How To Get The Best Prepping Results – Don’t Buy Commercially Processed Foods

Since before recorded time, people have been processing food in some way to keep it edible for longer, whether it was by curing, salting fermenting or milling. Yes, even bread is a processed food, so not all processed foods are bad but, if you are prepping for an emergency situation, you need to consider what foods you prep carefully.

People have been processing food for thousands of years. Before the invention of fridges and freezers, people collected food in summer and stored it. Why, because food was often scarce in the winter.

As Preppers, you collect food to store for an undetermined period, in case of a serious disaster. For a time when food and other provisions will, more than likely, not be available, you need to ensure that what you have is edible, healthy and nutritious. This rules out a lot of commercially processed foods.

The flip side of the coin is, if the disaster is long-lasting, such as a civil war etc., what will you do when your supplies are exhausted? If you purchased all your supplies as commercially processed goods, will you know how to grow and process your own replacement stores? Best buy fresh food and process it yourself. You will then know the quality of the food and what was put in it.

Don’t Buy Commercially Processed Foods – Why? ‘Cause they are BAD for You

When you walk down the aisles of your grocery stores these days, how many aisles do you find with fresh produce? Usually not even one full isle. Most often, the remainder of the aisle is frozen and refrigerated foods. The most important feature of processed food to the commercial processor is “SHELF LIFE”. Your health and the quality of the product going into the food pales in comparison.

People eating processed foods are most times, not aware of what is in processed food, and they are exceeding the daily required intake of sugars, salt, fat and other chemicals that are added to enhance the taste and colour and to extend their shelf life. It is these chemicals that play havoc with your health.

Cooking and processing your own food for prepping allows you to have control over the quality of the food that you process, as well as the process and chemicals ( or lack thereof) that go into your food processing.

What Is Processed Food

There are three predominant food processing activities that incorporate many methods, both traditional and commercial ( often referred to as Tertiary food processing). These are:-

1. The preservation of foods by
   1. modern methods such as refrigeration, canning and irradiation, and
   2. traditional methods such as drying, salting, smoking and fermentation;
2. The development of protein-rich foods,
3. Food additives.

You might be surprised to know that things like:

• Wheat flour,
• maize meal,
• Coffee,
• Tea
• Ham,
• vegetable oil
• dried fruit

are all considered processed foods. So, by implication, not all processed foods are bad for you.

There are those, however, that are definitely not good for you. They are mostly the commercially processed foods like:

• Sugar
• Canned and bottled food,
• Grain-fed meat and fish, (usually produced in feedlots, hatcheries and chicken houses and fed foods full of chemicals),
• Long-life milk, (you receive less folate, vitamin B12, vitamin C and thiamin. Additionally, raw milk has more antimicrobials. So, Long life milk is not so bad for you, but rather Less Good for you),
• RME (Ready To Eat Meals)
• TV Dinners
• Processed meats.

How Do You Process Your Own Food

There are many ways to process your own food to keep it longer. Some of these methods are more effective than commercial processing and most of them, if not all of them, are far healthier.

Here are 9 traditional ways to Preserve Food at Home:

1. Minimal Processing – Root Cellars, Cool Storage and Room Temperature Storage
2. Drying/Dehydrating
3. Canning – Water Bath Canning, Steam Canning and Pressure Canning
4. Freezing
5. Freeze Drying – This makes use of expensive equipment and not many households can afford the equipment
6. Fermentation
7. Preserving in Salt and Sugar
8. Immersion in alcohol or olive oil
9. Pickling in Vinegar

Why Preserve Food

There are Four popular reasons why food preservation is important::

1. To minimise pathogenic bacteria – food generally spoils in long-term storage because of bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, and other pathogens. Bacteria only need warmth, moisture, and time to rapidly multiply in food. Food preservation takes care of this problem by inhibiting one or more of these conditions and stopping their growth. For more information, read this article Complete List of Food Borne Diseases.
2. To keep food as fresh as possible for a longer period – food spoils over time. This is a gradual process and the food’s taste, texture, and appearance are affected. Proper food preservation, without the addition of colourants, preservatives and other chemicals, can help preserve some of these qualities and the nutritional value of some foods.
3. Avoid waste – it is costly. It is good practice to avoid buying more than you can use or process timeously.
4. Prepping – Many people now process food to store in case of an emergency. These stores might need to last a long time as one does not know when disaster might strike.

Buying in Processed Food – If You Must

For the most part, I do not advocate for the buying-in of processed foods and other store-bought goods. This is for two basic reasons:

1. I question the quality and the nutritional value of most Commercially prepared foods,
2. For practical educational purposes – When sourcing food and other items for your prepping stores, when the commercial food and goods have run out, where will you get more if you have never learned to make it yourself?

Now I accept that not all of us can make everything ourselves and that we might need to buy-in goods for various reasons, but that being said. be careful.

Many of us try to support other preppers and buy goods and foods that they manufacture. Unfortunately, not all of them have your well-being at heart and provide substandard and even useless products. I have found people providing “vacuum-packed dried food” that is vacuumed in the cheapest, lowest quality plastic bags. These bags are not suitable for vacuum packing as they are too thin and puncture extremely easily, often before you even get the goods home.

Some of the “dried foods” have been so wet that they went off within a few days. In other food Items, I have found worms and moths, an indication that the items were not correctly sealed or were contaminated before being packed and were never frozen for the required time after packaging.

The moral of this story is that if you must buy commercially or other processed food in, be careful and choose wisely. You don’t want to end up with worthless food when you need it most.

Prep Wisely

We know that processing food is unavoidable if we want to guarantee our food supply. This is truest for the prepper because, in times of disaster, food and water will become very scarce. To ensure that you have the most nutritious food that is properly processed, packaged and stored, it is far safer to process it yourself, thus ensuring quality, nutrition and long-term viability.

Processing your own food can be time-consuming, especially if you have to learn to do it first, but, once you can do it, you have a new skill that will serve you well in a time of disaster. It also provides you with 2 trade goods, Your skill that can be used to secure a portion of the food you process for others and goods to barter within that time of need.

For those goods that you have to purchase, select carefully, ensuring that the processor has the means and the skill to provide you with a quality product that will not leave you in a desperate situation when the need for it arises.

Whatever you do, prep, even if it is only 1 item a month. One is better than none.

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“It is better to have prepared and never to need it than to be unprepared and be in desperate need of it”.

Be Aware. Be Safe. Be Prepared!

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