Go bag list: what the official bug-out bag lists agree on

What almost every official list names

Cash and basic hygiene are on all fifteen lists; water, food, your medicines and copies of your papers are on fourteen. Most add a radio, a phone charger, warm clothes and sturdy shoes, a torch with spare batteries, a first-aid kit and rain gear. That core is the list below, with a quantity wherever a list gives one. Pack one bag per person: New York, Canada and Germany all say so.¹²³

How many days of medicines to pack is a question for your doctor or pharmacist. Two Red Cross societies print their own figures, 7 days in the American list and 14 days in the Australian one.⁶¹³ A written list of what each person takes, why and in what dose is on New York’s and Spain’s lists.¹⁵

What only some countries add

Beyond the core, the lists split. Six items people ask about show how far:

Some additions belong to one country alone. Sweden is the only list with a compass,¹⁰ Germany the only one with a neck pouch or capsule for each child carrying name, date of birth and address,³ and Australia’s first-aid kit carries sunscreen and insect repellent.¹³ Mexico’s CENAPRED has published its list in several versions: the one from November 2018 has no cash and no first-aid kit, the one from December 2019 has both,¹⁴¹⁹ and Ready.gov keeps cash, documents and prescription medicines on its “additional” list rather than the basic one.⁸

Food and water for the bag, in grams and litres

Few lists put a figure on what the bag holds, and those that do disagree: Germany packs food for two days and one water bottle, Switzerland food and drink for one day, the UK and the American Red Cross three days of both.³⁷⁴⁶ A litre of water weighs a kilo, so the water decides how heavy the bag gets.

None of these lists gives a weight limit for the bag. Germany sets a size instead: no more per person than fits in one rucksack.³ Austria prefers a rucksack to a suitcase because it leaves both hands free,⁹ and New York allows a small suitcase on wheels.¹ The bag holds a day or three; the amounts for a week or two belong at home, in how much water to store per person.

Dried food is light because the water comes out; it goes back in from the same bottles. Most of our pouches also work with cold water, 20–30 minutes depending on the meal: a main such as Chicken & Rice needs 370 ml and about 20 minutes, and the porridge, Porridge & Fruit, needs 250 ml. Tins carry their own water and their own weight.

Where it lives and when to check it

Keep it somewhere everyone in the house knows, easy to reach and away from damp and heat, as Spain’s family guide puts it.⁵ Switzerland asks a sharper question: could you pack it within half an hour? Its list has two tiers, the five things to take when it has to be fast (phone, passport or ID, medicines, wallet, a day’s food and drink) and the rest for when there is more time.⁷

Check it every six months, the interval the UK and Spain give; the Australian Red Cross says every year.⁴⁵¹³ Swap the food and water before their dates, recharge the power bank and update the medicines and the phone numbers. The bag doesn’t replace what the authorities tell you on the day: follow their instructions, as Switzerland’s plan says.⁷

Go bag, grab bag, bug-out bag: the same bag

What matters more than the name is which bag you mean. The European Commission asks for the two to be kept apart: supplies for staying at home, and a bag for leaving.¹⁸ Staying in through a storm or a power cut takes the longer shelf of the 72-hour kit list; leaving takes this bag, and for a fire in Spain, a wildfire evacuation bag. The cash amount and the papers to copy are in how much cash to keep at home, and if you drive out, the car emergency kit list covers the boot.

From our range

One-Day Ration

One day’s food in 4 pouches: 570 g, 2,321 kcal.

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