4Patriots is a company out of Nashville, TN that specializes in disaster preparedness products. Although 4Patriots has been around since 2008, events of the past year – where travel was shut down, panic buying emptied supermarket shelves and governments dictated that people were forbidden to go out for months at a time – brought increased attention to 4Patriots and their product offerings, in particular their emergency food supply kits.
4Patriots: Background
4Patriots was founded by Allen and Erin Baler of Nashville who felt that big box stores like Walmart were eroding the soul of the country by putting small retailers out of business and pushing cheap, low quality products. They also felt that there was a paucity of products being sold in these huge retail warehouses that were of any use to people dealing with natural disasters such as hurricanes, blizzards and, as we saw recently, lockdowns.
The company was started on a very limited budget and adopted a patriotic theme that championed what the founders see as fundamental American values of freedom, independence, fairness and self-reliance. The founders were particularly focused on providing people the means to transcend those times when the SHTF and normal distribution chains were disrupted, along with power and water supplies. To that end they offer 4 product lines:
Food 4Patriots
Food 4Patriots is the best-known and best selling of their product lines. The company offers an array of food survival kits that are designed to hold you and your loved ones over for anywhere from a few days to a year. Their food products are mostly freeze dried and come in large bulk containers. Inside the container is a variety of entrees, side dishes, soups, complete meals, snacks and more. These various food products have a shelf life of 25 years under optimal conditions.
Water 4Patriots
While Food 4Patriots is the company’s most popular product line, they feel their Water 4Patriots may be their most important. After all, you can live for weeks on little to no food (1), but the body will start shutting down after only a couple of days without water, and death is likely after 4 or 5 days (2). Even less if you are in a hot climate or exposed to direct sunlight.
Water 4Patriots then is the company’s response to the fact that when disasters strike, potable water is often one of the first victims. Water 4Patriots is not bottled water. Instead it’s centered around so-called “LifeStraws” (3) which are filters that purportedly remove up to 99.999% of bacteria and other pollutants from dirty water. Each LifeStraw will filter a total of 24 gallons. So if you go by the CDC’s guidance that each person needs about 1 gallon of water per day (4) then that’s 3 1/2 weeks worth of water from each filter.
Power 4Patriots
Of course if the S has HTF then there is a pretty good chance the power is out as well. Just look at what recently happened in Louisiana with Hurricane Ida (5). The name – Power 4Patriots – is a bit misleading, though, because the company does not actually supply generators or batteries for emergency use. What they sell instead are ebooks and videos that teach you how to build things like wind turbines, solar panels and solar water heaters so that you can generate your own power and not have to rely on the grid.
Survival Seeds 4Patriots
Survival Seeds 4Patriots provides just that: seeds. Each SS4P kit contains 5,640 seeds representing a variety of fruits and vegetables. You can start growing your own fruits and veggies now and be ready for the apocalypse, or save the seeds for up to 5 years so that you have them in case there’s a mass extinction event and we need to revert to our agricultural origins. The program also provides an ebook that purports to teach you how to get your independent farm going. Of course you’ll need enough land to do that which may be tough to come by for some folks.
4Patriots also maintains a blog focused on providing survival tips as well as sharing articles related to important issues of the day as determined by the staff at 4Patriots. The company also makes it a point to stand by veterans and their families and to support veteran-related causes
In essence the company is dedicated to creating a community of enlightened Americans who believe in the values of independence, freedom and self-reliance. If you are one of those who is not in denial about the tenuous state of society and who is determined to transcend whatever difficulties the future may hold, 4Patriots is here to aid in your survival.
4Patriots Food Kit Reviews
Now that we’ve got the flag-waving out of the way, let’s take a closer look at some of the company’s more than 4 dozen food kits or individual products.
4Patriots 1-Year Survival Food Kit
If you believe in being prepared, really being prepared, then you’ll want to check out the 4Patriots 1-Year Survival Food Kit. This monstrous kit provides more than 2,700 servings of 4Patriots best comfort food that will keep for up to 25 years. This is not something you buy because you’re preparing for a heavy weather event where help may not get to you for 3 or 4 days. This is the kit you keep in your bunker in preparation for nuclear war or total societal breakdown.
This blockbuster kit provides 24 different menu items including:
- Mac & Cheese
- Black Bean Burger Mix
- Cowboy Rice & Beans
- Fireside Stew (fav)
- Lasagna Style Marinara
- Aztec Chili
- Hearty Stroganoff
Everything is packaged in triple-layer Mylar pouches with high capacity oxygen absorbers (6) that remove any air that might find its way inside during production. The pouch is also light, heat and water resistant and should withstand a dunking in the event of flooding. Although you shouldn’t leave them exposed to water too long.
From a taste perspective what you get here is fairly predictable survival fare. It’s intended to provide you with the calories and carbs you need to maintain your weight and energy over a prolonged period, not to win culinary awards. Just make sure that if you’re eating this stuff 3 times a day for more than a couple of weeks that you get plenty of exercise.
