Specialists for long-term crisis situations are calling on the government to follow the examples set in other European countries in making preparations to sustain continuous supplies of food for care homes.
Experts at freeze dried food producer Fuel Your Preparation believe a state of preparedness including storing of food is the key to getting through another crisis such as the pandemic – following in the footsteps of other countries in Europe.
The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the MSB, is Europe’s foremost innovator in population preparedness, with the aim of enabling citizens to ‘prepare themselves.’
In Germany, national policies cover a range of measures to prepare for an emergency including ‘the stockpiling of food supplies so that you are personally prepared for an emergency.’
Atiyya Tailor, of Fuel Your Preparation, said: “We provide freeze dried food supplies for a range of organisations including care homes, emergency services and prisons and we know how practical these foods are with a shelf life of seven years for pouches and 25 years in tins. We’ve also been working with FareShare and the Salvation Army to donate food supplies to those in need and again we’ve seen how helpful these foods are that can be stored for long periods of time.
“We’d like to see more preparedness built into the system including food storage throughout the UK to help resourcing such an emergency. This may involve local authorities, emergency services and community groups to help face these challenges in the future.
“A state of preparedness can help in many emergencies from power cuts, floods, mountain rescues, possible major incident across high risk sites such as nuclear installations and heatwaves.”
The meal range from Fuel Your Preparation in tins and pouch formats includes chicken tikka with rice, pasta bolognaise, beef stew, spicy pasta Arrabiata, five bean cassoulet, chocolate mousse and rice pudding. Ingredients and staple items come in tins and include diced chicken and minced beef.
Meeting challenges ahead, the products also come in kit form as ingredients such as green beans, beef mince and white rice and offer organisations freeze dried breakfasts, desserts and main meals including vegetarian options depending on needs.
Fuel Your Preparation freeze dried foods contain carbohydrates and protein, are easy to prepare by adding water. Freeze dried ingredients are produced by removing the water from the original product and retaining the nutrition and taste. The full range of Fuel Your Preparation products can be found at the website.