Emergency foods evolve from dry biscuits, rice balls

By Kei Ogawa

KOBE —

Kazuko Okuda eats daily foods meant to be kept for a long time or consumed in times of disaster. She invited her friends to a dinner at her home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, in late October to taste ‘‘gyudon,’’ a dish of steamed rice topped with thinly sliced stewed beef, a bowl of miso soup, and curry and rice.

‘‘The foods taste better than those served in a restaurant,’’ one of them commented.

The dishes she served were foodstuffs capable of being preserved for a long period of time. They represented an evolution in Japan in the development of foods for consumption in the event of an emergency triggered by a natural disaster, for example.

‘‘Kan pan’’ bite-size hard biscuits have been standard provisions appearing in shelters following calamities ever since they were distributed by the Imperial Japanese Army to victims of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.

Okuda, a professor emeritus of Konan Women’s University in Kobe who has been researching emergency foods, said the edibles are ‘‘well balanced in taste and nutrition. You can eat them in sequence (according to the time they were produced) and buy them naturally for replacements.’‘

One of the latest products priced at 1,000 yen for a meal includes a pack of rice and some dishes designed to be placed in a heat-resisting bag with a heating agent and saline solution. The pack is soon filled with white steam. The food is warmed without water, fire or electricity.

She became interested in emergency foods when the Great Hanshin Earthquake on Jan 17, 1995 damaged her home, causing it to lean over to one side and cutting off electricity and water. Two slices of bread in the kitchen were the only food available that day.

‘‘It was cold, I was nervous and could not take a bath,’’ she said. ‘‘I had a wild urge to eat warm food.’’ She added that she still remembers the taste of a warm cup of coffee she had three days after the quake, which claimed the lives of more than 6,400 people.

Junko Nakamoto, 36, who lived in a condominium unit that was destroyed by the earthquake, said, ‘‘I had a sense of only being able to eat anything edible immediately after the quake.’‘

She said the ‘‘kan pan’’ biscuits she received at an evacuation site were hard and that children and the elderly seemed to have a hard time eating them. The menu of boxed foods was the same and the rice was cold. She began to slowly lose her appetite.

Japanese people began to show a growing interest in emergency foods with the Hanshin disaster as a major turning point. The quality has improved and canned bread and freeze-dry potato salads emerged.

Foricafoods Corp of Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, marketed what it described as steamed, heat-added ‘‘rescue’’ foods in 2003. However, its factory was damaged by the Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004 and temporarily halted production.

Shigeru Beppu, a 55-year-old department head, was forced to live temporarily in his car that he used to commute. He ate mixed boiled rice that his company turned out.

He said the food was warm and was not bad but he became tired of eating it. He longed for white rice. He was convinced that the ‘‘meal you are used to eat is the best rescue food.’’ Foricafoods shifted to making meals based on white rice as its leading food product. It also began to produce foods that were soft and easy for the elderly to eat.

In another development, the Shizuoka municipal government in Shizuoka Prefecture stores a stack of corrugated boxes containing quick-cooking ‘‘alpha’’ rice in an empty elementary school classroom. The school becomes an evacuation site in the event of a disaster and, by adding water, the rice grains in the boxes can turn into rice or rice gruel.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said it confirmed in a survey in 1994 that about 350 cities, towns and villages across Japan had stockpiled ‘‘kan pan’’ biscuits but that only 90 kept rice. However, alpha rice started replacing the biscuits after the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Shinichiro Hayashi, 55, managing director of Onisi Foods Co in Tokyo, said Japanese companies are actively keeping alpha out of fear of a new type of influenza. Onisi has been dealing with alpha rice since the late 1920s.

Okuda said it would be good if local governments stockpiled a volume of rice equivalent to ‘‘meals for 20% of the population’’ in cities, towns and villages. The Shizuoka City government keeps more than one meal for each of the city’s population of about 720,000.

Crisis awareness appears to be high among those living on the Pacific Ocean side of the country because of the fear of a giant earthquake that may strike in the Nankai Trough off the southern coast of the Kii Peninsula and Shikoku Island.

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11 Comments

shouganaika at 09:44 AM JST - 11th February

He was convinced that the "meal you are used to eat is the best rescue food"

you don't say? a lot of people are going to be disappointed if McD isn't earthquake proof
Pukey2 at 10:00 AM JST - 11th February

‘‘meal you are used to eat is the best rescue food.’’

Who on earth translates these articles?
Patto at 11:45 AM JST - 11th February

It is important to keep a stock of foods that are suitable to you and your family. Someone with diabetes (from a former McD-based lifestyle), for example, will have trouble with all those high-glycemic items which constitute the most easily stored emergency food satisfying everyone else's sugar-cravings (a precursor to diabetes). Anyone with food allergies to common items such as wheat and rice will be in real trouble unless they prepare. Fruit can be dried, suitable grains and legumes store easily (the former can be ground and eaten raw), anyone living rurally or semi-rurally can grow vegetables--some year-round, like spinach and celery. Jerky and smoked fish are easily prepared (google them) and kept cold. The Native Americans prepared "pemmican" from pounded jerky with tallow and dried berries. Now that'll take you over the mountains, if necessary!
Samuraiiki at 12:02 PM JST - 11th February

They never make anything cheap or reasonable.
Yelnats at 01:04 PM JST - 11th February

Just keep a lot of canned foods around the house, and several can openers for those without pop tops. Also lots of plastic bags and toilet paper in case you cannot flush. Bottled water is a bit trickier as you need space to store it.
martinc3779 at 01:38 PM JST - 11th February

The best way is to go to an Army Disposals store and try and stock army ration packs, they have everything you need for a day and can be eaten hot or cold!
Sammi33 at 05:47 PM JST - 11th February

Emergency food is called that for a reason. Some people really like to complain about everything, especially about rice that doesn't adhere to their refined Japanese palate.
almxxx at 06:49 PM JST - 11th February

I like my steak done medium rare, please.
Sarge at 07:23 PM JST - 11th February

"the "meal you are used to eat is the best rescue food"

Har!

"best rescue food"

When you're feeling poorly, there's nothing like a steaming bowl of tamago okaiyu, if you can't get your grandmother's chicken soup.
PuffinMuffin at 08:12 PM JST - 11th February

caloriemate. pity they stopped making carrot flavor
TokyoHustla at 04:31 AM JST - 12th February

Yo, when the crisis hits we will have hustlaz in the streets selling all kinds of goods to the people. we will help rescue the nation.