Haven't updated this for a bit, but here I am again. I'm back to talking about food again.
While stocking the camping supply aisle at work today I came across
Mountain House brand freeze dried food. We used to buy this stuff back 35 or 40 years ago when I was doing serious hiking and backpacking. It's not the cheapest but it really is one of the better tasting and packaged preserved foods out there in my opinion. It lasts damn near forever, just needs water (preferably hot), and fixes up quickly (once you get the water boiling). There's a decent variety of items offered, the packaging is waterproof (until you open it), and if I was seriously into building long-term emergency stashes of food (as opposed to the roughly 2 week supply I keep on hand) this would definitely be on my list of hot items.
Disclaimer: I am not an employee of this company nor have I received any form of compensation for the following review, I'm just a happy customer from way, way back.
One nice thing is that you can really look at the nutritional information and ingredient list on line - important if, like me, you have medical issues regarding food. Is it exactly like fresh food? No, it's not - the texture is usually slightly different and it is food that has been preserved. But it does have actual flavor and you can identify the bits - in other words, it's not heavily salted cardboard.
They're even still offering freeze-dried ice cream. What does that taste like? Ice cream, of course, that's what it is - but the texture is different and it's warm (unless you have some way to chill it, which we didn't out on the trail in summer). It used to be called "astronaut ice cream" because NASA sent some into space (I have no idea what brand NASA used).
I did note Mountain House has jumped on the prepper bandwagon
with multi-day boxes of food. Now, you could assemble long-term food stores for cheaper, but honestly, for a ready-made kit this isn't too bad, the food will actually taste like food, and it will last a long time. For a ready-made, easy solution to long term food storage you could do a lot worse.
This stuff is also really light weight - easy to carry and move around.
On the downside, you must have a supply of potable water to use this food. If you eat this stuff without water (besides a weird texture for some of the food) it will expand in your tummy, possibly causing a truly epic bellyache (yes, I've seen that happen). You can get away with a couple bites, if you drink fluids with it, but scarfing a whole meal that way is, let us say, not a good idea. So if you use this option be sure you have a stash of water one way or another.
Additionally, many of the entrees are pretty high in sodium. Now, even most people who need to watch their sodium can get away with this for a day or two in a true emergency, but truth is most of what they sell can not be considered low sodium. Not a huge issue given their
main target demographic is campers, hikers, hunters, etc. who will probably be exercising, maybe even sweating a lot. But if you're buying this for a scenario where you're hunkered down and not doing much you may want to opt for the lower-sodium items.
Finally, a word about servings. They do mention this on the website, but it bears repeating. The serving sizes are geared to around 1800-2000 calories a day, which is sufficient for sedentary adults. Again, if you're just hunkered down waiting out a situation that's fine. If, however, you are very active (say, backpacking, or fighting off zombies every few hours, or whatever) "one serving" is not sufficient. When I was an adolescent backpacker I was budgeting about 2-3 servings per meal, in addition to snacks, trail mix, jerky, etc. Yeah, I was eating a LOT of food, between hauling a backpack weighing up to 30 kilos and walking with it 10-20 miles in a day, AND being a growing adolescent. Depending on the situation, a 1 day emergency food box might last you 1 day... or you might need a 3-day box to get through a day. Also, if you're that physically active you may need to increase your protein levels to maintain your muscle health. We used to do stuff like hand out a pouch of chicken and rice to everyone then an additional pouch of chicken to add to it. And eat a lot of beef jerky. And nuts. And... well, consider this
part of your emergency supplies, not the whole of them, and realize that having extra food is better than not having enough.
Note also that Mountain House sells various sized containers for these things, with the sealed cans good for 25+ years of shelf life! Given the size of the #10 cans, though, that's more of an option for a family or group than an individual. The smaller pouches and packs cost more per unit, but they can reasonably be consumed in one meal and leave the rest of your stash safely sealed up and protected from moisture, oxygen, bacteria, fungus, etc.
So, really, consider what you'd be buying this for - if you're prepping for just 2-3 days of no power and it's just you or maybe one other person individual pouches make sense. If you have a family and you're concerned about a week of no power post-hurricane or earthquake the larger cans might make more sense. (4 or 5 people can easily go through the #10 can of blueberry granola and another #10 can of scrambled eggs in a week's worth of breakfasts, for example.)
Is this your cheapest option? No. You are paying for several things:
1) All the preserving, portioning, and testing has been done for you. This company has been in business for decades and they're main target audience is not preppers but campers who have other options so tastiness is important to their customers.
2) Shelf life of 12-25 years (and it remains edible, if not wonderful, even longer as long as the packaging isn't breached)
3) Reasonably robust packaging. As long as the pouches are intact the food is good - so, for example, contact with flood waters won't render your food useless. You'll need to clean off the outside (bleach, maybe?) but what's inside remains wholesome. In this respect it's like canned food, but much lighter in weight.
4) The convenience of food that really does take only as long as you require to boil water and wait a few minutes to prepare. Actually, you don't have to boil the water, it will work with room temperature water but lukewarm beef stroganoff is... not the best experience (yes, experience again). Of course, in a real emergency when you're really hungry you'll be able to eat it, but life and morale is much better when you can actually enjoy your food.
Now, you might say, why not MRE's? Well, for one thing, the MRE's are geared towards soldiers and may be too high-calorie for sedentary people. MRE's also weigh more, because they still have lots of moisture in them. Is that an issue? I don't know - depends on you, doesn't it? They don't weigh that much more, but if you're putting together a "bug out bag" weight could be an issue - but then, you'd need to carry water anyway. MRE's tend to have more additives and preservatives than freeze dried options. The cost, depending on where you buy these things may or may not be greater. Nothing wrong with MRE's, nothing wrong with freeze dried, they're both options and I'd say pick the one you like best. And throw in some canned stew or fruit or whatever if weight isn't an issue. Variety is good, options are good. You can use that can of Progresso soup to bash in the skull of a zombie then open it up (the can, not the zombie) for dinner later. Pouch of freeze-dried chicken teriyaki not so good at skull bashing.
I also hasten to add that while I am a fan of this particular brand it's not the only one out there. If you do opt for freeze dried as part of your emergency stores you'll want something at least as good as this, with similarly sturdy packaging.