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As the government endorses stocking up in case of an emergency, our food expert advises how best to approach it without panicking

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Xanthe Clay food writer Show biography

Published 15 July 2026 5:56pm BST

Be prepared, says the Boy Scout motto, and the phrase has taken on a new significance. For years, people who stockpile as a safeguard in the event of national emergency have been the butt of jokes and even a Radio 4 satire, Preppers. Now they are being given government endorsement, with new advice on what to keep at home in the event of a breakdown in power or food supply.

Not-so-neurotic, then. But in fact experts such as Tim Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at City St George’s, University of London, have often warned that we need to ready ourselves. “For too long a ‘don’t frighten the public’ ethos has ruled,” he says, “yet other countries take a more grown-up approach to the public.” He is right that countries such as Sweden have detailed advice for coping with food shortages in an emergency, and Lang’s Just In Case report for the National Preparedness Commission warns of the vulnerabilities in the food system, from war, climate change, terrorism and myriad other threats.

So what can we do? Firstly, don’t panic – and don’t panic buy. But we can give a little thought to how we’d manage if the power went out for a day or a week, or if the internet stopped working, or shops ran low on supplies. In fact, a little less dependence on all these props of modern life can’t be a bad thing. Here are some starting points.

Store-cupboard essentials to stock up on

Items that last without being kept chilled or frozen – what supermarkets call “ambient goods” – are the cornerstone of any food cache, as they’ll survive long power outages. We can all take inspiration from the old-fashioned pantry.

board items should be the cornerstone of any food stockpile  Credit: Andrew Crowley

Pasta

Allow 75g per person per meal; a family of four eating pasta every other day for a week will need about 1kg. Allow 1.25kg for bigger appetites.

Rice

Plan on using about 70g per person in a risotto or as a side dish. 1kg will be enough for a family of four, eating rice every other day.

Bread flour, yeast and baking powder

The smell of freshly baked bread is guaranteed to lift the spirits. You’ll need 500g flour and 1 sachet (7g) of easy-blend yeast for each small loaf. Even if you can’t get the oven going, you can use the dough to make warm flatbreads on a hob, using either yeast or 1 tsp baking powder.

Crackers and biscuits

Include a pack of each per person per week for instant carbs and a vital adjunct to a cup of tea.

Pulses

Beans, lentils and chickpeas are a good source of protein and are better than meat at keeping us fuller for longer. Dried pulses last pretty much indefinitely, although beyond their best-before date they may take longer to cook. Crucially, they take up much less space than tinned, and 100g dried weight will swell to around 240g (roughly the amount in a tin) once cooked. Tins, however make sense when time, fuel or water for cooking are in short supply. Allow half a tin or 120g cooked weight of pulses per serving.

Tinned meat

Worth considering for variety. Spam and corned beef are salt-heavy, so how about tinned mince? M&S’s version (one of Delia Smith’s favourite “cheat” ingredients) has a respectable 1.26g per 200g serving. Use it for bolognese and cottage pie, or good old mince and potatoes. Allow 90g per serving, more for cooked meat and stews.

Tinned vegetables

Allow 1.5 x 300g tins per person per day. Carrots, peas and green beans from a tin or jar will count towards your five a day, but I advise dousing them in plenty of olive oil or ghee when cooking.

Pickles

A livelier alternative to tinned vegetables, and they don’t need to be refrigerated, unlike trendy “live ferments” (which will explode if kept at room temperature). Pickled onions, cabbage and gherkins are game on.

Tinned fruit

Tinned fruit such as pineapple, pears and peaches can be just as nutritious as fresh. Ideally, choose those in fruit juice or water rather than sugar syrup (allow 1 x 400g can per person per day), and add a cheering tin, or carton, of custard too.

A jar of tomato purée

Tomato concentrate is a great space saver. Once opened, press a piece of greaseproof paper onto the surface of the purée and store in the fridge or a cool place. Two tablespoons of it mixed with 90ml water make a substitute for tinned tomatoes or passata.

Tinned fish

Tinned sardines, tuna and anchovies are excellent sources of omega-3 and protein. Eaten straight out of the tin with bread and butter, they are even rather chic.

Dairy

Include a tub of powdered skimmed milk, and cartons of full-fat long-life milk as well, if you have space. Tins of ghee will keep for a year or more and fill the butter gap.

Fixes from the freezer

Keeping the freezer stocked is worthwhile for short-term power cuts and supply-chain glitches. Spare space? Keep ice packs in there, ready to add to insulated cool bags to lengthen the life of chilled food if the fridge stops working.

Frozen veg

Peas, of course, and bags of mixed med veg will add much-needed colour to dinnertime. Blocks of frozen spinach pack a lot of veg in the smallest space and are great for a quick shakshuka.

Water

Frozen bottles of water work as ice packs, too, and you can drink the water as it defrosts. Empty the top couple of inches before freezing so the plastic doesn’t split.

Fresh top-ups

Supply of fresh foods is the most vulnerable to disruption, so lettuce may be off the menu. But if you have a cool room, cellar, shed or garage, stock up on the following:

Root vegetables

Mature roots such as carrots, beetroot, celeriac and swede keep for months buried in damp sand or wood shavings, but trim off leafy tops and make sure there is good air flow by making holes in any plastic bags or boxes.

Onions and garlic

Look for traditional bundles with plaited stems, as this keeps bacteria from entering through the tops. Hang in a cool, dark place, and they should last six months, but keep using and rotating them.

Apples

Home-grown apples can be wrapped individually in newspaper and stored on racks or plastic mushroom trays in a cool, dark place. Inspect the stash regularly to check for any rotting fruit.

Fresh pickles

Ferments such as kimchi and sauerkraut last for as much as a year in the fridge, with the flavour developing over time.