Are you ready for the next food shortage? Let's find out if these emergency food buckets are worth it.

As a trucker, i lived off my mountain house for 2 weeks once. 3 mountain house meals per day. I lost weight and started feeling better as a result.

A couple of things I like to keep at home in my emergency food supply -Canned chicken breast. Love this stuff. It's an affordable, good tasting source of lean protein, and it plays nice with all sorts of instant noodle/rice/soup products from the store shelf. -MRE peanut butter/cheese packets. These make a good pick-me-up in between meals, and are small and light enough to go with you anywhere. One thing I haven't stocked up on but am considering is canned tuna packed in oil. I've always preferred water-packed tuna, but the additional calories of the tuna in olive oil might make sense in a prepping situation. Olive oil is a fairly healthy fat, to boot.

Family of 5 here. We love off the grid, bushcraft kind of stuff. You're absolutely right! For $79 just build a cooling space and grab actual groceries or catch your food. Thanks for sharing 👍🏼 😊

I couldn’t agree more man. I actually have one of these buckets. I’ve only ate 2 of these meals. Even I was like there is no way this whole bucket can feed my whole family. So now like you said I went back to the good ol MRE. I pick them up whenever I see them on sale. Good info brother ✌️

Thanks Randell. You just saved me from making a big mistake. Please keep doing reviews.

Nutrient Survival, Legacy Food Storage and Peak Refuel are my three favorites. I would love to see a comaprison between these three.

Mountain house meals , are more geared toward single servings, even though they are 2 servings a pack, I got the classic survival bucket with 24 servings, I would recommend trying those, they say the rule of thumb on food and water is 6 weeks per person, I say 6 months per person to be safe, I've also been told, wise meals doesn't have hardly any nutrition value, so I've been told

Yes please Randall, make a good video of survival preparedness food ! Great Beagle , I had one years ago ...Awesome dogs ! Just don't let him /her get into bacon grease...that's how mine died of pancreatitus! Great video

I'm with Matt B. and would try Mountain House. Their 24 meal buckets actually contain 12 meals without "fillers", but for those needing calories one will only get one meal per bag. Like MREs you can prepare the meals in the Mountain House bags unlike the Readywise bags. Mountain House buckets do tend to be a little more expensive, but in the US meals, buckets or boxes (84 servings) can often be found for reasonable discounts from Costco and Walmart. The Stroganoff is actually edible.

Have to agree. I watched a pretty thorough comparison once and they did a calorie/carb/protein/etc comparison and anything with the word "wise" in the name failed miserably. I recommend having instant meals like this around, but not "*wise*" brand. I'll pay double for Mountain house before I bought this brand.

Great video! I have tried a lot of different brands of dehydrated meals. My favorite so far is Mountain House. I love the chili Mac, breakfast skillet, biscuits & gravy, and rice & chicken, just to name few. Been eating them for years and I’ve never actually paid attention to the supposed servings lol.

I've never been big on pre-prepared meals/food buckets. I have all the canning tools. A large dehydrator and a large supply of oxy absorbers and plastic and foil bags for my vacuum seal a meals. And corn and grain/wheat grinders. I buy dried goods in bulk bags wheat, rice, beans, lentals, oatmeal, noodles etc. As well as sugar, powdered milk, seasonings, boullons, cocoa, salt, herbs in bulk etc. One thing I do recommend in particular are the freeze dried meats chicken, beef, pork, sausage, ground beef which are spendy but go far, last decades if unopened but I usually reseal some in vacuum bags for camping etc. Also freeze dried and dehydrated vegetables and herbs, I pick up 24 or more types veggies and a dozen or so herbs cilantro, chilli power, garlic powder n salt, etc and repackage in vacuum bags singly and a mega mix I use in soups, stews, stir frys, eggs you name it. The selection, price and quality is amazing. I put it off for decades and finally bit the bullet about 10 yrs ago and have been sold ever since. I rather put together/cook/pack my own. I don't the trust any corperation. Too much food engineering, mystery ingredients, and toxins. Lol As you already know knorr, bear, Lipton dried soups and many others put out good products and canned goods as well. Mac n cheese, ramen, rice a roni, etc. It's easier and cheaper to make your own mre's right down to spices, snacks. Buy nuts, dehydrated fruits and bulk jerky and peperoni's and repackage in smaller vac sealed portions, throw in cheeze-its. and some hersheys choc. your good. Instant tea n coffee, cocoa or reg. Endless variations. Pack it all in 5 gal buckets or tote's and your good.👍 Eggs by the case (5 doz.) Can be rubbed then dried with vasoline to seal pours, they'll last 9-12 mths in a cool dark place. Mix 1 part bees wax w/4 parts parafin (20:80 /1:4 ratio) to coat cheese you've bought in 2-5 lb blocks in bulk. Cut smaller a dip a few times, slap a paper label on while last dip is still wet, then dip a couple more times. It'll keep a yr. min. But in theory indefinitely. P.S. The first time I did it I aimed for a years supply of food....it actually made 2.5 yrs. supply. My sis said thats alot of food. I told her 1 yrs for one person will last 2 people 6 mths, 4 people 3 mths, 8 people 1.5 mths, 16 people 3 wks, 32 people 1.5 wks. If you were a small resterant/eatery it'd be gone within a week. Lol

