Pantry Resource: Food Storage Analyzer

In my recent post, What Does "Pantry" Mean to You? I mentioned that some people choose to emphasize emergency preparedness when stocking their pantry. Lots of people make an emergency fund a non-negotiable goal for their family and some see emergency food storage as a natural extension of that. I read an article recently that described emergency food as the investment you can eat.

As we are coming off of the Eat From the Pantry Challenge and starting to stock up again, our family is thinking about ways to be a bit more systematic about the non-perishable food we choose to store. For us, having items on hand to improvise with is super important, but with the economy still a little shaky, we realize that it's not a bad idea to have a store of ingredients that will make complete meals if we should find ourselves in need. It is also very important to us that we are able to bless others with what we have if *they* should need it. Read what Preparedness Pantry has to say about the Wisdom of Food Storage.

There's an abundance of great material online about emergency preparedness, so I won't take the time to try and lay out the various ways to go about storing emergency food (and really, we're still hashing that out for our family - we've recently purchased a few Mountain House meals and some bulk grains, beans, rice, and coconut oil), but I would like to share a neat tool that might help get you started. The Food Storage Analyzer from Preparedness Pantry.

From the website:

"The Analyzer allows you to calculate the estimated length of time your food storage will last based on age, gender and number of people (according to USRDA guidelines). It also includes current nutrition levels in your food supply, as well as helps you understand how to balance the nutrition with future additions."

Register to add custom details like number and ages of people in the household, or hit the button that says "Try it Out" to avoid giving any personal information and calculate your food storage for one person. Your settings and information will not be saved unless you register and login.

Here are the Food Storage Analyzer instructions if you'd like to review them and see examples before you try the calculator out yourself.

This analyzer works best when you purchase emergency food from Preparedness Pantry and others that sell dehydrated, freeze-dried, and just-add-water meals. All nutritional information is auto-filled when the item is recognized by the calculator. It is completely customizable though and you can add in any type of food you wish as long as you are willing to enter in the details yourself. The calculations are easy to print for your records.

Not only is this a great tool for inventorying your pantry, it allows you to search for foods with specific nutrients that you may realize you are missing as you record what you have. If you would like to purchase that extra food from Preparedness Pantry, the process is streamlined and easy! There is a column that says "Intended to Purchase from Preparedness Pantry" to fill in with a quantity, when you are finished with your calculations, it's easy to click the red button at the bottom that says "Purchase," and wait for the food to arrive on your door step!

Good news is, if you would like to try some of Preparedness Pantry's food, there are currently several promotions listed in the left sidebar that will earn you free gift cards! I am earning a $10 gift card for writing this review.