Survival Food – Freeze Dried & MRE

Dehydrated – Freeze-Dried Versus Bulk Food Storage

By Jeremy Crews

Recently, I posted a series of videos on my blog showing the proper method of packing staple food items such as rice, beans, and wheat for long-term storage. I couldn’t possibly stress enough the importance of using such methods as one would be hard-pressed to find a better way to quickly build up a larder of nutritious, life-sustaining food. When dealing in such bulk items as grains, legumes, etc., a hardy supply of foodstuffs will quickly accumulate.

Of course, these methods do have their drawbacks. The first is that it is time- and labor-intensive as you can see from watching the videos. Another downside is that food packed in such ways is typically not going to be something you can just jump in and start eating. Raw wheat, for instance, must be ground into flour using a countertop mill and then baked into bread. A 5 gallon bucket full of wheat will make a lot of bread to feed you and your family, but that level of work going into preparing it may not be what you’re looking for in an emergency. If your personal preparations tend toward gearing up for a long stretch of bad times, then this method is by-far the best for you due to the many months of food you can quickly and economically accumulate.

If, on the other hand, your preps tend toward shorter emergencies (i.e. blizzards and/or ice storms, floods, or even self-quarantine during a bird flu pandemic) you might find it better to simply load up your pantry with canned goods. With few exceptions, virtually any commercially-canned product you buy in the grocery store will last at least 2 years as long as it is not exposed to high temperatures for extended periods and there are no noticeable abnormalities in the packaging (i.e. bulging cans, etc.). In fact, many are still good long past the expiration dates printed on them. Those using this method must be diligent about rotating the stock in the pantry on a regular basis, meaning you must get used to using the oldest items first.

A sort of middle-of-the-road option and the one that I use mostly is to buy commercially-canned dehydrated and freeze-dried foods in #10 cans. The downside to this method is, first off, it’s more expensive. Secondly, you’ll often find these products are not available locally, and so you must pay for shipping as well. Still, when you factor in the *LONG* shelf lives of these foodstuffs, I believe the added cost is worth it.

For those who may not be familiar with food storage as an emergency prep, dehydrated foods are usually base ingredients such as rice or beans with little or no seasoning added. You typically add them to boiling water, which rehydrates and cooks them at the same time. This can be done on the stove, in a crockpot, or even over a camp fire. Things like pancake and muffin mixes are also typically dehydrated. A personal favorite of mine are dehydrated Potato Flakes, which make mashed potatoes when you fix them. Mmm… mashed potatoes. Okay, I think I’ve recovered now. The bottom line is that these more or less always require cooking. These products, unopened, are good for an amazing 15 years on average.

Freeze-dried foods, on the other hand, are typically already a meal that just requires rehydration. Just pour some odd-looking powdery concoction into a pot of hot water and let it sit for 20 minutes or so and return to find that it has magically soacked-up all the water and turned into a steaming pot of yummy Chili Macaroni or Chicken Teriyaki, all pre-cooked and seasoned and ready to eat. Most freeze dried foods are typically advertised as having an almost unbelievable 25 year shelf-life if left unopened.

As always, it is up to you to decide which is your best option for putting up a larder of storage food. Only you can decide what best suits your individual situation. For me and mine, I have concentrated mostly on dehydrated and freeze-dried so far, but I am planning to put away some bulk beans, rice, rolled oats, and pancake mix in 5 gallon buckets with mylar liners and oxygen absorbers in the next few months.

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There was a Wall Street Journal article on a new dehydrating process from a Canadian company called Enwave.

They say they can dry food in minutes instead of hours or days.

More importantly the process uses less energy, has much lower equipment costs.

The phrase “continuous processing’ also caught my eye.  The equipment for food is called a “nutraREV machine”

According to Enwave’s website;

nutraREV technology uses a combination of vacuum and microwaves to dehydrate fruits, vegetables, low-fat snacks, herbs, meats and seafood at, or below, room temperature. In 2007, EnWave built the first continuous nutraREV machine capable of commercial production levels of dried berries. This machine is currently in the final testing phase at the facility of a major blueberry grower, CAL-SAN Enterprises, Ltd. in Richmond, B.C. to determine whether it can consistently produce 100 Kg of dried blueberries per hour.

It would interesting to see what the final product looks like and what the expected shelf life properties are. If it is as good as they say it is, hopefully a survival food producer picks it up soon.

Sorted through 50 blog and forum posts that refer to freeze dried food in the last week.  Selected 3 below that  have meaningful information on preparedness and freeze dried food references;

Food Storage Dilemmas -Freeze dried Vs. Dehydrated-both flawed!

