Whether you’re sick of throwing out food that’s long past its expiry date, or are working on preparing a food stockpile in case of an emergency, consumables that practically never spoil can be a huge asset to your household. This article lists non-perishable food items that not only have long shelf lives, but if taken care of properly, these foods stand a chance of never going bad within your lifetime.
These ideal survival foods will of course need to be stored the right way in order to retain their practically never-ending shelf life. The absolute best place to keep a food stockpile is in a dark, cool, and dry spot, free of humidity, moisture, direct sunlight, and extreme temperatures. Keeping consumables in an air-tight container, or better yet, vacuum packed, is also very important to increasing shelf life.
Although many non-perishable survival foods may change flavour and/or texture over the years, they remain edible and perfectly safe for consumption over indefinite periods of time. Use your senses to judge whether or not food with long shelf life has expired. If it smells off, has become too soft, or has developed mold, it’s better not to eat the item.
Best Long Shelf-Life Non-Perishable Food Items You Can Buy
1. Staple survival foods that are non-perishable
You’ll need to be really careful about keeping these completely dry and free from moisture, but if you can manage to store these in air-tight containers, they will keep for an incredibly long period of time.
- Rice: white, wild, jasmine, Arborio and basmati (brown rice does not keep forever)
- Hardtack crackers/biscuits
- Dried cranberries
2. Other survival foods that are non-perishable
Although some of these food items will change texture, thickening or hardening over time, they will only change in terms of taste. These survival foods never spoil, and will still remain edible long after their flavour has changed.
- Honey
- Molasses
- Maple syrup
- Dried lentils
- Dried beans
- Dried split peas
- Dry mix Jello
- Gobstoppers
3. Survival foods that if frozen are non-perishable
Though these non-perishable foods last a long time if they’re left out in the open, if they’re frozen, their shelf life extends to indefinite amounts of time.
- Dried pasta
- Noodles
- Dried fruits (such as raisins, dried cranberries, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried apricots, dried mangoes, dates, dried blueberries, dried plums, banana chips, figs)
- Instant/freeze-dried coffee
4. Base ingredients that are non-perishable
Apparently, these base ingredients can be the perfect survival food. According to some sources, if you simply keep them unused, in an air-tight container and completely free of humidity and moisture, and you’re likely to never have to buy them again.
- Corn starch
- Baking soda
- Corn syrup
5. Seasonings that are non-perishable
Seasonings are also excellent survival foods, as they’re food that lasts forever, and only get weaker in strength of taste over long periods of time. Like with the base ingredients, keep these in an air-tight container, free of moisture and humidity, and they’re likely to never expire.
- Salt
- Sugar
- Pepper
- Spices
- Dried herbs
- Pure flavour extracts (pure vanilla extract, etc.)
6. Condiments that are non-perishable
While these foods will likely change in taste after some time, they remain safe to eat indefinitely. The best way to keep these non-perishable foods is in an airtight container, free of moisture, and in a dark, cool spot, away from sunlight. This type of storage will keep your non-perishable food condiments tasting better for longer.
- Vinegar (white, apple, balsamic, raspberry, rice wine, and red wine vinegar)
- Worcestershire sauce (unopened)
7. Survival drinks that are non-perishable
Non-perishable drinks are another asset you can add to your survival food stockpile. Any alcohol over 10% that does not contain eggs, milk, and other dairy derivatives (ex. not Baileys, Tia Maria, etc.) should typically last forever in a stockpile. Alcohol also has disinfectant and medicinal properties, so keeping it stocked, especially when it never goes bad, is definitely a good idea for any prepper. Learn more about the best alcohol to stockpile here.
- Wine
- Spirits
- Liquors
Any Long-Term Expiry Date Food Items We’ve Missed?
Let us know if we’ve missed anything that should be on this survival foods list by leaving a comment down below!
I have to offer a few disagreements with this list.
1. Maple syrup will mold
2. baking soda loses its efficacy after a few years
I suspect on both points its based on storage conditions. I don’t hoard maple syrup but I have Golden syrup which is sealed and I would wager it will outlast me. Would be happy if anyone can chime in with personal experience as I don’t see why properly stored (unopened) maple syrup would ever mold.
