Oatmeal comes in many forms, not all of which are conducive to long-term storage. But is it something that you should include in your emergency pantry? Absolutely!
Oatmeal is one of the best survival foods but only if it is intentionally packaged for long-term storage, is a type that can be cooked in a short amount of time, and has limited processing with no added ingredients.
I’ve put together this guide for you to know what types of oatmeal are best for your emergency pantry and how to store it properly.
What is the Shelf Life of Oatmeal?
Oatmeal can last a significant amount of time, even up to 30 years. Unfortunately, most oatmeal producers do not intend for their products to be stored long-term. Instead, they use packaging that will only keep the oatmeal good for a year or two when unopened.
If you are wanting to store oatmeal, you will either have to put effort into repackaging it better or buying oatmeal that is packaged with the intent of long-term storage.
My Patriot Supply (one of our favorite emergency food producers for our homestead) sells bulk oatmeal in #10 cans that have a 30-year shelf life. Their #10 can of oatmeal has a total of 22 servings and would be a great addition to your emergency pantry.
What Type of Oatmeal is Best for Long-Term Survival Food?
There are several types of oats and oatmeals that come from different stages and processes of storing the grain:
- Whole oat groats
- Steel cut oats (also known as Irish oats)
- Scottish oats
- Old-fashioned oats (also known as rolled oats)
- Quick oats
- Instant oats
- Other milled forms of oats
I would recommend only using old-fashioned or quick oats for your emergency food pantry. There are two reasons why I only recommend these two options.
- Some oat products contain added ingredients such as sugars and preservatives or are pre-cooked. Steer clear of these products unless they are specifically made for long-term storage. You should also make sure that your old-fashioned and quick oats don’t contain added ingredients. Instant oats are precooked and dried, allowing them to be ready to eat after a quick zap in the microwave.
- Other oat types, like whole oat groats and steel cut oats, take 20 to 45 minutes to cook. If you are in a survival situation with no electricity and limited fuel, that cooking time is going to eat up valuable resources.
Old-fashioned and quick oats that have no added ingredients will last a long time when you properly store them and will only take 10 minutes or less to prepare. If you don’t have a limited supply of fuel or produce your own electricity, you can use those oats that take longer to cook if that’s what you prefer.
The reason why old-fashioned and quick oats cook faster is because they are steamed and rolled flat, then sometimes cut up to make them smaller. This does not change their nutritional value or taste, just their texture and cook time.
How to Store Oatmeal for the Long-Term?
The problem with most producers is that their packaging will not keep air and moisture away from your oatmeal. That is because they intend their product to be consumed regularly (unless they are an emergency food provider). If you don’t want to purchase your oatmeal from an emergency food provider, you can still have oatmeal that will last decades, but you’ll have to do a little work.
- You’ll need to get an airtight container to transfer your stock of oatmeal into. Mylar bags are a good option and are commonly used for emergency food.
- It is also a good idea to include oxygen absorbers to keep any little bit of oxygen left in your package from spoiling the oatmeal. Remember, even a little bit of oxygen can do harm over decades.
- Store your oatmeal in a cool, dry place where the sun isn’t shining on it.
These three steps will increase the likelihood that your food will stay good for decades. If you don’t like the sound of all of that work and are worried about it lasting, there are plenty of survival food producers that sell oatmeal. My Patriot Supply and Thrive Life are the ones we use the most on our homestead.
How to Tell if Oatmeal Has Gone Bad?
While Oatmeal can still be good to eat past its best-by date, it can still go bad, especially if it is stored in a hot or moist place. To see if your oatmeal has gone bad, you should use sight, smell, feel, and taste.
If your oatmeal smells bad or doesn’t have the usually nice and mild smell, it is probably best to cut your losses and restock your oatmeal. Also, if your oatmeal seems discolored or you find things in the container that shouldn’t be in there, that can be a sign that it isn’t good anymore. And if you see mold, you should definitely throw it away and find a better way to store your oatmeal before restocking, because somehow water got in your oatmeal.
