For all the Why’s and Wherefore’s of Survival Saturday, please visit the Intro Post. Thanks!
Today’s offering is the Efoods Gold (known online as Efoodsdirect.com) Potato Cheddar Soup. Sadly, our experience fit right in with how my reading has gone this month. Frakking February!
Ingredients & Allergens:

Note please, the “turmeric extract”. That’ll be talked about later
Nutritional Info:
Directions:
Things Needed:
4.5 Cups of water
1 package Potato and Cheddar Soup mix
Optional Items:
Leftover crescent rolls, from a church ladies’ get together, that nobody wanted. We had 5-8 of these. *cue ominous and heavy handed foreshadowing music*
Impressions:
As soon as we opened the packet to dump it into the boiling water, we both could smell a bitter, astringent smell that we associated with the Chicken Noodle Soup, also by Efoods Gold. We just looked at each other and said “One bowl then we’re dumping the rest”. We used the full amount of water hoping to alleviate the taste by dilution.
Sadly, it was not to be. We only took a small bowl apiece.
We ended up breaking the crescent rolls in half and just sopped up the soup with them. It made the crescent rolls taste good by comparison and we used them up, so not everything went to waste. But when crescent rolls, that nobody else in a group earlier wanted, are the best part of a meal, you know things aren’t good. The “potato” part of the soup was just as disappointing. They were not little cubes of potatoes or even chunks. They were pinky finger nail sized slices of potato. By the time I was done sopping up with the roll, I had maybe a spoonful of potato, out of a half bowl’s worth of soup.
Mrs B ended up with an upset tummy and I just poured the pot of “food” down the toilet. This was not good and I’d only ever eat it again if I was starving. Honestly, I’d rather keep a pantry full of Campbell’s Chunky Soup on hand and just deal with the pain of cycling through them. They’re supposed to last about 2 years and you can eat them right out of the can with no heating, etc. And they taste a heck of a lot better than this stuff.

Not vegetarian OR kosher, but when you have no other options, food is food
Lessons Learned:
I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my money on this particular brand, Efoods Gold aka Efoodsdirect.com. Long term food storage is becoming more and more complicated these days and having “something” on hand is much better than having nothing. That being said, I won’t be buying this brand ever again and I’d be hesitant to recommend them to anyone else. Maybe have a one month supply on hand, “just in case” but for more than that I’d recommend canned goods.
However, since this fit right in with how my February went, I just kind of laughed it off and grumped for a bit. Also, it was a Friday night and I’d had a good day, so it all kind of balanced out.
–All Survival Saturday Related Posts–
Bear’s Creek makes a really good, shelf stable, bag of “add-water only” soup. I don’t understand how a company can get it so wrong here? LOL
Onto next experiences!
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Any idea how long Bear Creek’s stuff lasts? I’m always on the lookout for “options”.
I suspect that a lot of companies have jumped on the survival food bandwagon and just like everything else, some are better, or worse in this case, than others. But yeah, messing up potato cheddar soup, that takes the cake…
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I’ll check! I don’t have any in my pantry at the moment, but I regularly do. I tell ya, how does that stuff “go bad”? It’s gotta have a pretty lengthy shelf life, the date has to be for quality, right?
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I think it is that is when it can start spoiling or losing the tiny bit of nutrition it has. Of course, eating “food” that has been chemicalized to last 20 years probably isn’t the best thing either. But if it’s between that and starving for a month, well, I choose Chemicals 😉
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Yuck… that sounds pretty gross. When I first saw the title I was thinking potato cheddar soup surely couldn’t be too bad, but I guess it could. I hope Mrs. B is feeling better!
I like Campbell’s Chunky soup pretty well; I buy it sometimes when I’m in the mood for soup. I’ve never tried the “Jazzy Jambalaya” in that photo, but that sounds good. I’ve tried and enjoyed the other two.
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I tend to eat the chunky soups for lunch, as it fits into a thermos I have perfectly. Great for those cold winter work days 🙂
I don’t think I’d try that jambalya myself. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to day to day eating.
Thanks, she is feeling better. Just had to get it through her system and then she was fine.
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Sounds awful. D:
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Definitely not recommended
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Sorry to hear about Mrs. B’s upset stomach. This didn’t look appetizing in any case, but that just killed any interest. If it’s doomsday, the last thing I want is to be ill.
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I don’t think a single one of these has ever looked good. Some haven’t looked as bad as others (ha!) but overall, it really does look like “gloop” from the Matrix.
Yeah, when the hordes of neighbors turned cannibal show up at your door for dinner, well, I doubt being sick would put them off their dinner! And if we’re sick, we can’t defend ourselves. So bad survival food might kill us, one way or another 😉
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Ugh, sorry to hear the food turned out badly. I have a super sensitive stomach and just looking at the ingredients i get indigestion.
I started experimenting recently, and try to make a lot of food at once that i can freeze for later, cuz i’m pretty much at the point now where i can’t eat most pre-made things.
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Making your own food is always healthier and in the long run, cheaper. It is just a time investment that you have to be willing to deal with. How big a freezer do you have?
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Not big enough unfortunately, but could store some food enough for maybe 2 weeks if i pack them like tetris 😂
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Ugh that sounds horrible! I have about 10 tins of Mountain House stuff which I was using to supplement the tinned stores i have but they seem to have stopped selling it in the UK so I’m trying to find a new supplier I can trust!
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Man, still no luck trying to find a good supplier eh? I remember you talking about this problem over a year ago (I’m pretty sure it was that long ago anyway). I know most canned goods are good for 2 years. Which gives us a lot more options. It also gives the problem of cycling through whatever we buy. I think that is the biggest reason we haven’t just bought a big pantry and filled it chock full of canned goods. Kind of a silly reason but we’d really like something we can just throw in the pantry and forget about it until we need it. Which is why I had such high hopes for these various “survival foods”, as that is exactly what you’re supposed to be able to do. Oh well…
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After this truly horrifying experience you need both comfort food and a comfort book (maybe one of your old favorites?) to counterbalance this month’s burning disappointments! 🙂
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Thank goodness for stouffer’s french bread pizza 😀
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See you did your food post already, lol. Sux that the soup was off and your missus’ tummy went of… here’s hoping march will be better!🙂
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Definitely go try something better next month!
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Oh wow fracking February indeed- this sounds absolutely terrible! I really hope March is better for you!
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Thanks. It has been quite the downer of a month, that is for sure…
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I’m sorry to hear that
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Hahahahahah loved the look you each gave each other based on the smell alone. And the disgust that came with it, while unfortunate, had me grinning. Hope you land on something delicious in the near future!
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I’ve got a food idea for next Saturday (the 16th?), which while not a survival food, should give us a great break 🙂
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