:
*Sour Cream
*Tomato powder
*Butter Powder (Btw, here’s another unbiased opinion to read on their butter powder)
*Freeze dried Cheese
*Freeze dried Fruits/ Vegetables: Everything except onions (which are still just fine w/ Thrive, I just prefer the bigger cut of onion I’ve gotten through Provident Pantry’s brand.)
*FD Sausage Crumbles
*FD Ground Beef
*FD Freeze dried ham dices
* And one more (while I haven’t tried this myself, I’ve been told…) Thrive has a scrambled egg mix (made of only eggs) that’s supposed to be really good. Keep it in mind!
Another thing I like about Thrive is their smaller “pantry” cans. Especially for where I live, the humidity alone ruins anything left over in the larger cans — I have to re-package with my food saver whatever is left if I want to keep it. The smaller sized cans make perfect sense.
Provident Pantry (Emergency Essentials):
Freeze Dried Onion
Shortening powder (For this product I’ve never shopped around, it’s been just fine so I’ve stuck with it. I’m sure other brands like Thrive also have a decent product.)
Grandma’s Country Cream:
Powdered milk (link here): Hands down the BEST tasting powdered milk there is.
Honeyville:
Ova Easy Egg Powder for scrambled eggs. Truly an AMAZING product! (See my full review in this post.)
As far as the rest of Honeyville’s products, others who have had more experience with Honeyville (I honestly haven’t tried very much from them) have been happy with many items in their line. Favorites (from a comment here) included their hashbrowns, celery, diced potatoes, mixed veggies, zucchini, strawberries and blueberries.
Additionally, I reached out to a preparedness forum to asking about any favorite products anyone had tasted and liked. Honeyville came up and here’s a comment which included some additional praise:
“We love the Honeyville freeze dried mushrooms and Honeyville tomato powder.
Regarding the freeze dried mushrooms:
Aside from the almost obligatory addition to vegetable soups, I have found it great for making cream of mushroom soup and – my favorite way to use them – in pasta free lasagna.
My family has always loved lasagna so when we went wheat-free over a year ago there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth at the thought of not having our favorite lasagna.
After some experimenting I found that I could kinda/sorta imitate the old recipe by using thin slices of zucchini as a substitution for the large lasagna noodles. However, due to the high moisture content of the zucchini, the new recipe was soggy and much too wet for our liking.
Next time I prepared lasagna I added a layer of un-rehydrated freeze dried mushrooms for every layer of zucchini. Wowzer! It was great! The new recipe is now everyone’s favorite, even over the old noodle based variety.
Regarding the tomato powder:
Love it. Love it. Love it. Can make everything from soup to sauce to ketchup. Love its robust flavor and non-tinny taste. It can really perk up a dish and would be a vital addition to all the traditional long term storage foods.”
And (sorry) but actually I do have to mention one product of theirs to watch out for…
So this is going to be the only negative review I’m going to pass along today and it’s only because I’ve shared so many good things about this brand that I don’t want you to just assume everything they have is great and end up spending money on a bad product. The problem I’ve been told is with their butter powder; and I have to say, I’ve gone through three butter powder brands myself (not including Honeyville), so I know it’s a tricky product to get right. Anyway, here’s my friend Sherida’s review on their butter powder as found at the bottom of a blog post she did found here. {Btw, the “milk taste test” results this link takes you to were later revised at the beginning of this post with the winner being, once again, Grandma’s Country Cream milk!}
Okay, so here’s what she says about her experience with Honeyville’s butter:
“One lesson I have learned from all of this is to NEVER, EVER store food you have not tried. I know it’s so tempting. Food storage can be expensive and you don’t want to waste a whole can just trying it out, but you could be really sorry if you don’t. Some of the food I was storing turned out to be completely inedible (like Honeyville Grain Butter) and I had to throw it all in the trash. Now THAT is expensive.”
Take it for what it’s worth.