1. hardtack. Essentially white flour, water and salt. Winter time in the northern hemisphere is a good time to make it. Warms the kitchen and the house at the same time. US Civil war ration was a pound a day, a pound of salt pork, coffee and whatever greens you could collect. People are a bit bigger now.
2. Canned food except tomato based foods. Expiration dates are meaningless. Usually put on to keep the manufacturer advised of what is selling.
I explain this is a lecture in the French language that I give from time to time.
Hardtack stored in wooden barrels in the 1860s were issued over 30 years later in Cuba during the Spanish American War.
You don’t need nitrogen packing, special cans, desiccants . Pound for pound, hardtack has more calories than white rice. You only need a cup of hot water to dissolve hardtack. You need a lot more time and water to prepare a pound of rice.
Canned goods – if the cans are bulging, exploded, get rid of it. Otherwise, it is good to go.
Made hardtack before- gotta be honest, didn’t really love the end result but food is food, energy is energy. Completely agree with the cans- always cracks me up to see a 1 year expiration date on a can of chick peas.
Cool list !
Only thing I don’t think anyone has mentioned is green (unroasted) coffee beans.
Shelf life of 100 years +.
Easy to roast in a frying pan over a fire or on an electric cooker….
A grinder is a nice luxury, but I’ve seen people grind them down, between two metal baking trays…
Fun to make someone a coffee from scratch ..takes 30 mins roughly..(just cool the roasted beans as quickly as you can) …and of course the beans never go off….so you’ll never be short of good coffee.
Side note…the caffeine content in freshly roasted and then ground coffee is off the chart :)
Great tip, I roasted my own coffee a while back but it got too time consuming and now I am back to being lazy with my Bialetti.
Can or would the tins they sell popcorn in a Christmas time be considered good for storing dry goods as I have been using them for a lot of things. Flour,beans,oats,sugar,rice,brown rice,ect. What do you all think? Seems to be working, but just wanted to see. Thanks!?
Can or would Tina that they sell popcorn in a Christmas time be considered good for storing dry goods as I have been using them for a lot of things. Flour,beans,oats,sugar,rice,brown rice,ect. What do you all think? Seems to be working, but just wanted to see.
Besides needing to keep a lot of seeds on hand to grow a garden all the other stuff needs to be learnt how to keep everything from spoiling we may be in this for a long haul
How long will cured meats in an airtight bag last?
Add Twinkies. They’ll outlast all of us … and the cockroaches.
In all seriousness thank you for this insightful list and thanks to the commenters for sharing as well. This will really help us avoid waste as we purchase items. We’re limited on space and need to be selective.
2 ideas I have for now: (1) DE, diametaceous? earth mixed in rice, etc will keep the weavils out.
(2) my own thought – bought several garbage cans, placed in back of shrubs in my yard, filled with water, put in a mosquito preventer, tied fine mesh cloth over top, covered, for water supply. 100-200 gallons would last awhile, and when in use, begin to receive more water when it rains; I bought life straws and have a filtered water container.
I just bought 4kg of diatomaceous earth to deal with ants & other annoying insects. Amazing stuff- i used it back in Canada for many years.
Is dematiaceous earth something you would really want to eat? If it kills off anything that crawls through it, what will it do to your insides? Do like the mosquito can idea.
You’ve listed dried cranberries in 2 categories–as non-perishable and “non-perishable if frozen”–which is correct? I think sugar (both white and brown) should be included as non-perishable, although brown will become rock-hard over time, as we know. Finally, I’ve used popcorn that’s over 20 years old (stored in a regular jar), and it still pops and tastes fresh.
We put Flour- Rice- dried Beans, anything that is dry & won’t melt into a jar& put it in the oven at 200 degrees for ninty minutes, then take it out of oven & put a flat & ring on it & tighten it & put it back in the oven for sixty minutes then take it out of the oven & let it sit & it will seal like it was put in a canner, I haven’t had mine but about two years but it is suppose to last 20 to 30 years.
