Emergency Survival Crackers (1963)

Duration: 2:58

Year Published: 1963

Sound: sound

Description: This news segment for Houston’s KPRC-TV, broadcast on January 15, 1963, tours the Houston Nabisco factory soon after it received a government contract to produce survival cracker rations, also known as “fall-out biscuits,” in the case of a nuclear event. The reporter details their nutritional value, as well as explains how they are produced and sealed for storage, before ending the segment with some light gallows humor speculating about their taste. Nabisco, earlier known as the National Biscuit Company, is a cookie and cracker manufacturer of products such as Chips Ahoy!, Oreo, Ritz Crackers, and Wheat Thins. The company closed its Houston plant in 1999.