Naturally, all things must come to an end, but when it comes to certain foods we eat, there are ways to preserve them for the future. In fact, some foods are naturally tough enough to stand the test of time as long as certain conditions are met for extending shelf life. True survivalists and doomsday preppers already have these foods on their checklists. Here's a list of five such foods to digest.

5. Pemmican

Meats can be very challenging to preserve. Whether curing, salting or freezing them, they still had to be kept stored under the right conditions at all times.

Fortunately, access to modern technology has yielded better results for preserving foods. However, it turns out that long ago, not only were there means to preserve meats without electricity but also extend their shelf life for as long as decades.

Enter pemmican, the dried meat method coined by the Indigenous people of North America. Surprising but true, ancient Indians had perfected the means of preserving meat by combining the protein and fat with whatever was readily available to form a paste. Sometimes other foods like berries would be added to the paste which can then be stored for months and even years.

Arctic explorers and European settlers eventually caught onto this method, and the rest is history.

So how long exactly could the dried meat be stored? Debates go on to this day, but the most likely scenario puts the shelf life up to five years in room temperature. Throw refrigeration into the equation and pemmican could last past a decade. Some reports even claim that it lasts fifty years or more, but that remains to be seen.

4. Dried milk

Dried milk aka powdered milk lasts incredibly longer than its liquid counterpart for obvious reasons. The milk is completely dehydrated and can only be used when combined with water. This process limited the growth of bacteria in the dried milk and was the very aim of the manufacturers. Although this food can still go bad eventually, the process takes a very long time.

In fact, some retailers sell their own dried milk labeled with expiration dates going as far as twenty-five years If the container is opened, this food can remain good for up to ten years as long as it remains sealed and stored in a dry place.

3. White rice

Rice is the king of starch-based foods given its widely available, easy to prepare and most of all-- has an incredible shelf life. In fact, rice is pretty much the kind of processed food guaranteed to last consumers half a lifetime. How long? Why almost thirty years as long as it's stored in adequate containers or bags in a cool environment.

White rice especially last this long given that its germ, bran, and husk are all removed during the milling process.

This is not only done to give the rice it's beautifully bright complexion but also to increase its shelf life.

2. Dried Beans

Beans can have extensive shelf life depending on how they are processed and stored. Fresh beans are given a week at most before expiring. Canned beans can outlast a few years. But the Granddaddy of them all are dried beans which can last up to decades depending on how they are stored.

These beans have all of their moisture removed before they are packaged and sold which explains a lot. Similar to white rice, dried beans can also last up to thirty years. However, this is best achieved by storing them in air-tight containers. Preferably, these are usually stored in bulk by survivalists and preppers alike.

1. Honey

The world owes bees for the honey they produce. This thick, liquid sugar serves many purposes that range from culinary to medicinal. But it's made all the more reliable thanks to its unusual longevity.

Honey is naturally produced by honey bees all over the world. These insects do so by ingesting sugars and water from plants and other bees, then regurgitate those sugars through a chemical process that removes the water to form the thick, golden, sweet food humans can consume every day.

Although this process kind of makes honey seemingly one of the grossest foods on the planet, the bright side is that it helps to preserve the sugar for an incredible amount of time. In fact, honey has been proven to last thousands of years according to some archaeological discoveries. The oldest shelf life recorded was between four thousand to five thousand years old.
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