What to eat when the power goes out

The government’s Be Ready campaign launched last month. It asks households to keep three days of food, water, and basic equipment at home. People took it seriously. Iceland reported tinned food sales rose 40% over the first weekend.Some shops ran short of bottled water, tinned beans, and wind-up radios. Polling released alongside the campaign suggested more than 40% of households lacked three days’ supplies.

Reaching for simple cupboard staples is good.What we push back on is any attempt to turn basic preparedness into a profitable consumer panic.

Marion Nestle has spent decades showing how food companies turn public concerns into private profits. When worry grows, companies start pushing £90 survival kits and special emergency meals. You don't need them. We need to ask ourselves who profits when basic needs become products. Affordable, everyday items added gradually to a normal shop do the job just as well.

None of this is new. Jack Monroe has been making the case for cooking from tins and dried goods for years. Her book Tin Can Cook (Bluebird, 2019) is a collection of 75 store-cupboard recipes written for people on low incomes. When it came out, she raised £30,000 to donate 7,000 copies to food banks. If you want a cupboard that will see you through a power cut without costing the earth, it is a better guide than any commercial emergency kit.

None of this needs to cost much. Tinned beans and chickpeas cost under 50p. Buying just one extra item on each shop gets you prepared gradually. No panic needed.

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