Freeze Dried & MRE - Survival Food

If you have done a bunch of searches looking for survival food online distributors/retailers you will know there are quite a few specialty sites in this area. There are also quite a few blogs like this one and forums focused on preparedness or survivalism.

One way to gauge how significant and trustworthy these sites are and their relative online presence, is checking to see how popular they are. I am doing this for online stores first since that is mostly what visitors to this site are looking for. Compete.com provides a website analytics tool that helps gauge how much monthly traffic a site gets. This is a good measure of popularity.

Below is a graph of the Top 5 or what I call “first tier” survival food distributors. The monthly site visitors are listed in thousands (K).

The “first tier” top 5 Survival Food sites as of May 2008;

1. Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com)- Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried, and dehydrated food mostly “À la carte”. Some mixed food reserves with a mix of long life freeze dried food and bulk foods.
2. Nitro-pak - Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food, variety of bulk 3 month and one year freeze dried food reserve units,  wide variety of preparedness products (Note: We have an affiliate partner relationship with Nitro-pak).
3. Long Life Food Depot - Sells mainly commercial MRE
4. The Ready Store - Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food, variety of bulk 3 month and one year freeze dried food reserve units.
5. The Epicenter -Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food in pouches (recently stopped selling most #10 cans due to availability), camping gear.

The “second tier” top 5 Survival Food sites as of May 2008;

1. MRE Depot - Sells non-military surplus MRE, canned staples, freeze dried staples.
   
2. Survival Acres - Sells Freeze dried food and dehydrated food.
3. MRE Foods - Sells commercial MRE. Lowest delivered price for an MRE case I have found online.
4. Are You Prepared - Sells commercial MRE and freeze dried food.
5. Meyers Custom Supply - Sells commercial MRE, also has an AlpineAire page but no products on it at the time of this post

There are other sites, some I listed below that had significant monthly traffic, but their product focus was not centered MRE and freeze dried food, but more on either other survival products or survival information in general.

Camping Survival - Wide variety of survival & camping gear, some MRE.

Captain Dave’s Survival Center - Wide variety of survival gear, some MRE

The Survival Center - preparedness books, food storage advice, canned food and also some MRE & freeze dried food.

AAOOB Storable Foods - specialize in grain mills, other bulk food storage equipment, but some MRE and freeze dried.

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After food has been freeze dried what else can be done to preserve it?

The freeze drying process removes 98% of the water from food, stopping bacterial growth as well as killing insects and their eggs.

Beyond freeze drying, to preserve food and increase shelf life oxygen is the main enemy. If the food is stored in a way that it is not exposed to oxygen, the shelf life can reach 25 to 30 years. Shelf life here refers to the food maintaining it’s properties of nutritional value, taste, and appearance. It may still be safe to eat beyond this time but the aforementioned properties are degraded.

Oxygen Absorbers

Some freeze dried food producers use oxygen absorbers to extend shelf life.

Oxygen absorbers are materials that chemically react with oxygen in the environment they are in, combining with the oxygen and thus removing it from that environment. The most commonly used material for absorbers is iron in the forms of iron powder or iron carbonate. Both combine with oxygen very effectively.

Once oxygen absorbers are exposed to oxygen they will continue to react with it until the material is fully “oxidized” meaning it can not absorb any more oxygen. For this reason they need to be very carefully sealed and stored so that they are not consumed before their intended use.

The application in which oxygen absorbers are used for freeze dried food storage is to place them in the can of food before it is vacuum sealed.

The idea is that any oxygen that leaks into the sealed container over years of storage will be absorbed by it, rather than the oxygen reacting with the freeze dried food and degrading it.

There are two types of oxygen absorbers commonly used. One type, Multisorb Technologies’ FreshPax Type-B requires some moisture from the environment it is in to be present to work and is used for moist foods like bread and processed meats. Type-D absorbers contain there own moisture source and are thus suited to dry foods like freeze dried food.

You may remember the old adage Aristotle proclaimed in 350 BC, “nature abhors a vacuum”. So any vacuum packed container will over time be invaded, if ever so slightly, by the surrounding air and with it the 21% of air that is oxygen.

