Thursday, March 12, 2015

Have You Considered Using Shelf Stable Meals For Their Convenience And Versatility

By Lena Stephenson


Sometimes a situation arises where food can't be refrigerated, however a ready supply of nutritious food is still required. Shelf stable meals are put together using food items that would normally require refrigeration, but are processed in such a way that they can be kept at room temperature. Usually though, these meals must me kept in a special sealed container.

Due to their ability to be kept at room temperature, also called ambient temperature, these pre-prepared meals are also sometimes referred to as ambient food. Ambient foods are used in many different applications as a result of them not requiring refrigeration. The diverse ways in which these meal kits are used range from emergency conditions to purely for the sake of convenience.

Most pre-prepared kits made from shelf stable food items have a very long storage life. As a result, they are ideal for use as emergency food supplies. These meals can be purchased and stored ready for emergency situations when food may not be readily available or easy to prepare.

If used correctly, pre-prepared meals that do not need to be refrigerated can be very handy and even prevent starvation in an emergency. An example of this would be if people have to take shelter due to a flood, heavy snowfall, tornado activity or a hurricane. Under these conditions, food that does not have to be refrigerated and has a long shelf life, is a ideally suited to serve as emergency rations.

The military also makes extensive use of shelf stable food to feed personnel that have had to be deployed into the field. This could be due to training needs or because they are on active deployment in a combat or support role. Under these conditions there is likely to be little or no access to refrigeration, making it essential that they are provided with meals that are able to be used, transported and stored in an environment where refrigeration is impossible.

Elderly people can also find pre-prepared shelf stable food kits useful. Sometimes residents of retirement facilities of nursing homes have limited or no access to cooking facilities. Even if they have access to a kitchen there can be times when people at this stage of their lives simply do not feel like cooking every day.

Besides the specific uses mentioned before, shelf stable food is often made use of simply because it is so convenient. A few meals kept in a grocery or pantry cupboard can come to the rescue when the power goes out or if it's late at night, the store is closed and there is nothing handy to cook. In this situation, a few meals can be easily warmed up in a microwave or even used cold if there is no power.

Although in the past some of these meals were known to be quite boring did not always taste very good, advances in food technology mean that this type of food has come a long way. Obviously there are still sub-standard, tasteless meals being produced by some manufacturers. However, there are also several companies out there that produce high-quality, tasty meals that are convenient and useful.




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