Also, if your oatmeal doesn’t have that smooth texture that it is supposed to have, it might have gone bad. Lastly, bad tasting oatmeal is an indicator of spoiled oatmeal (unless the cook is a bad cook, in which case the cook must be a really bad cook because how does anyone botch cooking oatmeal?).
How Much Oatmeal Should I Store for a Year?
The amount of oatmeal you should store is completely relative to you. It is influenced by how much you eat, how often, how many people are in your household, and for how long you are wanting your emergency food pantry to be able to last for.
For example, my household consists of me and my wife, Sarah. If we wanted to have a 3 year emergency supply where we both had oatmeal for breakfast every day, then we would need 2,190 servings worth in our emergency pantry. That would mean that Sarah and I would need about 102 My Patriot Supply #10 cans to feed us breakfast for 3 years straight.
To find out how much your household should have, you should allow 17 My Patriot Supply #10 cans per person per year (that will give you a little extra because each person will need just under 17 My Patriot Supply #10 cans).
17 x # (of people) x (# of years you are prepping for) = how many cans of My Patriot Supply #10 cans you’ll need
This equation must be adjusted if anyone in your household is wanting a different serving size or you use another company with a different number of servings per unit.
How Much does Oatmeal Cost?
Oatmeal is very cheap. Old-fashioned oats can be found for around $0.10/ serving, making it one of the cheapest foods you can buy. It starts getting a little more expensive when looking for long-term storage options though.
Even when buying normal, over-the-shelf oatmeal for long-term storage purposes, you’ll have to buy some means of packaging it to get 30 years out of it. Wallaby sells 1-gallon mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and labels, which is a great option if you want to package your own survival food. Altogether, that would bring the cost per serving up to around $0.15 a serving, which is a great price.
If you would rather not be bothered with the additional work or worrying whether or not you packaged it properly, there are plenty of companies that specialize in long-term survival food. These companies will provide you with a product that you can be confident in, and you don’t have to put any work into storing them. Most of these companies will sell oatmeal that is in the $0.30 to $0.50 range per serving. If you are interested in any of these options, check out the next subheading, “Where to Buy Oatmeal?”
Where to Buy Oatmeal?
Oatmeal can be found just about anywhere. First, you must decide if you are going to repackage oatmeal that you get at a local grocery or if you are going to buy from an emergency food provider.
If you are wanting to buy from a store, finding the oatmeal will be easy. It is finding the packaging supplies that will be more challenging. Walmart does sell Wallaby mylar bags, but they may not have them stocked in your local store. You may also find Augason Farms’ emergency oatmeal pack at your local store.
The more reliable and probably easier option is to order what you need online. You can find just about anything that you’d need on Amazon from Quakers Old-Fashioned rolled oats to Wallaby mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, if you want to go the self-packaged route.
If you want to skip the hassle of packaging it and want a reliable emergency food brand, there are a few companies that we like that sell bulk oatmeal emergency packs in either #10 cans (which can hold about 3 quarts of food) or big bulk buckets.
Our favorite emergency food brand on the homestead is My Patriot Supply. Their #10 cans of oatmeal each have 22 servings averaging $0.45 per serving. The shelf life is rated up to 30 years if unopened and remains good for 1 year after being opened.
Augason Farms has a Large Pail that contains 90 servings and is cheaper at $0.30 per serving. It also has a 30 year shelf life.
The Easiest Option for Long Term Food Storage.
Even though it will cost a bit more, the easiest way to get long term storage oatmeal for emergencies is to use an emergency food provider. The only work you’ll have to do is calculate the amount you need, order it online, and put it in your emergency pantry.
How to Cook Oatmeal?
Oatmeal has many good traits that make it an essential item on your emergency pantry checklist. One of those traits is its ease of preparation. There are multiple ways to cook oatmeal such as as a breakfast cereal, as the main ingredient in baking (like cookies), or even in tuna patties.
The most common way of consuming oatmeal is as a breakfast cereal. You can prepare oatmeal in this way, either with a microwave or stovetop. For the microwave, you mix the oatmeal with either water or milk, then heat it for as long as the instructions say or until it meets your desired consistency. For the stovetop, you boil your milk or water, then add the oatmeal and let it cook for the instructed amount of time or until it meets your desired consistency.
