What is a staple food, and why should you care well, I’ve spent the last couple of years storing dry staples like white rice, wheat berries, dry beans, and rolled oats to build the biggest emergency food storage possible, and I chose staple food because they are proven survival food. Let’s examine the definition of staple food.
What is staple food?
Staple foods are high in nutrition, calories are shelf-stable, and they are the backbone for surviving hard times like food shortages. Dry staple includes white rice, wheat, dent corn, pasta, and rolled oats. Dry staples are excellent for long-term storage and will keep 25 to 30 years if stored properly.
On the other hand, fresh staples, like potatoes, yams, and rutabagas, are perishable and will only keep days or months. They are great for a survival garden, but you don’t want to rely on them for food shortages or emergency events because they are less reliable as a food source. After all, Crops fail due to droughts and pestilence.
Ideally, if you are building long-term food storage, you want to store dry staples like white rice, dry beans, wheat, and rolled oats because they have a massive shelf life. Fresh staple foods like potatoes are seasonal but should be grown in an emergency or survival garden as a bonus.
Scott, Ready Squirrel
Why staple food for long-term storage?
Dry staples like rice, wheat, rolled oats, dent corn, and beans have kept every civilization alive for thousands of years. These foods are hardy, full of nutrition, don’t require refrigeration, have decades of shelf life when stored properly and stand the test of time.
Following is a list of the top dry staple food for long-term storage. Use them to build a long-term emergency food supply that will keep you alive in case of famine or a family emergency like job loss.
Up next, white rice.
#1. Rice
White unpolished rice is the cheapest prepper food, a super staple that will last up to 30 years if stored properly. It is a proven survival food eaten by millions of people for thousands of years.
You can’t go wrong with storing white rice as emergency food. If you could only store one dry emergency staple rice would be a top contender.
What kind of rice should I store long-term?
Store any polished white rice, including long-grain white rice, Jasmine, Basmati, Arborio, and converted rice. Are there any types of rice I shouldn’t store long-term?
What rice should I avoid for long-term storage?
Avoid brown, purple, and red rice if you want a long shelf life. These types of rice have high oil or lipid content that goes rancid quickly and will only last six months on the pantry shelf. Do not store these types of rice in oxygen-free packaging.
How Long Can I Store White Rice?
All types of polished “white rice,” including long-grain, Jasmine, Basmati, Arborio, and converted rice, will store five years inside store packaging and thirty years or more in oxygen-free storage.
Storage Tip: Storing white rice in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers will kill bugs, eggs, and pupae and increase white rice shelf-life by decades.
What can I cook with rice?
Rice is eaten or used as a base for meat, vegetable stir-frys, soups, and stews. It can also be sweetened and eaten like a breakfast porridge and is used to make rice wine.
Rice is filling and nutritious, providing carbohydrates and a small amount of protein. See the USDA nutrition facts for one cup of cooked long-grain rice below.
Learn more about cheap survival food. Read the Ready Squirrel article, Cheap Survival Food for the Cataclysm.
Mylar Bags For Rice Storage (high-speed bulk food containers
Up next white rice nutrition.
Chart #1 White Rice Nutrition (USDA)
| Long Grain, White, and Polished Rice | Daily Value |
| Serving Size | 1 cup cooked |
| Calories | 206 |
| Total Fat | 0% |
| Cholesterol | 0% |
| Sodium | 0% |
| Potassium 55 MG | 1% |
| Total Carbohydrate 45 g | 15% |
| Dietary Fiber .6 g | 2% |
| Sugar .1g | – |
| Protein 4.3 g | 8% |
Lets’ take a look at the next dry staple food dry beans.
#2. Dry Beans And Legumes
Dry beans are cheap and one of the best cheap prepper foods because they contain excellent nutrition and protein; when combined with white rice, they provide an entire amino acid.
I store primarily black beans and pinto beans because that is what’s available, but you have many choices depending on where you live.
Beans are a significant portion of my emergency food stores, and I consider them one of the top three best anti-famine foods for long-term storage along with white rice and wheat berries.
Scott, Ready Squirrel
How Long will dry beans last?
Dry beans will last a year in regular store packaging and up to 30 years in Oxygen-free packaging.
What can you cook with beans?
Boil and stew beans with spices, add them to soups and stews, sprout them for greens or grind tough old beans into flour and use as a thickener or bean dip.
What Kind of Beans Should I Store?