So while the oxygen absorber will extend the shelf life by absorbing the oxygen in the air that is present initially during packing as well as the air that leaks in over time, eventually the absorber will be “maxed out”, that is it will be fully oxidized and can not absorb any more oxygen.

I have seen the guarantees for shelf life for this type packed freeze dried food at 10-15 years. This period may be a reflection of the limit of the process and process controls that the producer of the food uses, as well as that of the oxygen absorber.

Nitrogen Packing

Nitrogen packing or “nitro-pak” on the other hand takes a different approach to dealing with oxygen “enemy”.

Rather than relying on the properties of the container to fight the invading air trying to get in, the container is flushed with nitrogen or packed in a nitrogen environment. As a result the sealed container has the same or slightly higher pressure but with nitrogen and not air. This means that air is not fighting to get in. There is no abhorrence so to speak.

Thus the period that the food remains unexposed to significant concentrations of oxygen is much longer and thus the possible shelf life is longer.

What is the longest shelf life for nitrogen packed freeze dried food?

Mountain House, the commercial brand of Oregon Freeze Dry which has been around for over 40 years, states on their web site regarding their #10 cans of freeze dried food;

“Our foods will have the longest shelf life available…up to 30 years!”

It may be the result of superior process controls, not only the nitrogen packing process, that makes them feel comfortable making this statement.

There is information online on how you can nitro-pak foods yourself with some equipment but I would be leery of assuming your process control would be on the same par and have the same shelf life.

In any case “nitro-pak” freeze dried food has the longest shelf life for any type of commercially available stored food I have seen.

References on oxygen absorbers, nitrogen packing, and freeze dried food;

Wikipedia - Oxygen Absorber

Walton Feed - A Short Lesson on Oxygen Absorbers

Walton Feed - Storing Your Food Using Compressed Gas Such as Argon or Nitrogen

Nitro-Pak - Freeze Dried Food Reserves

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Latest from Nitro-pak on #10 cans of freeze dried food;

**PRICES GOING UP August 1, 2008: Mountain House has announced that prices will be going up on August 1, 2008. In order for our customers to “lock-in” todays lower food prices, we will honor the current lower prices on all orders received before this date. ORDER NOW!

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Barack Obama recently commented on the “global food crisis”. Here is an excerpt from transcript of a June 10th, 2008 Q&A session;

I think that we’ve got to stockpile food reserves at a global level more effectively than we have in the past. Those stockpiles have shrunk considerably. And finally, we’re going to have to deal with increasing energy costs, which are having an impact on overall food production and cost. So this is going to be long challenge, and is something that an Obama administration is going to monitor closely and take aggressive action.

(See full transcript from Lynn Sweet Chicago Sun Times -Obama June 10, 2008 availability. Transcript)

His reference to “more effectively” stockpiling food essentially means having food produced and stored regionally to avoid excessive freight costs moving food in emergency situations from one geography to another.

Having food stockpiles in the countries most likely to have a crisis could also have the added benefit of stabilizing production and pricing, but don’t tell that to any “free market economics” zealots still clinging to their “jaded by reality” philosophy.

The cost of freight being excessive is especially true when food is air lifted half way across the globe from the US to wherever it is needed, now even more so with high fuel costs.

One way to offset the cost of airfreight is to store freeze dried food as a reserve for domestic emergency purposes for it’s long shelf properties. When a crisis occurs elsewhere in the world requiring food to be made available immediately, it will be much more economical to ship the light “water removed” freeze dried food since it is has 98% of the water, and thus the weight removed.

For air freight, weight is a much more significant factor in cost than it is for land or sea freight which is not likely to be used if the situation is urgent.

Water to hydrate the freeze dried food can be brought in locally at lower freight costs than the cost of food with water in it being shipped from a regional facility.

The superior shelf life of freeze dried food will also limit the loss and waste that occurs from the time food is pulled from storage through it’s distribution, till the time it is actually consumed by those who need it.

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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.

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