New from Mountain House: 25-Year Pouches in Buckets! ... Introductory Bargain Priced

They've been rumored. Now they're revealed ... the brand, spanking-new Mountain House 25-year pouches in a bucket kits: http://www.safecastle.com/mountain-house-buckets.aspx

The best freeze-dried food in the world--repeatedly confirmed by third-party scientific testing. Want to count on your long-term storage food investment to actually be there for you down the road? Then it's got to be Mountain House. And now these pouch kits make that much more affordable!

More Shocking Data from Third-Party Testing of Freeze-Dried Brands

Over the last few weeks, we've been breaking news on various third-party scientific tests on popular freeze-dried food brands. You'd think there wouldn't be whole lot of difference, right?

Well--what it actually boils down to is some surprising insight into critical food packaging, big differences in brand-name quality, and deceptive marketing practices by at least one well-known company that recently jumped into the business.

Here is a link to our previous most recent article:  http://safecastle.blogspot.com/2012/08/osu-lab-test-pits-mountain-house-vs.html

That article summarizes and provides links to two previous studies that compare Mountain House food varieties with Wise Food flavors. An eye-opening read, for sure.

Now, on August 23 an executive from Mountain House posted a detailed response in a discussion thread about these studies ... and that new post reveals still more info about a more comprehensive third study. Here is that response in full:

Apologies in advance for the long post, but over the last month we’ve seen many requests for more data as well as questions about the studies we’ve published. At Mountain House, we’re strong advocates of transparency and we’d like to take a couple of minutes to provide you with some more information.

The most frequent data request we have seen has been for the oxygen content of more samples of Wise products. While Wise has chosen not to respond to those requests, Mountain House has commissioned another third party study of their remaining long-term food storage line, adding their fruit, vegetable, meat, sauce, and cereal products to the dry-blended entrees from the earlier study. Here is a summary of the combined results (we’d be happy to provide the underlying data upon request):

* 90 separate sample pouches.
* Dated from 6/11/11 through 4/24/12.
* A minimum of 34 distinct batches.
* Purchased at retail from 4 different online vendors.
* Sent to a third party laboratory in original packaging.
* Oxygen levels averaged 17.1% across the entire Wise long-term food storage product line.

We strongly suggest that customers of long-term emergency food storage confirm not only the flavor and nutrition of products they’re planning on purchasing, but also the oxygen content, before spending a large sum of money. Mountain House has over 40 years of experience meeting and exceeding stringent military specs (e.g., < 2% oxygen), and you can be confident that our products will be there for you when you need them most. Emergencies can be stressful and you want to be sure that you will enjoy the food you have stored, whatever brand(s) you choose.

Another frequent question focuses on the funding of the oxygen content and sensory evaluation studies we’ve released. We are very open about this: Mountain House hired unaffiliated organizations that specialize in testing to conduct research. The reason we did this was to assure customers that the resulting data was solid and free from bias.

We actually have a state-of-the-art food laboratory and could have easily performed the studies ourselves, just as we routinely test our own products as part of our rigorous quality assurance process. But we know that when a company claims that “we have tests that prove what we say”, customers are rightly skeptical, even if the company publishes that data.

Instead, we hired third party organizations to conduct the studies: Columbia Food Laboratories for the oxygen headspace analysis and Oregon State University’s Sensory Science Laboratory for the sensory evaluation. Neither is affiliated with Mountain House or the emergency food storage industry, and both value their reputations as respected scientific organizations.

If other companies wish to fund similar unbiased third party studies of Mountain House products purchased from multiple online vendors, we encourage them to do so. It is a large market, customer tastes and budgets vary, and there is plenty of room for honest competition among reputable manufacturers.

As a leader in the long-term food storage industry for over 40 years, Mountain House wants customers to be able to make informed decisions regarding purchases that will sustain their families and give them comfort in times of emergency. Towards that end, we will continue to test both our own and competitive products in the market and report our findings to interested consumers.

Please feel free to contact us at MH-Info (at) ofd.com, or post your questions/comments on this forum. We’ll do our best to respond promptly.

Thanks for your interest in this very important subject.

- Mountain House.

REPEL THE CHAOS: $10s of Thousands in Prepper Giveaways!

Only at Safecastle, and only now through the end of the year ...

Every week we are offering a generous new buyers-club-member purchase incentive, so you'll want to check in weekly to make sure you don't miss some excellent opportunities.

August 28 update: effective Aug. 28 thru Aug. 31--any member spending at least $175 in a transaction will receive one free Brand New MH 25-Year Essential Bucket and two Lifestraws! -- a value of $120!

Every month, August thru December, a lucky member making a purchase of at least $150 during that month will be entered into a drawing for a prize. The August prize drawing is a Katadyn Pocket. If you have already made a qualifying purchase this month, you are in the drawing.

The December prize drawing will be drawn from among the names of all qualifying members making a purchase between August and the end of December. That grand prize is an AEB OX Mini Power Plant Solar Generator!

Needless to say, in addition to this wallet-candy, our normal member discounts of 20% on most everything we sell in our crisis preparedness store and our free shipping offer on everything to the lower 48 applies.

For more on the prizes and the incentives, see the details.

Some Great New Products You Might Need

I'm really excited about our new AEB line that features the OX Mini Power Plant Solar Generator. Did my homework on this and have my own system inbound as we speak. Watch the videos and decide if it might be just what you need.

