The longest-lasting foods to keep in your pantry

Anyone with their own smallholding or homestead will usually have a pretty well-stocked pantry, With jars of pickled gherkins and other wonderful treats spread across the shelves, but what would happen if something went wrong and you had to survive on what you already had, because those fresh eggs aren’t going to last forever.

The longest-lasting foods you can buy are also some of the best staples and in the event of needing to live off them, at least you won’t die from a lack of nutrients. When it comes to how long food can last, it comes down to two factors, air and water, both of which are the two main reasons things decompose. The general rule is, that the less water there is in something, the slower it will go off, but there are exceptions such as honey, which is one of the few foods that never spoils.

Whether you are an experienced prepper or just looking to stock up in case of an emergency, these foods are the longest-lasting foods to keep in your pantry.

Foods that last 1 to 3 years

In certain conditions, some of the foods in this section could last for much longer, but the average time before they go bad is under three years, and that’s pushing it with things like pasta and tomato sauce.

Bouillion Cubes
A good way to keep soup or broth without having to have large boxes taking up space

Dark Chocolate
When the buttermilk is removed, chocolate has a much longer shelf life, and the darkest types kept in cool conditions “can” last for over 5 years, but don’t count on that.

Pasta
Surprisingly it doesn’t last that long, which is odd because it’s very dry. The better option would be to store wheat grain and make fresh pasta during the apocalypse.

Jerky
If completely dried, well salted, and kept away from the air, jerky can last for over five years, but you shouldn’t risk any kind of meat-based product longer than you have to.

Oats
They aren’t dried as much as something like rice or corn, and last about 2 years because of this.

Vegetable oil
The high concentration of plant matter in the oil gives it about 2 years before it goes bad, at which point the taste will become bitter and it will give off a foul smell. Expired oil can make you very ill if consumed, even if used for frying.

Noodles
These have the same problem as pasta and last for about two years.

Tea
The most popular drink on earth stays good for usually no more than 6 months but can be safe to drink for years. It will lose its smell and taste but technically be safe for consumption. Tea is known to develop harmful molds and types of bacteria when it goes off, so make sure you inspect any tea that is past its date very carefully.

Meal-based canned food
Things like frankfurters and beans or any kind of ready-made meal. The addition of meat in these canned meals makes them very risky to keep for longer than recommended.

Regular sauces
Tomato sauce, mayo, and anything you would have in a normal kitchen cupboard usually goes off within a year, especially after being opened.

Jam
Unfortunately, the high concentration of sugar doesn’t slow down the rate it goes bad, so you should not eat any jams after six months.

Powdered soup
The standard cup-a-soup type packets normally don’t last more than two years, and its no better with other kinds of packaging.

Foods that last 3 to 10 years

Some of the foods in this section should be checked first and eaten with caution because some of them will only be safe to eat past their best-before date if kept in the right conditions.

Canned fruit
Anything with a high acid content like citrus fruits will go off much sooner and should be eaten within 2 years. Low-acid fruits can last for up to five years, but they will lose a lot of their color and flavor.

Canned Tuna
Keep it in a cool place and make sure you have it in brine and not spring water, but if you eat it closer to the five-year mark then make sure you check it well before eating.

Corn and wheat
If dried well and kept in an air-tight container, both these grains can last for up to twelve years, with the average being ten. Wheat is a better option to store than pasta or noodles because you can make both from this longer-lasting grain.

Dried spices

You’ve probably opened an old jar of spice at some point to find it’s solidified into one large block. If it is something that’s completely dry, then it should last anywhere between five and ten years but will lose most of its flavor from aging this much.

Molasses
This is a by-product of processing sugar and has a slightly bitter taste. It isn’t really good as a sugar substitute but you can mix it into things for some added flavor, or just use it to make rum.

Foods that last over ten years

If we’re being realistic, there isn’t going to be a scenario where you’ll have to survive on what you’ve already got for this amount of time. Almost no one will have ten years’ worth of food for even one person, never mind a family, but maybe you just want to have some spare food that you don’t have to replace every few years.

Rice
Brown rice only lasts for about six months due to its high oil content. White rice can last for around 10 years on average, but if it’s well-dried and stored in an airtight container that has had the oxygen removed, it can be safe to eat for up to 25 years.

Raw honey
This is one of the few on the list that never goes bad. There have been jars of honey recovered from tombs in Ancient Egypt that have crystalized but would still be safe to eat.

Spirit Alcohol
If the container is completely air-tight then it won’t have the chance to turn into vinegar.

Salt
Literally never goes off, and salt is one of the things that bugs and bacteria hate the most.

Sugar
More susceptible to going bad from moisture than salt is, but if dried and kept properly, this is another food that will last forever.

Vinegar
Easy to make and useful as a flavoring for certain things, but it wouldn’t be worth using up your pantry space to store gallons of this.

Dried beans
They can still be edible after ten years, but their nutritional value will be next to nothing by this time. After five years, dried beans have less than 10% of their original nutrients in them, but will be edible for much longer than this.

Pemmican
This is made from an equal mixture of dried meat that has been ground into a powder, and rendered fat. It has to be made from red meat that’s darker than beef, such as bison, but when made properly it can last for up to 25 years.

Hardtack
This would be another option for storing a form of grain. This is one of the most common survival foods throughout history and is very easy to make. It is nothing more than a dense piece of bread with holes poked all over so the moisture can escape, it is then baked several times until all the water has been removed. It can last for decades but has to be soaked or broken into a powder and mixed into a liquid dish.