Emergency Food Storage Calculator
Work out how much emergency food your household needs in calories and kilograms, and which shelf-stable foods carry the most energy for their weight.
Food is easier to get wrong than water, because there is no equivalent of the water figures. The UK Government and US Ready.gov both tell you to keep non-perishable food that needs no cooking, and neither sets a calorie target. Germany's BBK goes further with detailed tables by food group, but that is the exception.
So this calculator works from ordinary daily energy needs, as published by the NHS and US dietary guidelines, and is explicit that the result is arithmetic on a conventional planning figure, not advice about what anyone should eat.
Work out your household's total
Your household
About 21,000 kcal
Calculated at 2,000 kcal per adult or teenager and 1,500 kcal per child per day, conventional planning figures. These are not dietary recommendations. Real needs vary with age, size, sex, activity and health. The last two figures show the same energy two ways to make a point: dry food is far lighter but needs water and a way to cook it.
This is arithmetic, not dietary advice. Energy needs vary with age, body size, sex, activity, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and some people cannot simply eat more or eat something different: diabetes, kidney disease, coeliac disease, swallowing difficulties and food allergies all change what is appropriate. Ask a doctor or registered dietitian about anyone in your household with specific needs.
Infants are deliberately left out. Formula and infant feeding in an emergency are a medical matter. Talk to your health visitor or paediatrician, and see the CDC's guidance on infant feeding in emergencies linked below.
Allergies do not pause during a disaster. Build the supply around what your household actually eats.
Choose food by energy for its weight
If you have to carry it or store it in a small space, energy density matters. The table uses typical label values; brands vary, so check the label on what you buy.
| Food | kcal per kg | kcal per lb | Needs cooking? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peanut butter | ~5,900 | ~2,700 | No | Dense and ready to eat. A common allergen. |
| Mixed nuts | ~6,000 | ~2,700 | No | High fat, so they go rancid sooner than you might expect. |
| Crackers or crispbread | ~4,000 | ~1,800 | No | Light, and a useful base for tinned toppings. |
| Rolled oats | ~3,700 | ~1,700 | Not strictly | Can be soaked rather than cooked. |
| Pasta or white rice, dry | ~3,600 | ~1,600 | Yes | Cheap and dense, but useless without water and heat. |
| Dried fruit | ~2,800 | ~1,300 | No | Ready to eat, good for morale. |
| Tinned fish or meat | ~1,500 to 2,500 | ~700 to 1,100 | No | Protein, ready to eat, heavy for the energy. |
| Tinned beans | ~900 | ~400 | No | Can be eaten cold. Mostly water. |
| Tinned vegetables | ~250 to 500 | ~110 to 230 | No | For nutrition and variety, not energy. |
Dry staples carry roughly four times the energy of tinned beans for their weight, but depend on water and fuel you may not have. Tinned food is ready immediately and much heavier. A sensible supply mixes both, weighted toward food you can eat cold for the first few days.
Calories are necessary, not sufficient
- Can you prepare it? Assume no power and no gas. Anything needing twenty minutes of boiling is a second-week food.
- Will people eat it? Stress blunts appetite, and children are less flexible than adults. Familiar food gets eaten.
- Does it fit medical and dietary needs? Allergies, intolerances and special diets cannot be improvised.
- Will it still be good? That is a rotation problem, not a shopping one.
These constraints change every time your household does. Working out a total once is easy; keeping it right as children grow and tins get eaten is the part that takes effort. StayReady Kits recalculates the target from the people in your household and scores what you have against it, including partly used packs, so a half-empty bag of rice counts for what is left in it.
Whether a particular food is safe to eat after a power cut or after its date is a question for your food safety authority, such as the UK Food Standards Agency or the USDA. Note that in the UK, a "use by" date is a safety date and food should not be eaten after it; our rotation guide explains the labels.
Never eat from tins that are swollen, dented or corroded. When in doubt, throw it out.
Common questions
How many calories should I store per person per day?
There is no official emergency figure. The NHS gives around 2,000 kcal for women and 2,500 kcal for men as a broad guide to ordinary needs.
How much food for two weeks?
About 98,000 kcal for two adults and two children, roughly 27 kg (60 lb) as dry staples. Use the calculator for your own household.
What food should I store?
Food that keeps and needs no cooking: tinned meat, fish, beans and fruit, cereal bars, nut butter, dried fruit, long-life milk, and a manual tin opener.
Sources
- UK Government, Prepare: power cuts, for non-perishable food that needs no cooking.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Food, Ready.gov, for the suggested food list and the advice on swollen, dented or corroded cans.
- NHS inform, Understanding healthy weight, for the 2,000 and 2,500 kcal reference figures.
- U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, for the adult energy range.
- UK Government, Best before and use-by dates.
- Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Essen und Trinken bevorraten (in German).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Infant and toddler feeding in emergencies.
- Energy figures derived from typical published nutrition labels for each food type. They are indicative and vary by brand.
Track food against a target, not a shopping list
StayReady Kits works out a calorie target from the ages of the people in your household, scores what you have against it, and reminds you before anything expires. Metric or imperial, free on the App Store, no account required.
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