Legacy Food Storage 32 Serving Emergency Food Supply Bucket, 8 Entrees, 12,440 Total Calories, Shelf Stable Lunch & Dinner, Freeze Dried Survival Meals for MRE Camping, Hiking, Prepping

Opened and sampled from the 120 serving (29 lb) basic entree bucket
I received my 2nd bucket. The 1st was purchased maybe less than a year ago. This 2nd order was the first one that I opened the bucket to inspect all contents (opening bucket does not affect the shelf life, unless packages inside are compromised, so I’m told). After inspecting all packages individually I was satisfied that they were all sealed properly and no visible damage. There was a small amount of fine dust that was reminiscent of the smell of lipton cup a noodles smell, if you know that smell. I couldn’t locate any source of the powder, and after having inspected the packaging I was comfortable that it wasn’t from any of my sealed packets in my order. The open bucket did have a “food” flavoring smell due to the dust, but closing bucket securely fixed that issue.After inspecting both buckets I decided to try one of the meals to evaluate portion size and flavor, as well as ease of preparation. Obviously heat and water are the key components in preparing this. I opened the Pasta Alfredo and removed the oxygen absorbing packet. After boiling the 6 cups of water for the full four serving packet, I stirred in the contents and brought to a boil and reduced heat to low (the recommended medium heat caused it to boil over, so I kept our gas stove turned to low and then covered for 15 minutes). After the recommended time it seemed a little liquidy so I decided to keep on a couple of more minutes and also after removing from heat I let sit for 8 minutes instead of the recommended 5 minutes, after which it was ready to serve to my two kids and myself to sample.The smell was very good, and one of the kids mentioned it smelled like we were in one of their favorite Italian type pasta restaurants. I did not add any extra flavorings since I wanted to try it in its most basic form, knowing I could add flavor to future preps in the future if necessary. The taste was good. Especially for meals prepared for outdoor camping and survival purposes. I would personally doctor it up with maybe some garlic powder and some salt to add flavor, and may do something like tabasco for the leftovers of this first batch….however I can see why Legacy won taste tests for long term storage food. It’s taste is better than I would demand for survival type food. The portion was good and in a food shortage situation this one packet would serve as a acceptable sized meal for our family of four. I think also I would like to purchase some of the freeze dried meat to complement the buckets of entrees I purchased, and will do so possibly in the future. But this product would still be good to have without the meat purchased to add. I have no plans to sample any of the other entrees at this time, but feel comfortable that they will be in line in terms of quality and taste with the one I did try, and that is enough for me. Since my youngest is picky and already ate breakfast prior to this sampling, the fact that he asked for more 2x lets me know that this is pretty good affirmation of the taste quality.I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, so “food security” in times of crisis is a bigger issue than I think many consider. I am glad to have acquired this and hope that no circumstances arise that would require me to rely on this. But since I have it I am much more comfortable that I am giving my family a better chance of riding out a time period where food availability may be an issue until further “help” can arrive to us. Especially in this global political environment and the leaders we now have, you can never tell when problems that may force us to consider food provisions may arise. The only issue I can see with this is if there is limited or no access to water and fire/heat for the food preparation. Aloha.

First I must say it was actually pretty delicious, as far as an emergency ration would …
I tasted only the Pasta Primavera packet just to see if this would be palatable and worth storing as emergency food. First I must say it was actually pretty delicious, as far as an emergency ration would go it’s really tasty and filling. The problem with these packs is that they require quite a bit more preparation and resources than something like Mountain House offers. Also as other reviewers have mentioned the portion size per packet is too large, each package should be cut in half and made to be 2 packets instead of 1. You really do have to have a pot to boil water over and keep it boiling as it cooks. Compared to something like Mountain House, which you can just boil water and dump in the package, or even just add cold water to and forget about (even though it will take about 3x as long to reconstitute the food as with boiling water). So this product kind of falls flat in comparison, but it does make up for it in price per portion ratio.Overall I’d say this is a decent product but due to there being a little bit more tools and preparation needed to make this (you need to actually dump it into a pot and continuously stir, vs pouring in water and forgetting about it) I would rate it just behind competitors. The Pasta Primavera was actually good enough for me to scoop up the remaining sauce on my plate and eat it though, so that does count for something. But, even though the price/calorie ratio is really a bargain with this product, I think I will stick to Mountain House for my emergency food supply just because it is so much easier to make. I think this product could greatly benefit from redesigned packaging that would include cutting the portion sizes per packet in half, making it so the packets can stand up on their own when full of water (thus they must also change the cooking directions on the packet to use about half as much water, to remove the need to boil out the excess moisture of the water which makes the pasta saucy instead of soupy), and adding a ziplock top not only so that it can cook in its own bag but also so that you can save whatever portions you might not eat for later.

Would rate this as a 3 1/2. Contains 8 satches. Calories for each between 1,120 calories 1680. I have counted a total calories about 12120 ish. The description reads that this a Family 72 h emergency kit. Divide the 12000 ish calories by the three days and you’ll find that you get about 4000 calories per day. If you have this as your soul source of food and you have a family of four then that leaves you woth 1000 calories a day per person. Not sure about you guys but thay would leave me hungry and over the longer term barely alive. Suggest supplementing this with grain products and survival rations. Then you should have a good level of cover. Having said this, its a good starting point when you are prepping.

Great Prepper and Emergency food. A must have.