You can’t go wrong with Mountain House. I can’t say Wise is bad but they seem to disappoint. Wise also counts their beverages as servings. Everything is creamy pasta or soup. All their breakfast is cereal. Not much in the way of meat. I’ve never been disappointed with Mountain House. Got my last MRE’s for $69.99 a case. Between several of them, lots and lots of Mountain House and canned meats / veggies I got food covered for me and my family. Any MH bucket kicks Wise to the curb.

Love the review Randell 🇺🇸 at least the food comes with its own crap bucket 🪣 ✌️

Man, I think their worth it, my only gripe is non resealable pouches, and not very much variety. But you have to have a metric ton of it to survive for any length of time. I agree they taste pretty good. It’s a shit ton better than eating bugs lol. There are definitely better brands out there. Best to supplement it with a garden. MRE’s are always a good choice. Excellent video brother! Definitely do that video.

Costco sells 124 serving pails for $55. I've been stocking up on those since I know they won't last as long as advertised but the food is decent and for that price I'm not too bothered by having to buy more of them.

I love you brother. The honesty is always there and I respect it.

I've seen the ready wise meals here and there and tried a couple. They tasted good but for that price I would have expected more bang for the buck. The orange drink reminds of that orange drink you can get from MacDonalds when you are a kid. Tastes good but is just sugar and crap. Nate

When I think of “prepping”..I go back to what our great, great and even greater grandparents did. They canned food, made pemmican, and dried food. Garden and mason jars will keep you alive on your homestead. Ammo will keep others from getting at it👍

2:05 Well said. I have NEVER met a single person in my life who eats the "serving" size.

Perfect timing, I've been considering these for my family. Glad I didn't commit. Looking forward to your food preparedness suggestions.

Thanks Randall I trust your opinion, your straight to the point👍👍

I think your suggestion from another video of using a meal replacement powder makes better sense. I'm working on making my own pemican. Keep your powder dry.

I'm happy you did this video. I had briefly considered buying some of these buckets until I researched everything in them, realizing I could easily make my own storage buying in bulk. Not only that, but I can do it cheaper, and the food will be things I want and use in my normal preps.

would like to see more on long term food stores. thanks for the no nonsense content

Good video. Most food storage experts would say store what you eat and rotate it often. Water for 90 days at 1 gallon per person per day. Have 2000 calories per person from items like wheat, beans, rice, powder milk, salt, spices, penut butter with jelly and so forth. A fuel source to cook your food. Start with 1weeks supplies then expand to 2 weeks, then until you have 1month. Now you need to keep working until you have 3 months. Final goal is to have 1 years supply and rotate it. Logical plan takes into account of before your corp starts to produce it takes about 90 days. If you cannot raise it then when is the best time purchase the items at best price. MREs and can goods work and then add items mentioned before. The above comment’s are only a thumbnails approach. Good video keep up the great job!

So far, all these buckets I came across were total ripoffs. Muuuch cheaper to get some shelf-stable foods in the grocery store and pack your own MREs. I'm also a fan of the US military MREs, but the prices for those have skyrocketed lately. A crate of those is around 160-180€ currently (here in Germany), which is a little steep IMO.

Just buy a harvest right freeze dryer and make your own food. we just dried 8 dozen organic eggs in 36 hrs, fills one 128oz jar that's 12 days, 2 eggs per person in a family of 4. 1Tbsp powder to 1Tbsp water equals 1 egg. The whey powder was a milk substitute, not protein powder.

