How to Use a Food Storage Calculator to Find Your Food Storage Needs and Nutritional Value

What is a Food Storage Calculator

A Food Storage Calculator is a calculator designed to tell you how much food you will need to have on hand to provide a specified number of people sufficient food and nourishment for a specified period of time.  This Food Storage Calculator Review provides information on how to use the food storage analyzer provided by Emergency Essentials. 

Generally people will use these calculators to plan food requirements for periods of one month, three months or one year, however food storage calculators can be used to plan for other time periods such as vacations, seasonal supplies or other terms.

When planning your food storage, you should have some specific information such as the number of people you will be planning for and their respective ages.  Many calculators will assume the average adult consumes about 2400 calories a day, this will vary according to the individuals activity level, size, age and habits.

You should also have a list of the types and quantities of food you will have in your food storage.  This list should list all of the ingredients required to make each meal in your food storage.

Planning Your Food Storage

When starting to plan food storage it is often easiest to build your storage gradually by identifying what the meals you consistantly have over a short period of time such as a couple of weeks or one month.  After you have all of these meals and recipes compiled, identify all the ingredients and their amounts required to make these meals for the time period. Once you have this list you can start building your food storage.  When you are ready to move beyond your short term food storage, simply multiply the quantities in your list by the value required to make a one year supply.

Some calculators will assess the nutritional value of your food storage and can make reccomendations on how to make your reserves more nutritious. Read this article on Emergency Essentials food storage calculator to see how this feature can be used.