Save Time and Money by Using This Food Storage Calculator

Long-term food storage is crucial to ensure that you and your family have a steady food supply during an emergency. Whether there is a natural disaster, political unrest, or a familial emergency, having an emergency food supply will help your family thrive under any circumstances.

Now you might think that the biggest challenge for long-term food storage is finding the right method. However, let us tell you that using high-quality Mylar food storage bags and oxygen absorbers will be the most efficient way to store food long-term. 

The biggest challenge for many of us when creating and implementing a long-term food storage plan is determining how much food you need to store for your family. 

Determining the amount of each ingredient can be difficult. Yes, you may try to break down your most favorite recipes and multiply each ingredient by 12 to know the value (considering that you make the recipe once a month). But, what if you want to make a recipe a few more times each month? How many manual calculations can you do?

This can get too tiring way too quickly and deter you from your goal of long-term food storage. Most people give up because of the immense number of calculations involved in the long-term food storage process. 

But what if we told you that you can do all of these calculations with just a few clicks? Yes, that’s right! You can use a food storage calculator to determine the minimum amount of food you need to store for your specific family. 

Our experts scoured the Internet for the best food storage calculator and we did find one! The food storage calculator offered by EZ-Prepping is simple to use and offers quick results in just a few seconds.

How does EZ-Prepping Food Storage Calculator Work? 

This food storage calculator provides you with the minimum amount of food you need to store for your family based on your family’s size and goals. The calculator requires just a few pieces of information. 

• The number of adults in your family who are above 7 years of age. 
• The number of younger children between the age of 0-6 years.
• Amount of time for food storage supply (2 weeks, 1 month, 3-month, 6 months, and 1 year)

Once you enter this information, the calculator will give an estimate of the minimum amount of food you need to store. And the best part? The food storage calculator breaks down the total needs for each food type. 

Did We Try Using the EZ-Prepping Food Storage Calculator?

Yes, yes, we did! We considered having a family of 8 adult members (including a child above the age of 7) and 1 toddler. We choose 2 weeks as our food storage supply time. Here are the results we received.

• Grains: This includes wheat, rice, flour, oats, pasta, cornmeal, and total grains. According to the calculator, we need about 139lbs of total grains, where 71lbs is wheat, 25lbs rice, 12lbs flour, 12lbs oats, 12lbs pasta, and 12lbs cornmeal.
• Dried or Canned Meats: This includes all types of freeze-dried, dehydrated, and canned meats such as beef, beef jerky, chicken, spam, fish, lunch meat, lamb, pepperoni, hamburger, ham and more. The calculation is based on the conversion of 1lb/kg of meat= 1.3lb/kg of freeze-dried meat. For our sample family, we get 8lbs of canned meats for 2 weeks. Now, if your family doesn’t eat any type of meat, you can just skip storing this and maybe stock up on other food items such as beans.
• Oils and Fats: This includes vegetable oils, peanut butter, salad dressing, shortening, and mayonnaise. For our sample family, we get 9lbs of total fats and oils. The breakdown looks like this: 1-gallon vegetable oil, 1 qts of salad dressing and mayonnaise, and 2lbs of shortening and peanut butter. Again, if your family doesn’t consume any of these items due to dietary restrictions, you can skip those and increase the number of other types of fats and oils. 
• Beans and Legumes: These are one of the core ingredients for long-term food storage. This includes soybeans, dried beans, lima beans, lentils, split peas, dry soup mix, and total legumes. As per the calculator, our sample family would need 25lbs of total legumes along with 15lbs of dried beans, 4lbs of soybeans, and 2lbs each of lentils, lima beans, split peas, and dry soup mix. 
• Milk and Dairy: This considers powdered milk, evaporated milk, and other dairy products. For a 2-week supply, our sample family will need 31lbs of total dairy along with 26lbs of powdered milk, 6 cans of evaporated milk, and 6lbs of other dairy products such as dehydrated cheese. 
• Sugars: This includes everything that has added sugars. This includes regular sugar, honey, jams, brown sugar, maple syrup, gelatin, molasses, and more. For a family of 8 adults and 1 toddler, the calculator suggests 22lbs of total sugars, 15lbs of sugar, 2lbs each of brown sugar, honey, and jams, and 1lbs each of molasses, corn syrup, and jello mix. 
• Cooking Essentials: Along with main food ingredients, you will need cooking essentials such as salt, baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, and yeast. For our example, the calculator suggests 2lbs of salt, 1lb each of baking soda, baking powder, and yeast, and 1-gallon vinegar. 
• Fruits and Vegetables: As key ingredients in several recipes, they are crucial for long-term storage. As per the calculator, for a 2-week food storage supply for our sample family, they must store 114 Qts of canned or freeze-dried food and 32lbs of dried fruits and vegetables. 

• Water Storage: About 65 gallons must be stored for our sample family. This only includes drinking water and doesn’t consider water for other chores such as washing, cooking, bathing, and more. 

Conclusion

As you can see, the food storage calculator offered by EZ-Prepping is highly efficient and gives you a good estimate of the amount of food you must store for your family. Breaking it down to some of the most commonly eaten ingredients makes it much easier for anyone to start working on long-term food storage! 

Knowing the amount of food to store makes it easier for you to plan everything based on your finances. You will also know how many Mylar bags, food-grade buckets, and oxygen absorbers you will need to store your food. Moreover, the amount also helps you roughly determine the storage space you might need. 

All in all, using an efficient food storage calculator is highly beneficial for long-term food storage.