Store the type of beans that are the least expensive and most available in your area. For a comprehensive list of beans, their shelf life, and nutrition, browse the Ready Squirrel article, “How Long Do Beans Last: 16 Top-tier Survival Beans.”
Chart #2 Pinto Bean Nutrition (USDA)
| Cooked Pinto Beans | Daily Value |
| Serving Size | 1 cup cooked |
| Protein | 15.4 g |
| Total Fat (Lipid) | 1.11 g |
| Carbohydrate | 44.8 g |
| Fiber | 15.4 g |
| Sugar | .581 g |
| Calcium | 78.7 mg |
| Iron | 3.57 mg |
| Magnesium | 85.5 mg |
| Phosphorus | 251 mg |
| Potassium | 746 mg |
| Zinc | 1.68 mg |
| Copper | .374 mg |
| Vitamin C | 1.37 mg |
#3. Wheat
Wheat is one of the best cheap survival foods, and it is a proven staple that has supported cultures for thousands of years. Both the Romans and Egyptians were big wheat eaters.
In the U.S., the wheat for long-term storage is called Wheat Berries, or wheat with the husk and oils removed, drastically increasing shelf-life.
Why is wheat a good survival food?
Wheat is nutritious, super flexible, and has a longer shelf-life than all-purpose flour.
What can I cook with wheat?
Mill wheat into flour and make bread and pastries or use it as a thickener. Add wheat berries, whole, to soups and stews or cook and add to salads or sweeten for breakfast porridge. Sprout wheat for nutritious greens and add to cold and hot salads or bread dough.
How long will wheat last?
Wheat will last six months in regular store packaging, and oxygen-free packaging will last 30 or more years.
Chart #3 Hard White Wheat Nutrition (USDA)
| Hard White Wheat (1 Cup) | Daily Value |
| Calories | 340 |
| Protein | 21.7 g |
| Carbohydrate | 146 g |
| Fiber | 23.4 g |
| Sugar | .787 g |
| Calcium | 61.4 mg |
| Iron | 8.76 mg |
| Magnesium | 179 mg |
| Phosphorous | 682 mg |
| Potassium | 829 mg |
| Thiamine | .743 mg |
| Riboflavin | .207 mg |
| Niacin | 8.41 |
#4. Salt
Salt is cheap in bulk, and it lasts forever. Unlike most dry foods in long-term storage, don’t store salt oxygen-free because it will turn to stone.
How Long Will Salt Last?
Salt will store indefinitely. The flavor and consistency will remain high quality as long as it is kept in an airtight container to prevent clumping from moisture and keep it from soaking up off-flavors.
What can I use survival salt for?
Salt is a food flavor enhancer and preservative for curing meat, pickling garden products, preserving dairy, cheese making, and bartering. Roman soldiers were paid salt. That is where the term salary originates. In ancient times, entire economies were built on trading salt.
During hard times salt is an excellent barter item. It is so cheap, store as much as you can.
Types of Salt Emergency Salt To Store
- Pickling Salt
- Sea Salt
- Iodized Table Salt
- Curing Salts
#5. Sugar
Sugar is inexpensive and an excellent flavor enhancer and preservative when purchased in bulk. Sugar is another food that stands out as a barter item and is ridiculously cheap in bulk.
How long does sugar last?
White Table Sugar lasts indefinitely. The only thing you have to worry about with sugar is its consistency and flavor, i.e., you don’t want it to clump up from moisture, and you want to keep it in an airtight container, or it will soak up off-flavors from the pantry.
How Do You Store Sugar?
Store sugar in an airtight container, but avoid using oxygen-free storage. Sugar doesn’t oxidize and will turn to stone if stored without oxygen. Most preppers store sugar in a food-grade plastic bucket with a lid. No Mylar bags or oxygen absorbers are required.
#6. Hard Grains
Chart #2 Cheap Survival Food: Hard Grains
| Grain Type | Shelf-life Oxygen-free Storage |
| Long-grain White Rice | 30+ |
| Jasmine Rice | 30+ |
| Basmati Rice | 30+ |
| Arborio Rice | 30+ |
| Converted Rice | 30+ |
| Hard White Wheat | 30+ |
| Hard Red Wheat | 30+ |
| Rolled Oats | 30+ |
| Triticale (Hybrid of rye and wheat) | 30+ |
| Soft Wheat (Less Protein Than Hard Wheat) | 30+ |
| Ancient Wheat (Einkorn,Emmer,Spelt) | 30+ |
| Buckwheat | 30+ |
| Grain Corn (Field or Dent Corn) | 30+ |
| Millet | 30+ |
| Kamut | 30+ |
| Dry Pasta | 30+ |
Following is a list of soft grains you can store in long-term storage. Rolled oats are one of my favorite soft grains to store. Oats powered the Scotch highlander through battles and long marches.