Very nice, Harlan! That sounds like a good system.
I would be very careful with the dried fruits. Commercially dried fruits many times have concentrates put back in during the process. These will go bad, plus the syrup will begin to leech out. If you dry your own fruit you can ensure all of the moisture is removed
Thanks for the tip, Bob! :)
I’ve got shelves of canned soup in my cellar.
Doesn’t that count for something?
Yup, definitely! Tried to make this list about foods that could last forever instead of just a really long time, but canned soup is a great emergency food regardless of me not having put it on this list!
Hi Elise
What a great article, It’s so unfair that all the Whole food products don’t last quite simply because they don’t have any preservatives or stabilizers in them which kind of defeats the object when it comes to survival I haven’t looked at your PDF yet but I will.The Subscibe Button wasn’t working I shall try it again.
The most Important thing is keeping your immune System up and blood sugars because it affects Mood it’s also a Psychological thing that people have a relationship with food because it’s a constant eating and drinking is a must it comes right up there with Shelter keeping it as Warm and Dry as possible whatever the Circumstances those three things are a must the Basic Human needs. If you can conquer that much you will have a much healthier and motivated Group of people I guess you know all this already. Thanks for the information in advance : – )
The PDF is just a copy of the information that’s already presented. So you’re not missing out on anything further than the article. I just thought it’d be nice in case someone wanted to print it out and use it as a shopping list to check off.
Yes, definitely staying healthy is so important. Thank you so much for your comment and for stopping by!
Wine actually is perishable, but its shelf life varies widely depending on the grape varietal and how it’s stored (hence wine cellars, cold and dark). Choosing the right wine and storing it right can make the differnce between it turning to salad dressing in 3 years versus tasting great in 15 years.
Excellent points, Chris!
Wine should be stored with the bottle on an angle so the cork stays wet, wine without a cork has a less than 3 year shelf life.
wine will last if stored in a cool dry place. the wine must be stored on its side so the CORK is in constant contact with the wine and the alcohol content MUST be around 12 to 13% or higher, no less.
the percent of alcohol is critical to inhibit the growth of bacteria, etc.
Also I think the wine bottles must be turned Occasionally to insure the wine will contact all areas inside the bottle.
I would only use wine that has a CORK seal.
The wine you select would be considered a “dry” wine. The dry taste generally refers to the fact of the high alcohol content, as these wines age the alcohol and the wine under go complex changes, and after 15 to 20 years you no longer have a wine that tastes like alcohol and is really unique in flavor.
Some people buy an expensive dry wine and find it tastes awful, that is why. This type of wine must be properly aged before it is ready to be un-corked.
Most wines are made of 5 to 8% alcohol and are usually sweet in taste. These wines are made to be consumed within a year or two of being bottled.
They should be placed in a decanter to be exposed to the air (“to breath”) for a short time, this creates a more complex and mellow flavor.
Spirits should be removed from their bottle and decanted as well, over time their flavor becomes more mellow and palatable.
Please refer to a good book on aging to be sure, its quite an interesting history and process. I try to remember what I read years ago.
Then the world might all go to pot, but at least it might take some of the edge off some things?
Love this site! So informative.
Thanks Aimee! :) Glad you found it helpful.
1. Spam has an indefinite shelf life.
2. any (essentially) sugar ball like root beer barrels has an indefinite shelf life – so I have over 30 pounds of various hard candies stored away.
3. for most of us, “rotation” isn’t practical. However, if you store canned foods by type in clear plastic large storage containers (snapware can be stacked. Most brands are too weak to stack, but you can stack snapware), you will always know what canned food you have – so you can start using it up before a move.
4. Hardtack is not available commercially. However, it is easy to make. If you live where there are cold winters, you can have your oven do double duty by heating the house as well as making hardtack. A one pound loaf of bread yields only about 180 calories and you need a couple of thousand a day. So, if you make hardtack, you will need to make a lot of it. It lasts indefinitely
5. When you factor in the cost of failed experiments in storing items like rice and beans yourself, you might be better off just going to the local Mormon food center and buying it already prepared for long term storage.