Canned and Grocery Store Items
Red Feather:
Real “meltable” butter
Canned butter is a “premium” food storage food but IMO worth it in certain recipes since there’s no replacement sometimes for meltable butter. Straight out of the can it isn’t exactly like the butter you buy at the store — it’s a little bit like butter mixed with shortening — but melted into things (the way I use it in the recipes you see here) it’s very good and can make food storage recipes taste much better.
Btw, I hear that Red Feather canned butter is being featured as the group special over at Emergency Essentials for the month of November for the price of $5.00/ can. As a comparison, I bought mine through Internet Grocer for $7.50/ can, so that’s not a bad deal.
Kirkland Brand Canned Meats:
Kirkland brand chicken and roast beef. Preferred over freeze dried chicken and beef, I’ve been really happy with the canned chicken and roast beef from Costco.
Dunbar Roasted Red Peppers:
They rated high on a taste test while still being the cheapest brand out there. Btw, I’ve found mine at Walmart to buy.
Giorgio (Canned) Portabella Mushrooms
I’m constantly being asked by readers wondering where to buy these mushrooms! I buy them at a local grocery store we have here but if you can’t find them I’d suggest you give the company a call. Here’s their contact page. Just ask them where in your area these can be found…they’re definitely worth the call!
Flour
I don’t store canned flour. It’s “metal-like” tasting to me, so we buy our flour at the grocery store and I store it in these airtight containers (btw, you can see the rest of the post here to see how I rotate these containers). The containers I use can be found here.
Barilla brand “No Boil” Lasagna Noodles
I absolutely LOVE these noodles for food storage recipes. First, they taste great — much like homemade noodles– but also, they require very little water to soften rather than a full pot of boiling water. You can check out this recipe (…or this one) to see some of the ways I’ve loved using these noodles.
And finally: Other people have already tried it (and lived to tell) so you don’t have to!
I like discovering new and better products to try! In case you missed it, there’s a post that compiles a number of products from taste tests winners (based on grocery store items) that can be stored. READ IT HERE. We don’t have to settle for the (sometimes blah) products we’ve always used…check out what’s new and see what there is to try!
Other Food Storage Items
Heavy Cream Powder
I’ve tried both of the brands of this product that I found to buy on Amazon. There wasn’t any difference between the two that I could tell, so I recommend Willpowder’s brand now just because it’s cheaper. This product is an amazing addition to your ho hum storage, making all kinds of things possible where they weren’t before. Use it to make pantry made cream cheese, add it into sauces (esp. tomato based/ acidic sauces where evaporated milk will separate if used), added into hot chocolate mix, pantry made whipped cream, etc. I did make butter with it once, but only to see if it was possible. {Not the best option for making butter for how long the process took with the product’s anti caking ingredient.}
As far as it’s storage life, there’s nothing listed for how long it lasts and I even once called the company and they couldn’t tell me. I’ve intentionally left a container to “test” myself, opened since January and it’s fine still, even with the humidity and heat we get. And remember the container isn’t large, (I can use up a container with 2 recipes of cream cheese) so it won’t be opened very long before it’s used.
I know you’ll be happy with this product!
Another great brand I’ve liked is…
BBQ Powder — I’ve used this in this recipe, but the main reason I like it is because I can choose how much sauce I want to make (even just a little) rather than having to commit and open an entire bottle of BBQ sauce. From a food storage perspective that makes a lot of sense.
Whisk Bliss — This is Shirley J’s universal cooking base that works as a base in soups and sauces. By adding different seasonings to it you can use it in a variety of ways.
Chicken Bouillon — the only chicken Bouillon I’ve seen that’s made without MSG! As soon as I finish using up the supply I already have, this is the product I’ll be switching to.
Chia Seeds
Besides being extremely good for you, chia seeds work to replace eggs as a binder in foods such as meatballs. While you’re able to replace eggs with egg powder in baking, chia seeds are how you replace eggs in a recipe if you’re looking for a replacement to glue it all together. Check out this recipe (or this one) to get an idea of how they work!
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Want to copy a cheesy flavor in a healthier way? Nutritional yeast does the trick. You can sprinkle it on popcorn or used it in a full fledged cheesy comfort food (like this one).
