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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Hurricane season is upon us once again. Hurricane food preparedness should start with MREs. Since MRE are truly ready to eat, that is you do not need water or heating to prepare, cook, and consume them, they are the best choice for hurricane preparedness.

MRE are also easier for traveling since you do not need to carry that extra water or heating equipment to prepare them. The Flameless Ration Heaters that most MREs come with, can heat them in 10 minutes so you can feel some comfort in a stressful situation with a hot meal.

Below is an great article by Rayven Perkins where she talks about her first hand experience with MRE’s in the aftermath of 3 hurricanes starting with Hurricane Charley.

Two commercial MRE meals per day provide enough calories for an adult for one day at about 2400 calories. A box of 12 MREs costs about $75. So for $300 you can have an emergency food reserve that supports 4 adults for 6 days.

Recent news about food shortage and food price increases have created a huge increase in demand for freeze dried food as well as MRE, so if you need to prepare for this season you really need to act now.

MREs are available at local camping and some other outdoor stores. They are also available online but I would avoid eBay as you have no idea what you are getting, some or all of the MRE may be old and close the expiry date. Also if you see marked military MRE, please note that It is illegal to sell military MRE.

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit

MREs for Hurricane Preparation

By Rayven Perkins

Its almost hurricane season again! And time to get our supplies ready in case we get hit again this year. I have personally been through four hurricanes, three of which hit during a two-month period during 2004. I have stayed in my home for all four hurricanes and have learned a thing or two about the best supplies to have on hand.

Bar none, the best food supplies to have on hand are MREs. MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat. They are United States military rations that have become available on the civilian market. MREs are an all in one meal kit. Packaged in a waterproof bag, they contain items such as an entree, side dish, snack item, beverage base, and dessert.

They contain a food heater that is activated by a very small amount of water, and even have an accessory pack with condiments and utensils. Heck, they even have toilet paper in them!

MREs have a shelf life of up to 10 years when stored properly. They are a great item to have on hand for any sort of emergency. They certainly came in handy for us when we had them in 2004. The first hurricane, Hurricane Charley, caused our electricity to go out for 5 days. We did not suffer any structural damage, luckily, but we lost all the contents of our fridge and freezer.

We had actually forgotten all about our MREs at the time. We did not properly prepare for Hurricane Charley. We had that “it won’t happen to us” mentality.

After the hurricane, we spent two days eating cold spaghetti-o’s before we remembered the box of MREs we had purchased for camping. Out they came! The whole family ate much better those last three days without electricity than the first two! Between the hurricanes, we did have the sense to restock our Meals Ready to Eat and have always made it a point to keep them on hand since then.

The second hurricane that hit us that year did some structural damage, but we retained power. The third hurricane left us without power again, this time for over a week. With two small children at home, I can tell you that hurricane season that year was not fun. In Central Florida, you need air conditioning to survive. Going a few weeks without air conditioning was trying to say the least.

Couple that with being holed up in a dark apartment with no TV, little light, and nothing to do. The only thing to break the monotony of those days was the fun we had when we ate our MRE meals. The kids (and adults) had a blast opening up each bag, cooking the entrees over the flameless heater, and devouring the interesting snacks provided. It was the only source of amusement during this trying time.

In short, every hurricane preparedness pantry needs to have a case of Meals Ready to Eat available, not just for food, but to break up the boredom.

Rayven Perkins is a stay home mom who has put together a resource on MREs, including where to find the best prices for purchasing them. Visit her website at: Discount MREs

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rayven_Perkins
http://EzineArticles.com/?MREs-for-Hurricane-Preparation&id=1120493

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit

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Below is an updated survival food comparison chart.

Freeze dried food, MRE, and canned food are compared in catagories to determine their merit as a survival food.

In my opinion (and scoring of course) freeze dried food is the clear winner. However it is important to note that MRE is very useful as an initial emergency food and a mobile emergency food. So you should have both MRE and freeze dried, but mostly Freeze dried food.

Only the small percentage of us who utilize bulk grains for our cooked food on a regular basis, have reliable heating alternatives for cooking, and ample food and water storage space could rate canned food/bulk grain higher.

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The image on the left shows boxes of Mountain House #10 cans. The image on the right shows Mountain House pouches.

Pouches are popular with hikers, rock climbers and back-packers. Mountain house also sells them in cases as a food reserve.

They are a meal in pouch, just add water.

A Mountain House pouch can be used as a survival food reserve and are specifically packaged as such in the “just in case unit” 7 day food supply box pictured above.

This is comparable to MRE with the distinction they taste better, are easier to digest but require more preparation since you need to add water.

When you compare a pouch to a #10 can the main difference is that pouches are an individual meal. Mountain house #10 cans are a bulk, 8-10 serving food reserve unit.

More important however, pouches will store for up to 7 years at 75° F (24° C), while #10 cans will last 25 years under the same conditions.

While it is more convenient to have the pouches and they are a good alternative to MRE if you can’t stand the taste or digest MREs, #10 cans are a much longer lasting and better investment for disaster preparedness.

The exception are those people who find the contents of the pouches comparable enough to fresh food, and will consume pouches periodically for regular meals and continuously re-stock them as a food reserve for disasters. Then the 7 year shelf life is not an issue.

Finally a food reserve of the same duration in #10 cans will store in a smaller space than the pouches due to the cans being a bulk (less packaging) food supply.

In summary;

Mountain House Pouch

• More convenient package as a meal
• taste better than MRE
• Store for up to 7 years

Mountain House #10 Can

• bulk, 8-10 one cup servings of one item
• store for up top 25 years
• store more efficiently than pouches

Buy Mountain House Just In Case Unit

Buy Mountain House #10 can Freeze Dried Food Reserve

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