6. go to the grocery store and buy a can of soup, a can of veggies, a can of fruit cocktail and a can of spam or tuna fish. Add up the calories and go into shock because the total will be way less than 1200 and you need 2000-3000 a person per day. For only 2 people, that would be 240 cans of food for just one month and you would be way short of your needed caloric intake. The option of collecting firewood, having an open fire, generating smells, cleaning cooking pots, and gathering cold/clean water for food preparation isn’t a very good option for the first month of survival in an urban/suburban/exposed rural living condition after shtf.
I was under the I,pression that the Mormons had closed most of their local food centers. Is that right?
John, I don’t think that is right. I think they are all still open. They have changed up some of the aspects of getting food from them. You can no longer do the actual canning process yourself. It is all done in Utah now, but you can go in and purchase cans and pouches of food.
Thanks for the advice, bdc. Definitely need to learn how to make hardtack myself.
Dried sliced onions, bullion cubes (vegetarian “chicken” and “beef” are excellent), dried sliced mushrooms, any kind of dried fruits, sun-dried tomatoes (with or without oil), couscous, are great to have on hand even for non-preppers. TVP (textured vegetable protein) is a very good substitute for meat when seasoned properly. Unsalted, shelled pistachios and cashews remain fresh-tasting forever if kept in a sealed jar, as do instant mashed potato flakes. Split peas and lentils are good to have on hand because they don’t require soaking before being cooked and they are a good source of protein.
Canning jars are the best way to store dried goods as they have a very tight seal, and they come in all sizes from very small up to 2 quart sizes. Just keep them in a dark, cool space as light and warm temperatures can affect shelf life.
Don’t just leave your foods sitting forever. Use them and replace them as needed and buy in bulk when they are on sale.
There are lots of excellent recipes on the Internet. Just Google the ingredients you want to use and experiment.
Thanks for sharing your tips, JR! This is excellent advice.
I just want to know how to store for foods for one to two years, would I better to use a food saver, (bags) vacuum sealed, or buy large plastic typ buckets with a really good sealed lid, what best for flour? Etc.
Back in the 90s, I tried to use the FoodSaver to store flour…LOL! I was covered in it! Flour everywhere!
Since then, I use white buckets. The LID is the most important part of the bucket. It must have a rubber ring in it. Gamma lids are spendy, and if you don’t really crank down on them, bugs will be a problem. Winco carries a great lid that pops on and off the bucket (buy a $2 lid lifter). The lid isn’t spendy and it comes in two sizes.
I store: flour, sugar, pancake mix, peas, lentils, popcorn, etc. In buckets.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for giving your 2 cents, LilBit! I have to admit, Gayla, I really need to do research on food storage myself as this stuff is not at all my forte!
Can or would Tina that they sell popcorn in a Christmas time be considered good for storing dry goods as I have been using them for a lot of things. Flour,beans,oats,sugar,rice,brown rice,ect. What do you all think? Seems to be working, but just wanted to see.
Thanks for this blog!
Recently the brand ‘HAK’ from the Netherlands have tested their jarred vegitables that where stored for many years. It is an A-brand, so there will be brands that will not fit the following:
It is harvested, cooked and jarred as fast as possible. Even after 15+ years, the products where still good. It is heavy if you need to travel with it, but it is cheap, easily cooked (saves fuel etc) and you have a jar left for other uses.
Thanks for the suggestion, AP!
Hi there! I’ve been dabbling in food preservation for a few years, as well as trying new lightweight “nonperishable” items to bring in longer backpacking adventures. Recently I discovered an ancient food called Pemmican… Have you heard of/tried making it? I’m interested to know of others’ experiences with it..
I’ve heard of Pemmican before but haven’t tried making it myself. Hopefully someone else here has had experience with it that they can share.
It looks like I’m a couple of years and six months into this year being behind the times on this blog.
I’ve read this with interest and enjoyed it. Could you now explain the best way to store large volumes of water to rehydrate all the dried foods that I’m storing?
I will do my best to get this article out quickly. Definitely a couple articles I’ve been meaning to get ’round to writing – should add them to the top of my list!