Acidophilus Tablets
Crushed and added into a milk mixture, these tablets will “start” a yogurt without having to have an actual yogurt start on hand. Yogurt is possible with this ingredient — even in a food storage plan! (See the recipe here, btw.) Acidophilus tablets can be found to buy at vitamin stores.
Citric Acid Powder
Another vitamin store item, this powder is what I use to make a pantry ricotta style cheese that we like. It works to curdle the milk to make a soft cheese. Definitely an “out of the box” pantry item, but one I use all the time!
Psyllium Seed Husks
This ingredient is just too cool not to include in this list! Another “binder”-type ingredient, psyllium seed husks are able to absorb liquids to great degrees while also being good for our bodies. Because of it’s absorbing qualities it absorbs the liquids and literally pulls everything together! You can see it work over in this recipe.
And lastly, the word is…
Without mentioning specific products, I had a number of people I asked who referred generally to a couple other specific food storage vendors as having good products. Again, be sure you try these vendor’s products before storing them in large quantities, but these should be some companies to consider. I haven’t tried them myself.
Walton Foods
Mountain House
Check with your local h&s departments to see if there has been a problem with your winco first. There was a report here in cal. About a year ago regarding several of the name brand stores including them that have open bins. They found germ problems due to kid, adults and transient getting food out of the bins with there hands. Kids are the worst for grabbing a quick snack, but I’ve seen some grubby adults reaching in for stuff and eating it straight away to. They are good places to go if you want to get a small amount to test first. Many will sell unopened buckets if you ask.
Good point and one I hadn’t thought of. You definitely don’t want to store away contaminated food! Thanks for that.
Great list! We’ve been considering adding some more of these types of items to storage, so it’s nice to get an opinion of them from a real human who’s not simply intent on selling a specific item.
Thanks, Laurie!
Hi, Eat what you store – Store what you eat!! You said at the end that you had not tried Walton Feed but I think that Rainy Day Foods ( your egg powder ) and Walton Feed are the same company.
True, I looked it up and they’re a division of Walton Feed (which I didn’t know). I’ve never actually ordered from Walton Feed itself, my Rainy Day products were sold by a third party so I didn’t know they were connected. Thanks for the tip!
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Thanks so much! My family has been trying to decide what to buy for awhile. We’ve been very intimidated. Your list had items I didn’t even know were made. Can’t wait to finally start shopping and then get back here to start cooking! You truly have been instrumental in getting us to take the next step.
I love love love getting comments like this — you made my day! I’m so glad you’re on your way! 🙂
I use Walton Feed twice a year for bulk as well as #10 can items. I have had NOTHING that hasn’t been good to excellent. All bulk items were fresh and all #10 can items were as they were advertised.
Great to hear your review on that brand! Thanks for your comment!
Just another plug for thrive, we feature a high quality food grade enamel coating inside and outside of our cans called “epoxy fenolic gold ” which prevents any metal contaminating the flour, for example, and to prevent rusting in the outside, which is common in humid climates. Though there are still some things I always buy in pantry cans being that I live in Houston. Those would be egg powder and tomato powder for starters. Thank you Megan for such an outstanding blog!
Great to know! Thanks!
Hi everyone, I wanted to interject here and help out with this discussion. As a product advisory board member and platinum consultant at Thrive life (Shelf Reliance), I can tell you unequivocally that Thrive is its own brand, sourced and manufactured at superior standards unlike our competitors. We do not sell our product to another company to package and nor do we package another competitors food in our cans. When our facility is at a low running time, we contract our packaging machinery out to other companies to use. This is called co-packing. There is no intermingling of the food product whatsoever and our production standards stay in tact. Our machines are shut down between each run and decontaminated for 2 hours. Co-packing, which is sharing of machinery, is very common in the industry. If you have further questions or concerns, you are welcome to contact me through my website at http://www.thrivehomebusiness.com. There will be a form you can fill out to get a hold of me. Thank you! 🙂
Oh – I have bought a lot of Walton Food stuff many years ago. What I have tried has been good. If you ever go to the Teton’s you can stop by their warehouse & buy some on the way from Utah. When you are out-of-Utah they are a lifesaver – I got group orders and brought them into California all the time – they go all over the U.S. – good prices & huge variety.