There are too many other new listings we've recently added to talk about them all, but I'll mention a few: the Guppie & Eat'N Tool Combo, Sandbags, Organic Freeeze Dried Blackberries, Freeze Dried Tropical Fruits, Roasted Cocoa Nibs, Freeze Dried Colby Cheese, and Excalibur Dehydrators with 26 hour timers.

See more.

OSU Lab Test Pits Mountain House vs. Wise Foods ... Results are WOW!

We just received information about a scientific third-party test conducted by Oregon State University.

There has been increasing controversy in the marketplace with regard to claims made by some storage-food manufacturers about their foods and shelf life, etc.

A previous recent test performed at Columbia Food Labs addressed shelf-life claims made by Wise Foods, showing the oxygen levels in that company's food packages are extremely high and not conducive to long shelf life for the foods in those packages.

Now this just released university test (conducted by the Sensory Science Lab at OSU in late July of this year) shows that there is a big difference in consumer preference in taste as well. Using a representative cross-section of 113 participants, a randomized, blind tasting test of comparable Mountain House and Wise Foods varieties was conducted.

In the end, the results were quite amazing, with the Mountain House foods preferred by a wide margin, averaging better than 90%. The lab indicates results have a 99.9% confidence level.

The summary slide presentation is available here.

The complete OSU data report can be viewed here.

Near-term Forecast for Severe Outbreak of Adversities

One day recently I woke up, looked in the mirror, and realized that I had literally become a graybeard. My lovely wife of many, many calendars tells me she likes how it looks (when neatly trimmed) and that my wisdom had finally started to show. Forever my inspiration, that girl.

These years have started to tumble by ever more quickly. The gray, the paunch, and the creases around my eyes are a constant reminder of the lengthening road at my heels. But where the physical wear and tear manifests, so too does the mental, emotional, and spiritual progress become more evident. Wisdom and true understanding do require deeper roots.

In the Preparedness and Intelligence Fields

I'm a Cold Warrior ... intell officer from way back. I was trained as an analyst by the best of the best more than 35 years ago. At the time, I was pretty much still a kid. But the wheels of time pushed and pulled. I learned and grew and moved on in life, usually two steps forward one step back ... all the while bestowing valuable experiences in various, mostly insignificant corners of the big, round world.

Recognition that civilization as we knew it had crested the hill and was on the backside of the shining mountain came very early. Some of that early recognition was "insider" info, I guess. And soon thereafter came the understanding that there really was no such thing as a benevolent government out there ready to keep us from hurting ourselves. Eventually I even came around to seeing the danger that growing behemoth was posing to freedom.

Needless to say--crisis preparedness grew to be a personal passion. Then it became an outreach effort and finally a very fulfilling business operation as well.

All of this background is to simply set the stage for what I want to say very clearly today to those who have yet to see the warning signs all around us.

Alarm

Loud and clear--in all my years of advising high-ranking military and corporate officers, and customers, peers, and others seeking my insight as an analyst, consultant, business partner, or friend, I have never before been so acutely alert to the imminent dangers right on our doorstep today. "Our" meaning any and all of us living today on this planet earth.

There are so many urgent crises on the verge of spilling over the multitude of rickety, makeshift dams that have been erected to buy more time, that it is simply mind-boggling to me that we are now reaching the point when they could all conceivably breech their containment structures all at once.

The collapsing economy around the world ... the fast-building tensions in the Middle East about to erupt in a war that could quickly engulf the world ... simmering social stresses tearing communities and nations apart ... ballooning governmental police-state mentalities sweeping through all levels of authority ... extreme climate conditions leading to very dangerous food shortages ...

I'm not a Mayan end-of-the-world believer ... the farthest from it. But it's quite the coincidence how our reality is about to be turned absolutely inside out at this particular time, isn't it? God works in mysterious ways.

It's Time

Friends, date-setting is an almost certain way to make an ass of yourself. That said, right now I have to get this off my chest, simply and fully:  I don't see us getting to 2013 without going through some very drastic upheavals and convulsions in our current state of global equilibrium. Near term--the next few months--is about to get violently ugly out there, I fear.

I have felt for many years that I was pretty much as prepared as I could be. That's why I have been devoting so much of my time to helping others get ready for crises. I've always remained hopeful that somehow most of us could avoid ever having to actually fall back on our preps, but now, I think perhaps I was naive. And I'm back to doing a number of things right now that I had let slide in my own situation ... moving with urgency on some last-stage preps.

Anyway--it is what it is at this point. All we can do is steel ourselves for what is coming. I encourage all of you to seek God's will for you in prayer and make preparations accordingly.

Man, This Food Abides!

20 cases of Mountain House food in cans (30-year shelf life) gets you 11 cases more of free storage food, including canned bacon, long-term coffee beans, canned cheese, butter, spices, and wet-pack meats! Crazy deal!

20 cases of MH cans plus $1600 (11 cases) more of FREE storage food

CNBC Reporter Interviewed Safecastle Owner for "Businesses That Cater to Doomsdayers"

All in all, a fair shake by reporter Chris Morris in this CNBC article that is out today: "Businesses That Cater to Doomsdayers."

Excerpt:

Between ongoing global economic uncertainty, terrorism threats, hurricanes, earthquakes, and so-called Mayan apocalypse on Dec. 21, the end of the world is on some people's minds.

That creates a business opportunity – but the customers may not be quite who you’d imagine.

"My customer base is not the militia type who are out in the woods practicing for the end of the world," says Vic Rantala, owner of Safecastle, which has been servicing the survival market for over 10 years. "Our customers are really a good cross section of the American population. … We have people of all incomes and a lot of professions: Doctors. Lawyers. Business owners."