The 4patriots I ordered was a lot more than what is the bucket you have. I do actually get a full 3-6 months of food. I've tried several types of the food and it has been being almost more than me and my two grown kids can eat. But I know I can do better and cheaper myself. I desperately need canning jars all sizes. I had over 180 case's of 12 per case (4 in the gallon size) BUT someone thought they needed them more than I did. I was in the process of moving and while we were gone they broke into my storage bldg in the side yard and stole every single one and 30 year's of very expensive tool's.

Hi Grunt Proof, we appreciate the review and the feedback. We will definitely take this into consideration and pass it along to the team. The majority of our buckets do not contain the drink mixes, only a few of them do. We would love to hear your feedback on some of our other buckets.

Readywise is one of the worst imo. There’s not many I would eat (unless I had no other options), but if you want really good options check out peak refuel or mountain house. Peak refuel averages about 930 calories per meal, doesn’t use any fillers, and doesn’t give you a gut bomb to deal with after, and they taste amazing. Only lasts 5 years though. Mountain house lasts 30 years but they only average about 540 calories per meal. Still, much better than readywise, but not as many calories/$ as peak refuel. Oh, and the taste is amazing on the mountain house as well. I prefer their spaghetti over most other spaghettis I’ve had.

2:05 He’s not lying 😂😂😂

Great video bud keep em coming. Stay safe and be well brother. Strength and Honor...

I buy Mountain House meals; good variety and I control which ones I buy. No oatmeal/pancake mix BS. You can buy that crap at the store! By the way: Mountain House stroganoff kicks ass!

Need to Try the ReadyWise Camping Meals selection, reseal meals comes 6 per case. Also, the Whey Milk is only Milk, not meant to be protein drink. If you want protein drink choose the Royal Chocolate shake 17grams protein per serving. Also look for the 104 serving buckets better value for you money you can purchase single meal selections, drinks, protein shakes, desserts, and snacks single bucket.

I LOVE MREs and considered them part of my perks during a year in the triangle of death in iraq. I LOVED C-Rations, LRPS, and MREs. Thanks

That was a very good demonstration.

GP, that stove looks like an Endeavor. Great model. Has a few quirks but very good stove.

4Patriots? So far it seems to be well rounded. I’ve only bought the three month package and there seems to be a lot. Would like to see how the smaller packages work out.

Try legacy food storage, much bigger portions, and taste great. Peak reufuel is also delicious and large portions.

Seems the taste may have improved. When I tried these a while back it was like wallpaper paste. I love Mountain House and Peak. We will use them to add flavor to and stretch the bags of rice and beans we have. No one shows that as a good use for these. Add your basic stock pile and make it a family meal

I always wondered about these buckets. Thanks.

Thank you! Great revue & you saved me a small fortune 😉

Wow! I was about to order that from Brownells, but I thought I should look up some reviews first. I'm glad I did; THANK YOU!

MREs are very underrated in the civilian world. About 1200 calories per, has flat ware and drink mix, sometimes you get shit (looking at you veggie omelette 🤢) but an amazing thing everyone should keep on hand.

I got a couple of those back then just to compensate the "just in case" and add variety some people recommended because they were tasty, there is a brand I am getting next is called Augason and it seems pretty legit they have a "30 day" 20 pound bucket that seem brings more density, also the mountain home ones seems that could be good but they are pricey!, thanks for the video always very Good content, Ed from Texas.

Thanks!!!

Outstanding. Honesty is on point

I'm saving my pennies to get a Harvest Right freeze drier so I can make my own meals. I'll know what's in my meals, thank you.

Following their logic, its actually 70.000 servings (1 kcal each). Having extra food is not only for full shtf scenarios, its just as good with inflation

Thank you for making this! I really appreciate your informative no BS content.

Yea please, I would love to see a video on prepper survival food

if you have lived on canned C rats fore a month ( and I have in the Army 74-78 ) of the year ,lunch & dinner you would consider MRE's to be very very good !

For the same price you can get a $5 Lowes bucket and fill it with 74 Knorr side dishes for about 44k calories. Not even sure a five gallon bucket will fit 74 sides. Throw in some Ramon soup and can make it even cheaper.

Sheew. You saved me some money my man. Thx. Yes. Always interested in more family style stuff!

Good review , thanks for sharing , God bless !

Love the reviews and help expose fraudulent and non worthy gear and other products

I've been freeze-drying condensed soups. Add water and ready to eat. I build meals around those and hamburger helper that I also dried. I also freeze dried some protein shakes and the powder is very easy to rehydrate.

