Food for ‘the end of the world’ lasts up to 30 years in the US – 03/11/2023 – Market

Among the shelves of any hypermarket in the United States, away from the food section and closer to the shelves with products such as ropes, pocket knives and tents, are buckets of food with a disclaimer: guarantee of taste for 30 years.

The menu varies, from lasagna to scrambled egg and rice with chicken, and in common the promise that they will last for decades in the pantry. They are pre-prepared and usually dehydrated foods that require minimal preparation—often just mixing in a little water—and are ready to be used in an emergency.

Little known in Brazil, the food market for emergencies grows every year in the United States. According to the market analysis company Technavio, the sector should increase by 7% a year and reach US$ 2.9 billion (R$ 15.026 billion) by 2026.

Most of the global market (31%) is in North America, but India, China, UK and Germany also occupy important slices of the sector.

Prices vary as much as formats do. A bucket with 24 servings of steak, rice, chicken and even milk with granola and fruit from Mountain House, one of the main companies in the sector, with a shelf life of 30 years, costs US$ 120 (R$ 621.79).

The kit from another company, Augason Farms, with foods like pancakes, pasta, soup and vegetables, which promises to feed a person for 30 days with 1,236 daily calories and 30 grams of protein, costs US$ 105 (R$ 544.06) in a big market.

There is organic, lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan food for end-of-the-world feasts.

But who stores food for 30 years? The target audience varies, in general, according to the company. There are companies that sell packages focused on emergency and disaster situations, such as a record rainfall that isolates a community, as happened on the coast of São Paulo, and prevents the supply of fresh food.

Others focus on the practice of physical and outdoor activities and provide this type of food in sports stores, in the camping section. And there are even those who bet on precaution in case of a civil war, for example, like My Patriot Supply, another large company in the sector, which says on its website that “it’s not just food, it’s freedom”. “The best way to do this [garantir a liberdade] it’s relying on yourself, not the government or neighbors, for the basic necessities of life.”

“But the most common scenario of consuming these foods is surprising”, says John Ramey, creator of The Prepared, a website that gives a step-by-step guide on how people can start preparing for emergencies and disasters.

“It’s not the apocalypse or a natural disaster. It’s people who lose their jobs unexpectedly. When they’re food insecure and in times of high inflation, they turn to these foods that they bought a long time ago. It’s a tool power that can benefit anyone.”

The Prepared, which not only gives tips on food, but teaches the basics of survival with fishing techniques, physical preparation, use of amateur radios or how to make bandages, among others, tests food that has been stored for a long time.

In terms of nutritional value, says Ramey, “it’s clearly not the same thing as fresh food, but the analyzes show better results than nutritionists predict.”

Technology varies, but in general, most commonly consumed foods are subjected to a process called freeze-drying, in which the food is frozen and then dehydrated, allowing it to last for years.

Ramsey, who has been preparing for two decades to live in a disaster situation, argues that the technology for these foods is not new and that there are decades of records that the foods are safe. On Youtube and on social networks, it is possible to find records of people opening and eating food stored for decades, with no sign of rot.

There is a whole sector of blogs and channels on the internet made up of people who define themselves as “preppers”.

What might seem like people fearing a nuclear apocalypse in their bunkers is more common than you might think, and there are pages like “Lefty Prepper Mom”, in which a resident of an earthquake region in West Coast gives tips on how families should protect themselves in catastrophic scenarios.

The American government itself has guides on how to act in case of disasters, which include thinking about food. While it doesn’t name specific brands, the government’s list includes canned meat, ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables, protein and fruit bars, cereal or granola, peanut butter, dried fruit, boxed juices, non-perishable milk, and even food for children. stress situations.

Market analysis of products for “preppers” by the company Finder pointed out that the number of people preparing to survive the end of the world more than doubled in the US at the beginning of the pandemic, between 2020 and 2021.

According to the survey, 25% of American adults stocked up to prepare for Covid-19, but 9.4% cited political events as a reason to prepare, and 5.4% cited natural disasters. These people spent an average of US$258 (R$1,336.85) on emergency food and water.