Hi Rick, yes most Canadians are familiar with pemmican, tho it is mostly only used by some back country hikers and wilderness campers. You can buy it online or research recipes. I keep saying I’m going to make some but haven’t gotten around to it. Yet. Personally I do not trust commercial brands on an item that must adhere to strict rules and properly prepared ingredients and will instead cheat with chemical preservatives. I have ‘heard’ that traditionally indigenous people preferred to use bear fat, rendered properly, as it lasts longer. Legitimate pemmican stored properly should last for 50 yrs or longer.
“‘salt are up on that list because so long as you keep them in proper storage (no moisture, no air, so vacuum sealed counts!), they should last a very long time. ”
Just DO NOT use O2 depleters with sugar/salt or you’ll end up with a brick with all other like rice, beans, flour ( better off with wheat and a grinder ) last even longer wih no O2.
The O2 depleters are so cheap these days.
Thanks for the tip!
Dried beans (pinto, navy, kidney) will sprout 5 years from now, but they will NOT cook soft! Not with a pressure cooker or 8 hours of boiling. But throw a soaked bean into the ground and it will sprout. No idea “why”, just saying from experience.
It should be noted that you should not eat kidney bean sprouts (or soy bean sprouts) as they are considered toxic to humans.
Lentils make great sprouts, though.
I happened upon this by accident and glad I did. As an old prepper, both in age and length of time, I enjoy ready what ideas others have come up with.
Thanks for the good work.
Chuck Shaffer
Thanks for the comment, Chuck! Glad you stumbled over here as well!
Hope to see you around again. :)
I’ve found by sad experience as we rotate through our food storage that it is MUCH better to use dried beans and split peas as soon as reasonable, as the time required to cook them to edible consistencies increases with age. We recently made some split pea soup with peas abt 10 yrs old – we cooked the peas 8 hours then pureed the soup and cooked another hour and it was still gritty from the peas. Beans – I’ve cooked some 20 yr old beans for over 12 hours without them becoming edible. At that point, I removed all beans over 10 yrs old from my storage. In a survival situation, I can’t afford to waste the fuel required to cook beans 12+ hours.
This is good advice, thank you! :)
Just a fyi there’s an old song about ‘peas porridge’. If you course ground the beans/peas they do cook much quicker thereby using far less fuel.
This is my first time reading this ,,, I’m very interested in perishable food ,,, please send mute a list
Some beans won’t ever be palatable, even if you presoak for 24 and cook them for 12 hours. A pressure cooker won’t help.
Pintos are the worst, sometimes becoming inedible in a few years or even less. You will eat them anyway (of course) in an emergency) but the insoluable skins cause severe gastic distress, and I don’t think that would be so pleasant in a utility failure with no toilet. Split peas also harden easily.
This list has MANY errors.
Preach, then.
I highly value your input regarding beans (as they’re favourite staple food of mine), but you left me hanging about other “many errors”. I’d really love to make amendments to the list provided your arguments are founded.
Cheers!
What about lentils?
I’ve eaten lentils 7 years old that were fine and not tough. Just stored in a plastic bag with a twist tie out of direct sunlight. So they’d probably be fine.
Great blog!
I was despairing for survivable food, as we move a lot. Canned goods are heavy and go bad so quickly….but your suggestions here offer lots of things that are relatively light, nutritious, and energy-maintaining. In fact, we have almost all of them. I just never really thought about their value.
Thanks much!
dtaylorii-on-Twitter
sorry…white rice
I’m not sure about this, actually! I’ll look into it and see if I can write a post about it. If anyone else has advice on this, please let us know!
thank you
new to prepping…what is the best and cheapest way to store large quanities of beans and whaite rice?
What about unopened flour, rice, beans and sugar in its original packaging and then vacuumed sealed by a food saver of sorts? Seems like it would last longer that way? And if so, how much longer? I’m new to prepping so please enlighten me! Thanks!
Yup! Rice and salt are up on that list because so long as you keep them in proper storage (no moisture, no air, so vacuum sealed counts!), they should last a very long time.