I’m so glad you took the time and spent the money on this review and saved so many of us from this waste! Haha thanks!

You’re paying for all the packaging. I went with Ready Hour at My Patriots Supply and they’re #10 cans of soups, mixed veggies, eggs, and pancakes. I’ll supplement with canned meats, potato flakes, and rice. More bang for the buck.

Thank you

Thank you.

Hey there, Randall! Yup 1 whole package for me, would be 1 meal. Less than 1 week, 👍 could just get dry milk.🥴 Its a shame all these companies seem to have very low calorie count. And they fool people. Yes. Food storage vid. Food,food,food!!!

absolutely do the video. i fear that most Americans fall into the same trap with " survival" food as they do with the " survival " blanket. They are ill informed and buy whatever is labeled " tactical or survival" without realy understanding whagt is needed. appreciate you good sir

When it comes to serving size, you’d have to follow the portioning strictly so it lasts as long as possible.

Great info. I watched all the episodes of the first survival series awesome! 👍. Dig the prepared lives matter message at the end of the video.

Another great and honest review

Good video. Subscribed IMO these things have some value as a supplement to an existing food supply and because they last and last and if stored properly can be ignored but otherwise aren't worth the scratch

That was a really good video, just showing you the reality of some of the 'survival / prepper' meal systems. For $120 you can get a dehydrator and make your own.

Thanks for the heads up. Would it be better to can stuff like, stews, soups, fruit etc than to buy these meals, and/or use a shrink wrapper to make your own MRE's?

I have a mix of long term ie food buckets with long term rice beans, sprouting seeds, and additional items. It seems to work for me

I've got a few different types. If you can afford it the mountain house so far has been my favorite. They're pricy. The patriot supply is also very good so far, I've only tried a few things from them though. I have bulk #10 cans, a 3 month stash, a couple cases of fresh which are surprisingly good, I remember 20 years ago having mre and they tasted alot like chemicals or something weird, they weren't pleasant. I always take mountain house camping. But that's what I recommend. Definitely worth it for the price you pay. You get quite a bit for a couple hundred bucks and the 25 year shelf life really makes it worth it. In 10 years if I don't need them I'll eat it all and resupply my self. Definitely good for bug in situations. God forbid something happens and it's when my shelves and fridge are most bare. Thanks for the videos. Keep em coming

You got a small bucket. There are bigger options with many more servings and varieties, if you're going to make an investment on something that will keep you alive, don't go cheap. The other thing, I agree that they don't seem nutritionally complete as they lack important protein- just supplement with a scoop or two of freeze-dried ground beef. That ought to bring a smile to each of these meals no matter which one. I appreciate the review, first video of yours I see and it's great stuff, I see you sporting that Baofeng, this guy knows what he's doing haha!

Thanks Randall. I've got a bucket of Mountain House, Wise Company and Ready Wise. I tried one of the MH packets which was 4 servings. Didn't realize that at the time so needless to say I was full to the gills. As the commercial once said "I can't believe I ate the whole thing". Haven't tried any of the others. I love the Ramen noodles but they have so much sodium in them. Over 1200 mg in many packages. Some as high as 2000. I know, use less seasoning. But it is so good. Now I need to check out the buckets I have a little closer to see if I made a good investment. There is one brand that Shawn Kelly of Corporal's Corner raves about. I believe it is Stowaway Gourmet. A little more expensive than the others. But hey, good info you put out. Bravo Zulu. This J. Crowe from Alabama, out.

This is super helpful

Short answer is no. You can make your own food that will last longer, for cheaper, you just have to be willing to do a little cooking/work.

Peak Refuel is the best. Lots of protein and it is 2 meals in a resealable bag. Much less water is needed. Peak Refuel has twice the food and protein as Mountain house. Peak Refuel is a little more expensive but it is loaded with meat. You can always season to taste. It lasts 25 yrs per company rep, even though they guarantee best taste for 5 yrs. It can be eaten without heating the water if necessary. It will just take a little longer for water to be absorbed. I love the biscuits and sausage gravy. Lots of sausage in it. There are 2 real biscuits in it. I break up the biscuits into smaller pieces so they absorb water easier. I add a little block pepper to it before pouring the boiling water into it. When I am ready to eat, I add a little hot sauce. Tastes like at the Diner and much cheaper. I have had almost all of the flavors and they are all pretty good. When I get home and I am tired from work, I take one out to eat for dinner. I divide it in half after cooking and it lasts for two meals. I have been following you for over 3 yrs and appreciate your gear testing and real world combat and survival tips.

