Jun 11 2008
Freeze Dried Food Allocation and Pricing Update
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.
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Survival Food Options
Prepared with Emergency Food You Will Want to Eat.
Can you rely on adequate government support within 72 hours or even a week of a major disaster?
I think everyone agrees now the answer is definitely not.
Yet only 7% of us have taken action ourselves to be prepared, according to the American Red Cross. Why?
Most of us want to be prepared but what we really need are some solutions that are easy to obtain and don’t require any effort to maintain. Solutions that don’t need to be thrown out and replaced often.
If you are considering food preparedness and want to make sure your choice of food is something much more than barely edible, that also has a low cost per meal, I have sorted through the pros and cons of various survival food options for you here.
Two options that you may not be as familiar with, MRE and Freeze Dried Food, are often overlooked but you would be severely limiting your choices if you did not consider them. They are very long storage life emergency food solutions that require little or no preparation.
Bulk Freeze Dried Food Examples
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves
MRE Case & Pallet Examples
Various Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)
Please take just a few minutes to read below about the advantages and disadvantages of survival food options to make a wiser more well informed choice.
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Survival Food Options Advantages and Disadvantages
What are the options for food emergency preparedness?
The conventional wisdom offered by our governments is to go to your local supermarket or big box store and buy canned food and dry grains and store them. There are limitations to this survival food strategy that are highlighted below.
Two other options are MRE or ‘meals ready to eat’ and Freeze Dried Food. They have additional superior survival food benefits that will make you and your family much better prepared for any situation that requires a survival food supply from 72 hours to 6 months.
Survival Food Option 1 - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains
Buy the canned foods, grains, and bottled water as many government agencies recommend. Store in your house or apartment.
Advantages
- Can be done in 2 hours or less
Disadvantages
- Most will forget or not store it properly so it will be useless when it is needed. Did you do this years ago? Go look at this food now and check the expiry dates on canned goods and check grains for mold infestations, rodent invasions, etc.
- Canned foods are bulky and heavy, space is often limited people will not be able to store much
- Grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce in a disaster.
- You will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
- Canned foods destroy appetites and morale quickly. Even unexpected allergic type reactions can occur if the types of food staples in a diet are drastically changed.
Survival Food Option 2 - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains on an “inventory cycle” plan
Same strategy as the first option, except you actively manage storing and ‘cycle’ inventory of goods. As you buy new food you use up the old canned food so that the food store is less than the expiry date of the canned food.
Advantages
- Food will not be bad when you need it
Disadvantages
- Most people do not have the time, space, or inclination to do this
- Grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
- You will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
- Canned foods will destroy appetites and morale quickly
Survival Food Option 3 - Buy MRE’s (military style Meals Ready to Eat)
See Various MRE(meals ready to eat)Reserves
Advantages
- Easy to store and lasts upto 5-7 years in a cool dry place.
- Easiest and fastest preparation time possible and can be heated fast with “MRE heaters”
- Can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
Disadvantages
- Relatively expensive per meal ($6-$7) and for extended reserve of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year a lot space required to store.
- Lasts only 5-7 years so you will need to buy a replacement reserve relatively soon. Hopefully you do not live in a place where there is a disaster that often.
- Tastes like canned food which will destroy appetites and morale quickly
Survival Food Option 4 - Buy Freeze Dried Food
See Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves
Advantages
- Easy to store and can last up to 30 years.
- Fast simple preparation just add water. But only water that is needed to hydrate the food, much less than cooking.
- Once hydrated, freeze dried food taste is very close to original food taste.
- Light weight easy to store large qty (Mountain house #10 cans) of food for reserves of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year. A 6 week food reserve can fit under a bed!
- Can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
- Good economical choice - cost can be less than $3.35 per meal.
As you can see there are a lot of benefits to Freeze Dried Food over the other options making it the superior choice as a bulk survival food.
Bulk Emergency Food - Freeze Dried Food and MRE Packages
Freeze Dried Food
45 day - 6 weeks Freeze Dried Food
Family One year Food Reserves
Group Food Reserve 50 people X 7 days or 10 people X 35 days
MRE
Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)
For additional information on survival food planning see Planning Survival Food - Short and Long Term
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Freeze Dried Food Reserve Packages
Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak”
True food preparedness means;
- A food reserve with variety that tastes good so people can eat and be satisfied
- Food that is simple and easy to prepare even in a disaster
- 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;
KT
Mountain House #10 Cans Versus Pouches
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 Food Reserve
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MRE Information
MRE or “Meals Ready to eat” are military style food rations.
