Freeze Dried & MRE - Survival Food

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 further 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

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!

I noticed a further update on Nitro-pak’s website;

IMPORTANT SHIPPING NOTE: Do to current market conditions, huge customer demand, worldwide food shortages and tight supplier allocations (most of our competitors have been totally cut off by the factory), orders will ship in approximately 3 to 4 Weeks from receipt and will be shipped in the order we receive them. We are receiving limited stock weekly. Don’t delay ordering. The longer you wait, the longer the line is getting. Sorry. Just being up front & honest.
Your charge card WILL NOT be charged until 3-5 days prior to shipping.
Thanks you for your patience!

This does not contain any new information other than “competitors being cut off” whatever that means, and I am checking what the status at other online retailers.

Mountain House website is still saying they are not directly selling #10 cans of freeze dried food, the statement there says;

We regret to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10 can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily. The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment…..We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future.

I think the panic buying we have been seeing by survivalist driven consumers, caused by worry about the manifestation of “peak oil theory”, will ease off if the price of oil goes down $15 to $20 or so soon. However it will be some time before the availability of freeze dried food will improve and prices will go down. If the price of oil goes up much more, then the demand for freeze dried food will likely spike exponentially higher unfortunately.

Just read on Nitro-Pak’s website that Mountain House freeze dried food prices will be going up July 1st. This is the statement on Nitro-Pak’s site;

**PRICES GOING UP JULY 1, 2008:Mountain House has announced that prices will be going up on JULY 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!”

The food shortages reported in the news have resulted in increased lead times and now the food price increases are starting to be seen on survival food’s such as Mountain House #10 cans of freeze dried food and pouches. There is no indication how much the prices will increase. As the note says orders placed now will honor the current prices. Since prices tend to go up fast but back down slowly I expect the higher prices on freeze dried food to last for some time unfortunately. Single mountain house #10 cans are orderable again on Nitro-pak’s site but based on this news I think most will be stocking up on bigger food reserve packages before the prices increase.

For a lot of us including myself, the cost of buying a 6 week or 3 month freeze dried food reserve is beyond our budgets.

An alternative is to buy 1 or 2 variety case of 6 Mountain House #10 cans once in awhile.

These variety “modules” come in main course, breakfast, or 5 day 2 person “starter pak versions.

For example the “Main Course Variety-Pak #1” module at Nitro-pak features;

- Total of 68 One Cup Servings, at only $2.93 per serving.

- one can of each of the Following Entrees:

• Chicken a la King
• Chicken Teriyaki
• Lasagna with Meat & Sauce
• Pasta Primavera
• Seafood Chowder
• Turkey Tetrazini

These modules are priced from $113 per case for vegetables, to $195 for the 138 serving breakfast pak at Nitro-pak.

Over 6 to 12 months you can build up a large emergency food reserve.

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For additional information on survival food planning see Planning Survival Food - Short and Long Term

Freeze Dried Food Reserve Packages

Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak”

True food preparedness means;

1. A food reserve with variety that tastes good so people can eat and be satisfied
2. Food that is simple and easy to prepare even in a disaster
3. Food that is easy to store and transport

The new Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak” meets all of these conditions and at low price per meal.

Priced at $985 this package offers an affordable peace of mind for preparedness for your family that easy to use.

So you don’t need to be a dedicated trained survival enthusiast to be prepared. You just need to make the right prepardedness choice.

Platinum Food Reserve
Food supports 4 People for 3 Months or one person for a year.

This bulk freeze dried food reserve is (at the time of this post) for $3150 , with free shipping and a 120-day ‘no-risk’ guarantee.

“…will provide over 2000 calories per day for one person for one complete year, or a family of 4 for 3 months! It comes with a total of 168 #10 cans (large restaurant size cans) that comes packed in 28 cases for easy storage.”

Nitro-Pak is where you can get;

• Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

• 72-hour Survival Kits

• Free Shipping on orders over $100

• 120-Day ‘No-Risk’ Guarantee

As mentioned in a previous post, Mountain House #10 cans are still available at Nitro-Pak and other online retailers but the lead times have increased to 3-7 weeks.

Today I noticed that the Mountain House #10 can individual entrees and 6 can cases had disappeared from Nitro-Pak’s website.

The mountain house freeze dried food reserves, year’s supply, variety packs, and group food reserve units were still there and on sale but with aforementioned 3-7 week lead times.

I called Nitro-pak and spoke with Lisa in customer service. I confirmed that they were still shipping food reserve packages listed above but they have temporarily stopped selling the individual #10 can entrees and cases to devote all allocated supply to their food reserve packages and 6 can cases.

Lisa said they hoped to resume those sales by June 15th. So there is no need to panic.

You can still buy Mountain House food reserves packages now at the 3-7 week lead time.

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.

I noticed on the Mountain House website that most of their #10 cans are out of stock.

#10 cans are the best bulk freeze dried food for survival as they last up to 25 years.

Here is what Mountain House website said;

“We are sorry, due to increased sales, many of our #10 cans are currently out of stock .
Please look for our #10 cans to be available on one of our many on-line dealer websites.”

As mentioned in previous post Mountain House #10 cans are still available at Nitro Pak and other online retailers but the lead times have increased to 3-7 weeks.

Hopefully this is just temporary due to some panic buying and supply will be more easy to come by later. I also noticed freeze dried food price increase which are likely due to the same food price increases and food shortages reported widely in the news.

Where to get;

• Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

• MRE’s

• 72-hour Survival Kits

• Free Shipping on orders over $100

Due to recent food price increases, orders for freeze dried food are taking longer to ship. Also some prices have increased.

It appears many people are ordering to avoid price increases since news of food prices rising started to appear.

Nitro Pak order lead times have increased to 3 - 7 weeks on some food reserve packages.