Pros
- Made in the US
- Most dishes tastes pretty good
- No MSG added
- Robust packaging
- Easy to prepare
Cons
- It’s a lot of food
- No MSG doesn’t mean no salt (7)
- Not for those with food issues
- Expensive
4Patriots 3-Month Survival Food Kit
The marketing for the 4Patriots 3-Month Survival Food Kit consists of carefully choreographed images of expansive dining tables packed to the gills with gleaming porcelain serving dishes overflowing with 4Patriots comfort food, and lush, green views through casement windows.
But if you’re breaking out the survival food it’s more likely you’re hunkered down in the basement with your gun at the ready, using candles for light and eating off an old beat up camping plate. Just saying.
Marketing aside however, the 4Patriots 3-Month Survival Food Kit is basically a scaled down version of their 1-Year Food Kit we looked at above. Many of the items here, especially the pasta-based items and the soups and stews, are pretty tasty and will definitely hit the spot. Some, like the Grammy’s Sweet Oatmeal we could live without, even if the zombies were at the door. But that’s just us. You might love it.
In total you get 688 servings which, in theory, should be enough for mom and dad and 2 small-ish kids for approximately 3 months. They also throw in some fruit and vegetable seeds and a few books about what you should stockpile, how to cultivate a garden, what to do for water in an emergency and more. The pros and cons are essentially the same as those for the 1-Year Kit:
Pros
- Made in the US
- Most dishes are pretty tasty
- No MSG
- High quality packaging
- Easy to prepare
Cons
- Lots of salt and sugar
- Diabetics need not apply
- Calories per day is pretty modest
4Patriots 4-Week Survival Food Kit
A month’s worth of emergency food is probably more like what most people have in mind when they contemplate preparedness. Although there are notable exceptions, most disasters wind down after a week or so. Maybe 2 weeks if it was a real barn-burner. So a month’s worth of survival rations should do you just fine. Enter the 4Patriots 4-Week Survival Food Kit.
When the toilet paper barons of 2020 (8) were all the rage, thoughtful people everywhere were watching the news thinking the real problem was not the corona flu, but mass hysteria, and they’d better hunker down. As a result 4Patriots sold nearly 425,000 of these 4-Week Survival Kits in short order. With each kit costing about $200 that’s $85 million in 4-Week Food Kit sales before 4Patriots’ supply lines dried up and the kit became unavailable. Good news for them.
The good news for you is that the kit is back now, and it’s still a reasonable value if your goal is to make sure your family has enough to eat in the event of a real disaster like a hurricane. That said, you’ll get about a dozen menu items in this kit. Half what you get in the 3-month kit. And that’s a potential problem because the calorie allotment is pretty modest, and a couple of the items are not exactly mouth-watering. Which means you may have a difficult time getting the kids in particular to eat them once. Never mind eat them over and over.
Pros
- Made in the US
- No MSG
- High quality packaging
- Easy to prepare
- Not so much it will present storage problems
Cons
- Salt and sugar
- Not for diabetics
- A few of the items are hit or miss
4Patriots 72-Hour Survival Food Kit Review
Since the average adult, (especially one carrying some extra lbs), can live without food for more than a week before it becomes a serious problem (9) the idea that 72 hours without food is a survival situation is a bit of a stretch. But we’re not going to split hairs because let’s face it, no one wants to go 3 days without food, even if they aren’t in danger of starving.
This kit is good to have around just in case. In fact, just in case, you might want to have 2 or 3 of these stored away for a (very) rainy day. The menu is limited to 3 items (Mac & Cheese, Creamy Rice and Vegetable Dinner and Grammy’s Sweet Oatmeal, with the oatmeal being the weak link in the flavor chain). But, again, this kit is a stop gap measure not a long term diet plan.
Each kit costs less than 30 bucks and will last up to 25 years if stored properly. If you are fond of hiking or hunting and are looking for something different to eat that will fill you up and tickle your taste buds a bit at the end of a long day, take some of the Mac & Cheese and Creamy Rice and Vegetable Dinner pouches along with you. Just remember you’ll probably need to eat double what 4Patriots considers a serving size in order to get the calories you need.
Pros
- Made in the US
- No MSG
- Robust packaging
- Easy to prepare
- Something different for the trail
Cons
- Small portions
- We can live without the oatmeal (sorry Grammy)
- Not for diabetics
4Patriots Fruit, Veggie & Snack Survival Food Kit
4Patriots also offers an array of specialty survival food kits that you can purchase to augment their standard kits. After all, it’s a good idea to have something different around if you are forced to hunker down for a long period of time. One of the tastiest and most beneficial of these specialty kits is the Fruit, Veggie & Snack Survival Food Kit.
What you get here are things like dehydrated banana chips, strawberries, corn and green beans. By mixing and matching these with dinners from the larger 4-Week, 3-Month, or 1-Year kits you’ll be able to provide a bit of much needed variety. The flavor is generally good, the packaging reliable and, like the rest of the 4Patriots offerings, they’ll last for up to 25 years if they’re properly stored.
