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Foods in disaster situations?

If the immense scale of human suffering following Hurricane Katrina underscores one thing, it’s the importance of having on hand an adequate supply of water and food that is long lasting and portable and that offers the biggest nutritional bang for the buck.

Safe drinking water supply is the paramount concern.

While health people can last a week or, in some cases, even 10 days without water, less healthy people may succumb after only a few days – the reason, a drinkable water supply, typically in the form of bottled water, should be considered the top priority item before, during and immediately following a disaster.

Healthy people even in relatively cool conditions need about 2 quarts of water a day to survive – even more under warm conditions, which precisely what people were contending with along the Gulf Coast.

That may not seem like a lot to someone with running water, but it amounts to a lot in cases where the water has to be transported in by truck.

In addition to water, people should stock foods that are high in calories, that are not prone to spoilage and that are easy to carry around. A jar of peanut butter not only contains several thousand calories but doesn’t have to be refrigerated and fits easily into a sack or back pack.

The same advice generally holds true for dried fruit, energy bars and granola bars. Basically anything that doesn’t weigh much doesn’t require refrigeration and is high in calories.

From a nutritional and food safety standpoint, canned goods are okay, though they’re heavy, which can be very inconvenient in cases where people are being evacuated from one shelter to another.

Other good choices include nuts, crackers and packaged cheese. Normally consumers should avoid fruit products packaged in heavy syrup due to the large numbers of calories and high sugar content, but even so these types of products work well in disaster situations by providing people access to lots of calories.

A third consideration should be stocking foods with ample amounts of protein – one reason why peanut butter is well suited to disaster situations. Other good foods are canned beans, peas and some packaged cheese products.

Nutritionists typically caution against dried meats, largely because of their large salt and preservative content, but these types of products are still worth considering in cases where refrigeration isn’t available.

Many foods are not desirable under normal conditions, but again, disasters are not normal situations.

*Auburn University of nutrition and food science.