My favorite way of eating oatmeal is prepared differently from either of these two options. I like to heat water in a tea kettle while I put the oatmeal in a bowl and add my desired toppings, usually sugar, cinnamon, and butter. After the kettle whistles, I pour the water over the oats (better to have not enough water on them than too much) and let it sit for a couple of minutes. This way allows the oats to be more chewy and less creamy, which I like better. This method might not be for you, but give it a try!
Any of these methods are super easy and quick, which is important for survival food. You don’t have to worry about cooking for a long time when there is work to be done, and you won’t use too much of your precious resources, whether that be electricity or fuel.
If you are using My Patriot Supply or any other emergency food supplier’s oatmeal, they instruct you to only add water and heat it with whatever heat source you have.
Some of the Most Popular Ways to Eat Oatmeal Are:
- With toppings: When it comes to toppings, there are a near-infinite number of combinations of what you can mix in your oatmeal. Some of the most common include your favorite nuts, berries, apples and other fruits, cinnamon, brown sugar, and the list could go on, but that would make this post way too long.
- Creamy or chewy: Some people like their oatmeal really soft while others, like myself, like it a bit more chewy. You can achieve your desired consistency by how you cook them and how long they are cooked for.
- Baked: Oatmeal raisin cookies are some of the best “healthy” cookies! They may never beat chocolate chip cookies in terms of popularity, but they do make for a nice alternative. You can also bake oatmeal breakfast cakes.
- Granola: Great for on the go, this snack is packed with nutrients that will help keep you going when working hard.
- Savory Oatmeal: While this could go under the toppings category, savory oatmeal is just too unique. You can add eggs, spinach, cheese, bacon, or whatever else you may like!
What is in Oatmeal?
Oatmeal is made up of:
- 60% Starch
- Rapidly digested starches (7%) are broken down quickly and become glucose.
- Slowly digested starches (22%) are broken down slowly.
- Resistant starches (25%) don’t get broken down and move through our gut acting like fiber. They feed the healthy gut bacteria.
- 14% Protein
- 7% Lipids
- 4% Beta-glucan
It also contains several vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds:
- Manganese
- Phosphorus
- Copper
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- Iron
- Selenium
- Avenanthramides
- Ferulic acid
- Phytic acid
Is Oatmeal Bad for You?
Oatmeal is not bad for you at all. In fact, it is somewhat of a power food and is considered one of the healthiest grains. It contains several vitamins and minerals that are crucial to our needs, including some that are often lacking in our diet.
The beta glucan, a dietary fiber, is great for heart health, lowering cholesterol, and reducing blood sugar. It combats some of the most common health problems of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Oatmeal is also a filling food, which is great for dietary and health reasons but especially important for survival food. Many survival foods are good at sustaining you but do not necessarily provide great nutritional needs or fill you up completely. Imagine the difference that having oatmeal every morning could provide during an emergency crisis!
How Long Can a Person Live on Oatmeal Alone?
Though oatmeal is a great nutrient-rich food, it is not meant to be a complete balanced diet. It simply doesn’t contain everything that our bodies need to function properly.
That being said, a person can survive 2 to 3 months without any food as long as they have water. The amount of time that someone could survive on oatmeal alone is completely dependent on the health of that person, but it could possibly sustain some people for months or even longer. This is inadvisable, however, and those months would be miserable and lead to different bodily functions failing.
Oatmeal is a great addition to your emergency pantry for your own health, but you should also stock your emergency pantry with other foods that provide the necessary nutrients for you to survive.
Conclusion:
Oatmeal is a must-have for your emergency food pantry. It is a great way to start your day and provides great nutritional value. It is super versatile, easy to store, cheap, and easy to prepare, making it an all-around great survival food.
When it comes to storing it, you have a number of options, but using an emergency food provider such as My Patriot Supply is by far the easiest way to get oatmeal that is ready to be put in your emergency pantry and forgotten about until it is needed.
Resources:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/oats
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/09/01/take-a-fresh-look-at-oatmeal-its-not-as-simple-as-you-think