And certainly the better you package your food the longer the expiry date on it will be. But I’m not quite sure how long flour or beans would last at their very longest, personally! Sorry about that! When in doubt, rotate your stock!
We buy rice and beans in large bulk bags then “dry can” them in mason/ball jars in the oven. Heating them in the oven in clean jars kills any lil critters. The lids go on after you take the jars out of the oven and the residual heat seals them automatically! Supposed to be good 10+ years this way. Happy Prepping??
This isn’t really necessary as long as you store them in a tight dry container. Presumably they will be cooked prior to eating anyway. It’s also not clear to me that applying high heat to these items will enhance storage life. I wouldn’t do that.
I used to help my mom can 300 jars of vegetables, fruit, meat etc. each year. There was no way we would starve.
We put the jar lids on loose, heated and boiled the prescribed time for each type and tightened the jar lids after removing from the heat using pot holders or oven mits to keep from burning hands. The lids must pop down with a vacuum or the contents will not keep.
Trying to install lids after heating would be difficult. My parents went through the worst of the Great Depression. Mom lived in a small town and starved and sometimes only had one pancake per day. Dad lived on a farm with a large family. They never went hungry.
thanks. this is needed
Great article, and very useful for me as a newbie prepper – also love that these are all REAL food items – minus the gobstoppers – hahaha! :) Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading more!
Haha yes: minus the gobstoppers and I suppose the Jello as well ;). But I had to include a few sweets on my list, especially since I was always a sucker for gobstoppers as a kid – at least they’re great energy boosts!
Thanks for stopping by to comment and glad you found the article useful :).
What about irradiated foods? Have you looked into them.
In my neck of the woods, irradiated foods aren’t very common. Only herbs, spices, etc. are really irradiated here (due to industry bylaws and federal regulation). That being said, I don’t know enough about the safety of irradiated foods to have an informed opinion on them. Do you have any experience with them?
My First time at this Site. Love it already :) I want to thank Kris for Asking “What are gobstoppers? ”
I Read it and only made a >:-/ Face, LOL
Glad you like the site! And you should try them! They’re tasty.
Ok you got me. LOL what the heck are gobstoppers? BTW love your blog.
They’re basically balls of sugar, also called jaw breakers. A type of candy.
And thanks so much :).
This is the first I’ve heard of Flour, Corn starch, and Baking soda being nonperishable. This has to be the most controversial subject in prepping next to water storage.
Based on the sources I’ve looked at, cornstarch and baking soda, so long as they remain unopened and completely bone dry, won’t expire. That being said, I’ve taken flour off the list after checking a few more sources.
Definitely a controversial subject, but I thought I’d put the article out there anyway, at least as a gateway to a discussion.
As much as we (myself included) love to talk about gear, self-defence, knives, ammo stockpiles, etc., basic sustenance is by far the most important factor in long-term survival (as is that water storage problem), and I think it should be discussed more, even though of course it is more controversial.
I have flour sealed in mason jars. Good to know about shelf life.
I’m not living forever and since I’m 63, I’m good for 10 years with the flour.
No, flour expires.
This list has a lot of errors.
We used a lot of food storage items when I was growing up and we learned that while Corn Starch may not go “bad”, it does lose its efficacy as a thickening agent over time. We still have a family joke about lemon meringue “soup” when we were going for pie.
Love that! I wonder what lemon meringue soup tastes like ;).
Ditto on the dried milk issue …. long term storage – upwards of 20 years when stored under ideal conditions …..
Yup! Of course you guys are right. Just checked up and most sources say it will last around 10+ years after the expiry date. So 10-20 years is the limit I’m sure. Still a long time, but took it off the list as it doesn’t belong.
From my research, powdered milk does not have a very long shelf life. Check it out.
Thanks! I’ll for sure check up on that tomorrow.
Hey thanks again. I did check up on it today and of course you’re absolutely right. It will last a good 10+ years at times, so it has a reasonably long shelf life, but definitely not as long as I thought it would last, so it’s off the list!
Wheat uncracked
Maple Syrup with Mold if opened and not kept refrigerated.