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Survival · Food

What you can eat in the field — and what you should not guess

Survival food priorities, the Universal Edibility Test, preservation, and fishing. 400 article titles. Species tables stay in the app.

§ 01

The direct answer

Water, shelter, and fire outrank food for the first 48–72 hours in most climates. You will not starve in three days. You can wreck a kidney or a gut in one meal of the wrong plant. That is why this page will not publish a species index.

If you must eat unknown plants, the Universal Edibility Test is the field protocol: contact test on wrist and lip, then a tiny chew, then a 8-hour wait with nothing else in the stomach. Fail at any step and discard that plant. It is slow on purpose. It is not a foraging shortcut.

Calories that are safer than guessing plants: fish you can identify, insects with the guts squeezed out (avoid bright colors and hairy bodies), and food you brought. Preserve extra meat by smoking, drying, or freezing if the air will do it. The 400 articles behind this page include climate-zone plant lists and snare diagrams. Those stay in the app — including every species table.

§ 02

Universal Edibility Test — the one protocol this page will teach

Use this only when you have no known food and time to spare. It does not make a toxic plant safe; it tells you to stop.

1. Separate
Test one plant part (leaf, root, fruit) — never the whole plant as one sample.
2. Contact
Crush, rub on inner wrist, wait 15 minutes. Itching, burning, or rash = stop.
3. Lip / tongue
Tiny amount on the lip, then tongue. Wait several minutes. Sting or numbness = stop.
4. Chew, spit
Chew a pea-sized piece, hold, spit. Wait 15 minutes.
5. Swallow, wait
Swallow that pea-sized piece. Wait 8 hours with no other food. Illness = stop forever for that part.
§ 03

In the offline library — titles only

12 titles · 400 articles in this cluster · full text in-app

  1. 01The Universal Edibility Test: Safely Identifying Wild Plants for Food
  2. 02A Survivalist’s Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Climate Zone
  3. 03Harvesting and Preserving Edible Plants for Survival
  4. 04Preserving Meat in the Wild: Smoking, Drying, Freezing, and Salting Techniques
  5. 05Cleaning and Preparing Fish for Cooking and Storage
  6. 06Fish as Survival Food: Locating, Catching, and Cooking Techniques
  7. 07Saltwater Survival: Fish You Should Never Touch, Handle, or Eat
  8. 08Improvised Fishing Gear: Making Lines, Hooks, and Lures at Sea
  9. 09A Guide to Survival Snares: Simple Snare, Drag Noose, and Twitch-Up Explained
  10. 10Field Guide to Edible Animal Foods: Insects, Fish, and Reptiles
  11. 11Survival Food Priorities: When to Seek Food, Water, or Shelter First
  12. 12Overcoming Food Aversion: Eating Unfamiliar Foods for Survival

Titles only. Full text, regional variants, and tables are in the offline library — they are not published on this site.

§ 04

Related

Rationing calculator →Water →First aid →

All nine topics: survival index. Educational reference — disclaimer.

Then get it on the phone

You’re reading this with a signal. The situation it describes is one where you won’t have one.