#7. Soft Grains
Chart #3 Cheap Survival Food: Soft Grains
| Soft Grain Type | Shelf-life Oxygen-free Storage |
| Quinoa | 20+ |
| Hulled Oats | 20+ |
| Pearled Oats | 20+ |
| Rolled Oats | 20+ |
| Rye | 20+ |
| Barley | 20+ |
#8. Dent Corn
Dent corn is a cheap dry staple that is proven survival food. It was a primary staple of the Incas and Aztecs and is considered sacred by the Navajo people of the Southwestern United States.
What is Dent Corn?
Dent corn, also called field corn, maize, or cow corn, is grain corn milled into cornmeal and corn flour. You don’t boil dent corn, and Smother it in butter and eat it off the cob. It is used as a grain to make flour.
What is Dent corn used for?
Dent corn is used primarily in the United States to feed livestock, but it is also used to manufacture corn chips, tortillas, and other corn-based snack products.
#9. Flour
Flour is inexpensive and works as a substitute for wheat berries, but the shelf-life is shorter by decades. Still, flour is easier to find, and it is usually cheaper than wheat berries.
Flour With the Longest Shelf-life
All-purpose white flour has the most extended shelf-life of wheat flour because it has been processed to remove most lipids (fats) that cause whole wheat flour to go rancid quickly.
How Long Does Flour Last In Long-Term Storage?
Bleached flour stored in grocery store packaging has a maximum shelf life of 8 months. The flour will stay in oxygen-free packaging for ten years or more.
Whole wheat flour has a maximum shelf-life of 12 months and is more expensive than all-purpose flour. Whole wheat flour isn’t a good choice for long-term storage.
In comparison, Whole wheat berries have a 30-year shelf life when the wheat kernels are left whole, producing whole-wheat flour when milled. So you get a longer shelf-life and higher nutrition than all-purpose flour.
What Can You Do With Flour In Long-Term Storage?
Use flour to make bread, pastries, and homemade pasta. Flour can also be used as a thickening agent for soup, stews, or fry batter. The list of baked goods you can make with flour is endless.
#10. Pasta
Pasta is a cheap prepper food that can be found almost everywhere. Admittedly, I don’t have much pasta in my long-term food storage. I chose wheat because it’s flexible, and I can do more with it.
How Long Will Pasta Last In Long-Term Storage?
Pasta stored for long-term storage in oxygen-free packaging it will keep for 30 years, packaged in its original store packaging for two years if stored in a cool, dry pantry.
What can you do with pasta in long-term storage?
Dried pasta is an excellent base for canned meat, fresh vegetables, soups, stews, and sauces. Pasta is one of those foods that will fill the belly when there isn’t much to eat. You can eat it cold as a salad or hot with just about anything, including beans, dressings, spices, and other available foods.
#11 Cheapest Canned Emergency Food
Canned foods are among the best for short-term emergencies because they are shelf-stable and don’t require refrigeration.
#12 Vinegar
How Long Does Vinegar Last?
Vinegar will last indefinitely if kept in a cool, dry location. If vinegar is in a transparent container, keep it in the dark or cover it to avoid light oxidation, affecting the flavor.
What Can I Do With Vinegar In Long-term Storage?
In the kitchen, vinegar can make salad dressings, pickle and preserve food, as a meat tenderizer, or as a marinade for meats and vegetables.
I use a lot of apple cider vinegar on garden salads, and I also like it on cooked green beans with lots of salt.
#13 Soy Sauce
Soy Sauce is a cheap condiment with an indefinite shelf-life.
How long will soy sauce last in long-term storage?
Left unopened and stored correctly, soy sauce has an indefinite shelf life. If soy sauce is in a transparent container, keep it in the dark location or cover it to prevent light oxidation.
What can I do with soy sauce in long-term storage?
Soy sauce is an excellent flavoring for rice, pasta, vegetables, and meat, and it can be used as a marinade for meats and vegetables or added to sauces and dressings.
How long does soy sauce last?
The sauce will store indefinitely. If you purchase it in a transparent container, keep it in the dark location or cover it to prevent light oxidation.
Thanks for visiting Ready Squirrel. If you have any thoughts or questions, please leave them in the comments.
Keep on prepping!
Best Regards, Scott