I love Whisk Bliss but it is soooo expensive! I got the big jars of Shirley J seasons & bouillon though. I’d love to get the cream powder too but once again – very expensive so I get the shelf stable whipping cream from Gossner’s Cheese in Logan when I am up that way. I notice that Honeyville Farms sells it now too. I have had it 1 1/2 years and used with no trouble – past the use by date I know. So I just try to keep some on hand (sold in pints or quarts) – is very fairly priced too!
I also found a store in Rigby Idaho that sells a lot online – puts together their own excellent mixes – good sales. Prepared Pantry – this is a 5* quality & taste is out of this world. http://www.preparedpantry.com
Thanks for your great info! Arlene
Oh, yes, Gossner’s, I’ve heard wonderful things about them. A friend of mine made butter with their cream just to test it. (link here for anyone who wants to see it.) I wish I were in UT! Now if Honeyville sells it, (for the rest of us outside of UT) that would awesome!! I looked it up but couldn’t find it so I’ve left a message on their customer service line. Also, it’s been a while but I remembered that I have tried some of Prepared Pantry’s things and they were great! Thanks for that reminder and FYI! I’ll be updating the post with all of these tips from the comments (and others I’m getting by email) so these will be some good ones to add to the list.
Megan, Just wanted to tell you what my research has found. Mountain House (subsidiary of Oregon Freeze Dry Foods) makes most freeze dried/dehydrated foods and then they are repackaged inc. Provident Pantry/Emergency Essentials, Thrive, Shelf Reliance, & Easy Meal.
the ones that are independent are Grandma’s Country Cream, Honeyville, Five Star/Augason Farms. Daily Bread we don’t know but suspect Mountain House.
It is hard to get this info but my nephew ferreted it out. Thought you would find it interesting.
Thank you very much for that, Arlene. I knew there was some repackaging but I didn’t know which were connected. That’s helpful information to keep in mind! A question I’d have, I’ve tried nearly everything (freeze dried fruit/ vegetable) from Provident Pantry and then again from Thrive, and Thrive’s has been noticeably different between the two (it being a better quality). From what I’ve tasted, I can’t imagine those two are connected and repackaged only with different labels. I’d love to hear from a Thrive insider if that’s really the case or not.
Just saw this (linked from your post on PPN today). Great post first of all! So thorough! In answer to this Thrive question though, the Thrive owners (who are good friends of mine) actually meet each of their suppliers (some of whom could be the same suppliers as other companies) personally. They also taste each batch as it comes into their warehouse in bulk. They absolutely do not re-sell another company’s product. They have suppliers all over the world….most are in the US, some are in South America and a few in Europe. None in China. But the supplier for each product is decided individually based on quality. I too have tried many, many different brands (before deciding what to buy for my family), and I have only found 1 Thrive product I didn’t like (the roast beef) whereas with other companies…some I didn’t like ANY of their products, some I liked some, hated some, and others had quite a few I liked, but not all. I went with for my family Thrive b/c I pretty much knew whatever I got would be high quality. After all that research, I decided to sell it b/c I believe in it so strongly and want people to get quality food if they are going to invest the money. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other good products out there (as is evidenced by this fantastic post), but I know I can trust the Thrive brand 100%. So for me, it is simpler that way. I don’t have to guess or taste test anymore.
Awesome, thanks for the insider’s info Misty! Please pass along my thanks to Thrive’s owners or what they started!! I’m personally very grateful for a company who places such a high emphasis on quality.
Some Mountain House products are sold in small, 2 serving sizes at Wal-Mart in the camping section. An inexpensive way to sample their entrees.
So I have been looking at the tiffin boxes. What size would you get? So you would be a( cook a few different things in the wonder oven at the same time right? How ’bout a blog post demo????