This is a terrific forum discussion with a lot of great opinions on pros and cons of freeze dried food versus other survival food storage approaches.  Concerns with high sodium levels of prepared food are expressed.  If you can adjust your lifestyle to eating rice and beans and storing these food regularly than there is an advantage in price and health. However the fact is that most people are not likely to adjust to the change and be left later in an unprepared state. The value of freeze dried food reserve is you “don’t have to eat it till you need it”. So people who buy freeze dried food have less risk of being caught unprepared. However if you can adjust “rice and beans” it will decrease the amount of freeze dried emergency food you need to store.

Survival Kits

“Target Woman” talks about things you need to take into account in preparing your survival kit.

the key to survival in the wild is preparation. Where to start and what are the factors that influence purchase of survival products for outdoors or wilderness travel?

Emergency Preparedness – It’s for You (And Me)

This blog post has a section at the bottom “5 MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WITH EMERGENCY SUPPLIES” that is worth reading.

Back in the ‘Y2k’ days, our family prepared and urged others to do the same, not because of fear but so that we could help ourselves and others if there was a need

If you have a good article, blog post, or forum discussion on freeze dried food you would like me to point out please let me know in a comment or in an email to servu@bulk-survival-food.com. 

You may look at freeze dried food, even when it is a lowly $2.90 per meal as an expensive luxury.

After all, for $1000 to $1200 you can purchase bulk food in 5 gallon pails of either staples or dehydrated food that will last an individual one year or a family of four for 3 months.

Compare that to the “expensive” $3375 for a “Platinum Food Reserve” of freeze dried food.

Obviously the bulk food is a better deal.

Or is it?

Consider the preparation time and effort if you cook bulk food from scratch for 4 people for 3 months. This time could be extremely valuable, in a disaster, that could be used on other tasks that may be much more critical.

Cooking for 3 months using staples and dehydrated food works out to an extra 364 hours (see note at bottom) over using freeze dried food. Divide the $2000 difference in cost, and it works out that your effort is worth $5.63 per hour.

Is that $5.63 you save today on your food reserve worth the priceless hours you may put to better use?

But hold on, it gets even worse for the canned staples and dehydrated route. You will either have to use that food regularly with associated preparation effort in order to keep your food reserve fresh, or you have to accept throwing out your canned bulk food reserve after a few years and replacing it. Freeze dried food on the other hand can store for 25 years according to Mountain House.

In the end if you include this likely replacement cost, your extra 364 hours effort could be valued at less than $1 per hour, does that sound like the better deal now?

You decide.

(NOTE: For cooking using staples and dehydrated foods; If you spend 1 hour cooking and cleaning up for breakfast,  1.5 hours for lunch and 2 hours for dinner or 4.5 hours per day, 7 days a week for 13 weeks that will total 409.5 hours. Subtract the 30 minutes total a day on the other hand that you will spend preparing meals with freeze dried food, so you get the difference of 364 hours)

Often when people first think of what food would be good to store for disaster preparedness, they think of dehydrated food.

But is dehydrated food really a good choice for survival food?

Let’s consider 3 factors; preparation, taste, and shelf life.

Dehydrated food requires a lot preparation to be consumed. In order to use dehydrated food it needs to be hydrated so you need to soak it. You still need to prepare, mix and cook it. To cook you will need cooking equipment and fuel. You will have to clean up after the cooking.

Compare this to freeze dried food.

For a hot meal using freeze dried food you need heated water, just add it and wait a few minutes. If you have to, you can use unheated water but still no cooking is required. This is huge convenience, not to be undervalued for disaster preparedness. There likely will be times in a disaster when you do not have time and energy to cook using dehydrated foods.

You may like the taste of dehydrated foods you have consumed as a snack or specialty food. However if you are eating for weeks or months meals made from dehydrated food as a base, you may have difficulty consuming healthy amounts of food.

You should never underestimate the importance of being able to enjoy the food you are eating, there are examples in history of people starving even though there was edible food available.

It is of great benefit to lower stress wherever possible in a disaster situation, lower stress results in people dealing more effectively with problems in any situation. Having good tasting hot meals regularly tends to lower stress. Freeze dried food retains the original taste and freshness when re-hydrated to a high degree.

Finally there is the shelf-life to consider. The likelihood of a experiencing a disaster is greater over a longer period. The longer the shelf-life of your survival food, the less the often you will be replacing it. Even worse, would be discovering you have rancid food when you need it most. Dehydrated food shelf life is usually rated 8-10 years. Freeze dried food can keep it’s flavor, appearance and nutritional value for 25 years.

While you may save a little with dehydrated food in the up front cost, the long run costs will be much higher than if you choose freeze dried food. The added benefits of taste and less time to prepare to eat make freeze dried food a much better choice than dehydrated food.