Freeze-dried foods have a place in a lot of preppers pantry’s for a lot of good reasons. For starters, the food is prepackaged in one to two serving pouches. They only need hot water and a few minutes to give you a warm and tasty meal. Freeze dried food doesn’t take up a lot of space and it is relatively light – I use it when camping and lastly, it will keep for over 10 years! For these reasons and more, I have my own supply of freeze dried foods.
Mountain House is the brand I am most familiar with and when Nitro-Pak, “America’s Foremost Preparedness Food and Gear Company” offered to send me some of their food to review, I took them up on it. In this instance it was their Mountain House Deluxe Security Pak which has enough food to feed two people for 7 days. The price is very reasonable and Nitro-Pak had my order out within days.
The contents of the Security Pak are:
Dinner Entrées
1 Chicken ala King
1 Hearty Stew with Beef
1 Chicken Teriyaki with Rice
1 Beef Stroganoff
1 Turkey Tetrazzini
1 Sweet & Sour Pork with Rice
1 Chili Mac with Beef
Dinner Side Dishes
3 Sweet Garden Peas
2 Super Sweet Corn
2 Cut Green Beans
Dinner Desserts
4 Raspberry Crumble
4 Apple Crisp
Lunch Snacks
14 Freeze Dried Neapolitan Ice Cream Bars
1 Pilot Bread Crackers (#10 can)
Breakfast Entrées
4 Pre-Cooked Eggs with Bacon
10 Blueberry Granola with Real Milk
They came in a total of 50 different pouches (the ice cream was in its own box) and one #10 can for the crackers. The storage life on the can is longer than the pouches but even at 10 years that is an incredible option to have that you don’t need to worry about.
My favorite meal is the Chili Mac with Beef for dinner and I love taking that camping with me. I usually pack a couple of those and for breakfast my new favorite is the Breakfast Skillet. Fills me up and it tastes great too. It is so much more delicious when the air is cold and you are eating by a fire in the woods.
Freeze Dried foods as part of your Survival food plan
Now I mentioned that I have freeze dried food, I also have bulk foods like Hard Red Winter wheat stored in buckets as well as rice, sugar, salt and honey to name a few. This along with the regular food in our pantry gives us a wide variety of foods that we can eat. The advantage of freeze dried foods from companies like Nitro-Pak are the long shelf life and the worry free ease. I just order a box when I have some money and I know the food will be stored properly to last, freeing me up to work on other preps and it will taste great!
Of course, I am a guy who was in the Army so you might have to take someone else’s opinion on the taste but lets just be clear about freeze dried foods and state the obvious. This is not gourmet food. If you are expecting the same savory goodness from your grandmother’s table, well you need to adjust your expectations. Storable food like Mountain House does an amazing job of giving you high quality food but it isn’t fresh from the garden or fridge. The ingredients will store for 10 years giving you potentially lifesaving food that you can put in a closet and forget until you need it. It won’t be the same as eating a home-cooked meal full of fresh ingredients but in my opinion they are far superior to MRE’s or survival rations. It leaves a little to be desired as far as appearances, but I think they taste great.
I know that my family likes them too which is important to consider when it comes to feeding people after a crisis. The last thing you want is kids that are complaining because they are tired of rice and beans (yes I know) when you could easily give them something they do like.
If you are looking to round out your long term storable food options and are considering freeze dried I would highly recommend Mountain House for their quality and their flavor as well as Nitro-Pak for their service. I am sure you won’t be disappointed in either.