Some reasons why they are a popular choice for survival food;
- MRE’s paks are a complete meal with main course, side dish, crackers with spread, dessert, and a powdered drink mix.
- MRE packs last 4-10 years depending on storage temperature, longer than most canned food.
- They are pre-cooked and in a pouch “ready to eat”, nothing needs to be added
- Usually you buy MRE with flameless heaters so you can eat your meal hot (cold is ok too)
USAGE
You can best use MRE for emergency situations where you “are on the go” . Also if you do not want to waste time cooking or do not want the hassle of bring cooking equipment with you. MRE’s are the most convenient survival food choice.
MRE cost is about $6 per meal plus shipping for a case of 12. You can get discounts if you buy larger quantities.
For a food reserve for periods longer than a week however, a “freeze dried food” reserve is better in terms of space and cost per meal. You will need water for freeze dried food which, although hydrates quickly, is nevertheless is not as “ready to eat”
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Survival Food - Short & Long Term Planning
No one preparedness strategy will support all your food needs in a disaster.
While there are huge advantages freeze dried food gives as the survival food of choice, it is not the best in all situations. It is good planning to have a short term strategy and a long term strategy to be best prepared.
Below is a look at food preparedness strategies, starting with the long term.
Long Term Survival Food Strategy
Long term here refers to having a food supply that will last from 2 weeks to 3 months or more. Freeze dried food is best for these situations as it can be easily prepared but still have good taste close to the original food. It is important to not add stress to an already stressful situation with a poor tasting food supply.
Freeze dried food avoids this problem as your family can continue eating a healthy diet that has good taste as close to fresh as possible among all the other food options.
You may still want to prepare a herb or sprout garden kit to add a live food source to your reserve. Astronauts who have eaten freeze dried foods for extended periods have commented on how they relished live fresh food upon their return.
It will be important after a disaster to have as much time as possible available each day for other important activities. You can maximize your available time by not spending a lot of it preparing and cooking food.
Mountain House freeze dried food in #10 cans (which can store up to 25 years) have 8 to 10 servings each and will last up to 2 weeks once opened. #10 cans are an ideal strategy for the long term.
You will need a large enough space to store the light weight #10 cans of freeze dried food and also water containers. A freeze dried food supply for 3 months for a family of four can store in a space 3′ by 3′, by 4′ high. You will easily be able to transport this if need be in a van or pickup truck from a storage location to a place you will reside during a disaster. But if you want to be able to be mobile with this type of food supply you will need some type of RV.
Daily calorie intake for different freeze dried food packages varies. Planning 1500 calories a day would be the bare minimum for an adult, even for someone less active. 2100 to 2400 calories is recommended. If you want to plan for support of very active adults you may want to add extra meals to bring the daily total to 2900 calories per day. Small children 5 -9 years old will require about 700 - 800 calories per day.
A water supply of 3 months for a family of four would require is about 440 gallons or eight 55 gallon drums. This will provide a gallon of water each per day for 110 days. You can get food grade storage drums that will safely store water for 5 years. You may have plans for alternative supply of water in a long term situation and not require all eight of the drums.
55 gallon water container, 4 per package
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Short Term Survival Food Strategy
For initial disaster preparedness food supply, MRE (meals ready to eat) are a better choice. They do not require water to hydrate, they are truly ready. They can be heated in 10 minutes with “flameless ration heaters” a pouch that will heat up if you add a little water to it.
MRE’s are great if you want to spend as little time preparing and eating food as possible. This will especially be the case shortly after a disaster where you may need to travel or expend a lot of effort to recover get set up and be prepared for the long term.
One draw back of MREs is that many people are critical of the taste and some report difficulty digesting the food. You should try MRE with your family to make sure no one has a strong dislike for it. It will also be helpful for them to know what to expect in terms of food before a disaster.
The other drawback for MRE is that it is twice as expensive as freeze dried food per meal.
For these reasons I recommend planning MRE supply for a maximum of 3 weeks. After at most 3 weeks you should be ready to use your long term freeze dried food supply for your food needs. Since MRE lasts only 5-7 years you may want to safely plan to re-stock it ever 4 years when there is an election or when there is an Olympics to help you remember. You want to make sure at this time that the MRE agrees with everyone.
Keeping bottled water cases stocked up will help be prepared for the short term, however for longer than 2 weeks you really need to consider storage drums or some other alternative source to be prepared.
Finally it would be a good idea to keep a 72 hour kit with food bars or MRE in your car(s) so that you and your family will have supplies to support getting back together if you are separated when disaster strikes.
MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves
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