What are preppers? A look at the essential items which should be in your emergency kit, by TikTokers

TikTokers have been giving their tips on how to create the best emergency supply stocks in the week that the government urged people to ensure they stocks of vital products prepared in their homes.

Oliver Dowden has advised people to be prepared for national emergencies, perhaps such as war or another medical crisis such as Covid-19, by creating emergency kits for themselves at home. He said that in the event of such things happening it would help to ease pressure of emergency services and other crucial services if each individual household had provisions ready to be able to look after themselves.

The Deputy Prime Minister believes it is sensible for people stock up with enough food and water to survive for three days in the event of an emergency, which may also include environmental disasters such as flooding.

Whitehall sources have apparently said that the advice was not meant to be cause alarm or panic, and was simply born from a common sense approach to taking care of one’s self, family and home. It’s perhaps only to be expected, however, that any suggestion that a supply of emergency food is needed will bring back unwelcome memories of the mass stockpiling and scaremongering that happening during the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021. During that time, shop shelves were stripped of the most basic essentials, including toilet roll and bread, and the sale of some items was limited to try to stop panic buying.

The most common risk to people according to the government's risk register is flooding, causing power and water outages. Other threats that people should prepare for include a pandemic, a cyber-attack, disruption to space systems that affect GPS signals or, in extreme cases, a nuclear attack.

The advice will, however, not phase some people as they are always prepared for such eventualities. These people are known as ‘preppers’, simply because they are always prepared. So, just what do these ‘preppers’ have in their emergency kits? Here’s what people have been saying on TikTok.

One American TikTok user first posted her ‘prepper’ advice video in response to the Covid-19 outbreak back in 2020, but the advice she posted is still relevant today - and it’s clearly resonating with a lot of people as it has almot two million views to date.

In it the user, who goes by the username ‘Charmingly Frugal’ said: “Being a prepper means we don’t panic buy. We purchase items way in advance. As preppers we’re organised, we’re not hoarders. We understand what emergency food is actually for. We understand in a natural disaster that there’s not always going to be someone there to rescue you and that any food is better that no food.”

She also showed what she buys for her emergency food kit, including rice and beans, water, tinned meat, tinned fruit and vegetables and toilet roll (but only one extra packet).

In another video, a Tiktoker who calls herself ‘housewife prepper’ hit back at a claim she had levelled at her that prepping was “crazy” and a “waste of money”. She insisted that prepping is needed for all kinds of scenarios, including natural diasters and job loss. She also highlighted that it’s important to keep hold of some retro tech that doesn’t rely on being charged, just in case power isn’t available.

In her video, she showed an old radio which is powered by battery, as well as what appeared to be a walkie-talkie. Presumably a loved one also had a walkie-talkie. She also encouraged people to keep forms of entertainment that required no form of electronics at all, such as books and board games. She finished her video with a reminder that people should also keep a good stock of batteries.

One more proud prepper captioned her video: “I’ve stocked up for years & it’s always being refreshed.”. Her stock cupboard includes plenty of peanut butter, jams, pickles, cured meat, pulses, dried milk, dried noodles and pasta and candles and matches.

Another user admitted she had started her own emergency kit after seeing many other TikTok users do the same. She captioned her video: “If case of doomsday. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, so it’s better to be prepared.” She told viewers she had bought a solar lantern and pantry staples “in bulk”. She listed that she had purchased sugar, olive oil, salt, coffee, crisps, oatmeal, cereal, rubbing alcohol and moisturiser.

She finished her video by saying she hoped she wouldn’t need to use the kit, but that she felt it was better to be prepared to protect herself and her family.

One TikTok user, however, advised against an emergency food supply because of use by dates. Her video was recorded in 2021, a year after the coronavirus pandemic began and most people bought huge stocks of food. In it, she said that she thought having a large stock of food was a good idea, but she soon changed her mind a year later when she realised that she hadn’t eaten all of the food - and some of it had then gone out of date.

So, she said she now uses a “much better” system called a rotating pantry. Explaining to her viewers how it works, she said: “I purchased the things I’m already eating on a regular basis, but instead of buying one I buy two or three of the same thing. The idea is to always have a back stock so you never completely run out of food. When I’m down to about two weeks worth of food it’s time to shop again - always putting the new items in the back.”

She included items such as soup and cartons of juice in her video, along with items which have aleady been mentioned in previous videos.

Mr Dowden has previously introduced an “emergency alert” system, which allows authorities to trigger an alarm on millions of mobile phones to inform people of a potential crisis. He also urged people to stock up on “analogue capabilities”, such as candles, torches and wind-up radios, to boost their “personal resilience”.