Pros
- No MSG
- Quality packaging
- Can augment their other survival kits
- 100% money-back guarantee
- Free shipping to the lower 48
Cons
- Don’t expect too much from the veggies
- Not for diabetics
What are the Advantages of Freeze Dried Food?
All 4Patriots food is freeze dried, which raises the question: what are the advantages and disadvantages of dehydrating food? Let’s take a look.
Freeze Dried Food: Advantages
Freeze dried food retains a lot of its nutritional value
The freeze drying process (10) does not subject the food to high temperatures the way dehydrating does. As a result most experts believe the food retains a higher percentage of its original nutritional value. That’s important if you are in a survival situation. You want your food to have as much nutritional potential as possible, especially because the serving sizes on these prepared meals are often pretty modest.
Freeze dried food tastes better
Because the food is not subjected to high heat during the freeze drying process it not only retains more of its nutritional value, it also retains more of its original taste. The natural texture of the food is also preserved to a higher degree than with dehydration, so you get a more authentic culinary experience. This is a big selling point because eating emergency rations is no one’s idea of fun. But if it retains much of its original flavor and texture at least it won’t be unpleasant.
Longer shelf life
Most people aren’t buying survival food kits to eat now (unless of course they are hunters or hikers). They want them on hand in case a survival situation descends upon them. Because it may be many years before such a situation occurs the longer the shelf life of our emergency rations the better. Industrial dehydration will remove about 95% of moisture and increase a food’s shelf life to 10 – 15 years. Commercial freeze drying by comparison will remove about 99% of all moisture and increase shelf life to as much as 25 years.
Freeze dried food is light
Because so much moisture is removed, freeze dried food is typically very light. If you are a hunter or hiker you have to watch every pound that goes into your backpack. Carrying freeze dried food can lighten your pack while ensuring you have nutritious, good tasting food when you stop to make camp.
Freeze Dried Food: Disadvantages
It has to be rehydrated
Unlike canned foods that are ready to go as soon as you open the top, freeze dried food needs to be reconstituted. If the end is nigh and society has broken down there may not be potable water to reconstitute it with. Even in the case of a hurricane or flood water sources may be contaminated. So you’ll have to make provision for that.
Either store enough water to reconstitute all your freeze dried food, or stock up on water filters and water filtration tablets, as well as plenty of fuel for your stove so you can boil contaminated water if you have to. Some dehydrated foods, such as fruit, can be eaten as is. But a stroganoff dish will need water. Same with chili or stew or any other kind of entree.
They’re more expensive than dehydrated food
There are exceptions to every rule but in this case freeze dried food is usually more expensive than comparative quantities and styles of dehydrated food. Not a lot mind you. But enough that you’ll notice the difference. The main reason they’re more expensive is that the freeze drying process is pretty energy intensive.
They don’t look or taste exactly like fresh cooked food
There are some freeze dried meals that are pretty close to fresh cooked meals. You’ll find that is particularly true of stews, soups and some pasta dishes. Even then, however, there are bound to be some differences in texture and flavor. There are other dishes (not many, thankfully) that simply don’t reconstitute in a very agreeable fashion. You’ll still glean some nutritional value from them, but that’s about all.
Finding affordable freeze drying equipment is difficult
If you are buying your freeze dried food from 4Patriots then you don’t have to worry about this. However, if you plan on freeze drying food at home, good luck. Finding freeze drying equipment is not easy, and the few companies that do sell it are often sold out due to demand. Freeze drying at home will also bump up your energy bills pretty significantly, and you may ruin quite a bit of food before you get the process down pat.
4Patriots Reputation
Judging by customer feedback we reviewed from a number of sources, including the BBB, the main issue with 4 Patriots seems to be their tendency to lose track of orders now and then.
Two things should be noted however:
- Their customer service is relentless in tracking down complaints, reaching out to the aggrieved party and setting things right. And…
- Considering the volume of products and the variety of different emergency food supplies they sell, losing track of a few orders now and then is perhaps not all that surprising.
We found very few credible complaints with the food itself, other than a few of the meals are less than inspiring. But this is survival food, so expecting it to be awarded Michelin stars is absurd. It’s carb heavy comfort food intended to get you through a natural disaster or other calamity.
The Bottom Line
4Patriots has emerged in the past couple of years as one of the most popular suppliers of emergency survival food kits in the country. Maybe the best thing about their particular success story is that they have held the line when it comes to quality even during recent events when the kits were flying out of their warehouse and they might have been expected to cut corners here and there to meet demand.
They didn’t do that, and so we have no problem recommending them as a dependable supplier of reasonably tasty, long-lasting, well-packaged, nutrient-rich survival food. 4Patriots survival kits will cost a bit more than kits from some other manufacturers but in our opinion they’re worth the stretch. Do they have a few duds on their menu? Sure. But even high end restaurants miss the target now and then. If they have a noteworthy downside it’s that they sometimes screw up orders, although they go out of their way to make things right.