(in all your spare time)
Oh yah, for sure, those tiffin boxes are on my list now, I just have to get it figured out enough to teach it, lol.;) Currently in R& D stage but it’ll be here once I get it figured out. The size from World Market fits great in the pots I already have. The taller ones might be a little trickier to find a large pot but they could be used all on their own if they were heated.
Great list! I’ve been a food storage “nut” for over 35 years and am just now venturing into the freeze-dried stuff. It’s great to know other peoples opinions and experiences with them.
You put so much work into your site and recipes. Thank you so much. I have learned things I never even thought about!
Thanks for that and thanks for your kind words. Hopefully this can be the start of a conversation where people can feel comfortable adding in their two cents on products they try as we go along. 🙂
How do you make any money to compensate for your time and efforts writing this blog? Are you a Thrive dealer? I’d buy through your consultant code.
Thanks for the offer but no, I’m not one and I actually don’t make anything off of what I do. Basically I know I have something valuable that other people need. It’s worth it to me because at some point — with the way things are going in the world– I think it’ll be needed. If everyone is only talking about food storage products with the intent to make money off of it we’ll never get the whole picture and get what needs to be done accomplished. I prefer *not being paid* so I can continue to express honest opinions without conflicts of interest.
A lot of time and effort went into this post, it is a wonderful resource, thank you!
You’re very kind. It’s worth it to me. This is a market where a lot hangs in trusting that the food will be good when it’s needed (when there may not be anything else to eat). I’ve found so many bad products that I worry about what people are storing unknowingly.
Thanks so much for this wealth of information. This gives me a starting place to purchase and try new products.
Oh, you’re welcome. I’m glad to be able to use my experience with it to help!
What a wealth of information you have provided! About the Tiffin pans, have you used them to bake bread in? Thanks!
No, I haven’t used them for bread yet. Our family eats too much bread and the little loaves they’d make aren’t worth that extra work of dividing up the dough for us. They’d totally work though, you’d just end up with a little loaf. I’m working on a few different ideas with these, I’m sure I’ll have more to share soon. Thanks! 🙂
As usual you are amazing! At least Sherida and Angie and Patricia and other great folks are in the group but I sure wish you could move back here!, any chance of that?
Oh, I miss all of you SO much too, Pam! TX is way too far away. The best I can try for is a visit right now…hopefully soon, and I’ll be sure to stop by the group if/when that happens!
Well it sure would be great! I have a good friend who moved to Utah and another very close friend that moved to Idaho so I just don’t see them! My only consolation is we can all get together in the eternities!
I agree with most of your reviews…LOVE the milk…Emergency Essetials also good to me. I have a question…on the containers you use for the flour…do the bugs keep out of them? I call them “meal” bugs…not sure what they are really called. Thanks for lettting me know. Also…I have stored bulk egg noodles in plastic 5 gallons containers and they tasted HORRIBLE when i used them about a year later (maybe too long to store, don’t know for sure.) They had a “dusty” taste mixed with plastic taste…had to throw it all away. Yikes. Thanks for you response on the containers.
They do keep meal bugs out and in fact I can attest to it because I just discovered an infestation of the little buggers last week and all of my flour containers were moth free. The flour, since it’s still in it’s original packaging (and not directly up against the plastic) never tastes off, which is why I like doing it this way. Hope that helps. Also, just curious, is there a review I gave that you disagree with? You mentioned that you agree with most of them. Any additionals that you might like to add to it? I’m interested in hearing which products other people believe in too.
Super post, Megan! Thank you for this helpful info! Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer! Glad it’ll go to use!
Great post!!! I agree with you 100%! Especially when it comes to the butter powder!! I tried several brands too, and thrive’s is the best, hands down!! I really want to try the Tiffin pans, so inventive. You always have the best information and I can’t wait to share this post on my blog (I hope that’s ok)
Sure, Julene, you’re totally welcome to share it. Keep me updated if you find anything new that’s great from Honeyville!
Helpful, thanks
🙂