Warning to ‘stock up’ immediately on seven items from Asda, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl

Householders are being urged to stock up on seven items from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi, as well as other supermarkets. The government is urging people to prepare for emergencies.

This includes stocking up on essential items such as bottled water and tinned meat, BirminghamLive reports. It advises on the “Prepare” website that residents should maintain a supply of bottled water, suggesting a minimum of three liters per person per day, preferably 10 liters for added convenience in cooking and hygiene.

It is also recommended that households stock up on non-perishable foods that do not require cooking, such as canned meat, vegetables and fruit. In fifth place was a tin opener, sixth items were batteries, and seventh were wet wipes. If applicable, people are also told to stock up on pet food and baby food.

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“Who can forget the empty supermarket shelves in the early days of the pandemic?” said Oliver Dowden. “And how many of us have acted since then so that we are better prepared if it happens again? If there was a national power outage, how many of us have torches and batteries?

“If the water ran out, how many of us have a few bottles in storage?” The new guidance comes after a survey published by the London Defense Conference found that more than 40% of people do not have three days’ worth of supplies.

Only 15% have an emergency kit in their homes. However, Mr Dowden said he was personally prepared and added: “I assure you we have plenty of stamina in the cupboards and we have some water in the shed.

“And we have some better battery powered torches.” Flooding was cited as the most likely threat to the government’s release, followed by cyber attacks, GPS disruptions, another pandemic and, in extreme cases, potential conflict.

Mr Dowden added: “Every extra person who takes steps to make themselves resilient means that when a crisis hits, the government can focus more on people who are unprepared and unresilient.”

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