Been looking at these Thanks for the honest review Looking at making pemmican and hardtack, to store long time Canned goods for short term

Great video I would like to see more on survival food. What about the 4 Patriot Survival food.

Ive been waiting 2 years for the 2nd thermal blanket and heat gun experiment. Hows it coming, all we wanna know is if you radiat heat through the foil after a few minutes. Drones an be sent out and if you hear them and you lay under your thermal will they see you after say half hour

Soooo $80 for about 2.5 days worth of food for an active grown man.. got it. It's nice that it's an option though. Thought for sure there'd be more though. Thanks for the insight!

Good review and good advice on alternatives.

A serving isn't a meal, though. Presumably, one might have potatoes or green beans, onions, garlic or something to go with it, which would likely be realistically renewable. One mashed potato would taste much better with one serving of mac and cheese and butter than without anything.

Glad you did this I've been thinking about stocking up on some of these I'm not going to now

I get why people buy them, its a quick 1 stop purchase that feeds the American consumerism and they're more long term shelf stable than MREs (which aren't cheap either anymore), they're fairly light for the calories and they stack well for storage. A little bit of research and elbow grease though and you can get a whole lot more for way less money. If you want a good info resource for some of it check out the Bear Independent channel and especially the "Prepper Classroom" series. He does a good job breaking down literal spreadsheets of info on a variety of topics to people who may not know much about preparedness or even give some new ideas to those whove been around the block a few times.

I just bought a bucket of Peak freeze dried food. Gonna try some on the 23rd , during a local prepper gathering.

Yes .because when and if you are starving. You will eat whatever to survive. So put me on the Bucket list

Great video highly appreciated your opinion on this brand totally agreed I bought a 3 month supply from 4patriots is definitely a-lot of food

yes, no calories in them. better off storing beans, rice, peanut butter, dates and oats. Theyre cheap enough. Just take a long time to cook. thanks. have you tried the "hunger buster" australian style mres? we cant get US mres here unless we pay ridiculous shipping.

Hey Randall, every once in a while Gall's has a case of 12 MREs for 20% off.

So basically, it's a bucket per person, that'll last maybe a week... LOL

Interesting, I really found it helpful.

Ate a bunch of these a couple years ago as camp food. Their not like mountain house where you just boil in the bag. As i recall, many of the meals kinda tasted the same, yet different. I guess meaning the individual meals tasted different, but you could still tell you were eating emergency food. I didn't think they were bad at all, unless you count the after dinner farting contests. As duratioin goes, whatever they say on the bucket is bullshit, its assuming a starvation ration, minimal calorie intake food rationing. Nobody willingly rolls like an Ethopian.

Almost all of those bucket storage meal preps fail to reveal to you that serving size is based on the FDA serving size guidelines and not actual portion sizes. On top of that, the caloric yield of those meals is more for near stagnant activity and not for hard labor. I'd definitely be interested to see what else is available, besides mountain house, that isn't a gimmick. In my family, we dehydrate a lot of extra pasta, meats, vegetables, rice, etc. Vacuum seal into family size portions with O2 absorbers. We also dehydrate leafy greens and powder them in a grinder, for eggs and pancakes and such we add a little of the powdered greens so we're getting additional nutrients, especially for the kids that hate vegetables.

they have practically doubled or tripled in price since the last time i looked at them 15 to 20 yrs ago

Their fillers ironically had more calories than the rest of it, in fact if I had this I would want ONLY fillers as that would be the only way to have any decent supply of food at this price tag. Yes, it means gatorade all day every day and endless tooth rot, at least you won't starve as fast. These fillers can also make unpalatable water taste okay and are easy to drink even if you're sick. If they actually last 25 years it's not bad to have some drink mixes and stuff like that for calories. Things like shelf-stable drink mixes and bullion cubes would be my first on a list of prepping things - for a low price tag they have tons of functionality and take up little space. Definitely a scam at this price tag though.

Nice review!

The shelf life alone makes them worth it. Canned food and rice only lasts so long lol and I hate rotating ever two years.

I want to know also because my mom was issued one during Covid Quarantine on the Navajo Reservation She didn't use it though because she had sheep around