Emergency Freeze Dried Food | Tips Before You Purchase
Last night we had “Pasta Primavera” for dinner. It came from our emergency freeze dried food storage. And you know what? It tasted delicious!
You all should be rotating your long term food storage. In other words, you should be eating it. And then replacing it. Some foods have a much longer shelf life than others. So those foods might not be rotated (consumed) as often. One example is “freeze dried” food (it lasts for a very long time (decades!).
With that said, we still open up a package, bucket, or #10 can of freeze dried food once in a while, and eat it. Last night’s dinner was one of those instances with Pasta Primavera. We added some delicious peppers from the garden and some of our dehydrated Vidalia onions too! Wow was that good!
Freeze Dried Emergency Food Tips Before You Purchase
Okay, why am I typing all this? Well it got me to thinking about the important things to consider when choosing freeze dried foods for your own long term storage. It’s a fairly expensive investment, so here are a few tips or things to look for before you make a significant purchase.
Freeze Dried Brand Recognition
The brand of freeze dried food. It’s important. More accurately stated, a recognizable brand name could be an important factor because their longevity indicates a longer term business success.
Newbies won’t know all the brands. But there really aren’t that many. So a bit of due-diligence research on the internet will reveal the popular names. None of them directly advertise on this site (their marketing models have shifted to authorized sellers / distributors rather than direct).
My personal recommendation is to look at storage foods from “Ready Made Resources” (they are distributors for a number of freeze dried food brands).
Why do I recommend them? Because his family business has been a sponsor of this site for 10 years and they have proven to be a success in the preparedness industry. Longevity matters.
Calories vs Servings
Survival food is mostly about calories. Servings, not so much. Servings are arbitrary. Calories are definitive.
Most emergency survival foods do not reveal calories. At least that has been my general experience. Value is partly determined by comparing the number of calories that you’re paying for between one choice vs another.
If the caloric content is listed, that’s great. It will provide data for comparison. If it’s not listed, you might look for the overall weight – which may be listed – which in turn may enable approximate comparison of similar food types.
Ask. Email the distributor this question. They should be able to provide an answer. I’ve done that a number of times. It’s something that they don’t necessarily always want you to know. Why? Because freeze dried food is expensive and they probably don’t want to scare you off.
Note that calories can be “stuffed”. So it’s not always a perfect indicator. What I mean is this. Some “mixes” will include filler ingredients that may be higher in calories but not really part of the “main course” ingredients. So don’t always go by just calories. It’s just a guide.
Freeze dried food is expensive. And there’s good reason for that. It’s a costly process. However I can assure you that the benefits are great. Excellent taste. Nutritional value is maintained. Obviously it’s extremely light weight. Lastly, a very long resultant shelf life. Part of a good diversified food storage plan.
Freeze Dried Food Taste
Generally speaking, freeze dried food tastes great. The process “locks in” the original flavor. Which leads me to this next tip…
Freeze dried food is only going to taste as good as the original product. In other words, if the process began with perfectly fresh and quality food, the result is going to be excellent. But when the food begins as mediocre, average, or even “not so good”, then the end product will be no different.
So, this is where a quality BRAND comes into play… One would presume that they are using good fresh content because they’re still in business! A newcomer to the market may or may not be paying for good quality foods up front. The thing is, you’ll never know it until you taste it (or research the brand and reviews).
Buy A Small Sample First
Before you buy a significant quantity of a given freeze dried food brand, you might buy a small sample first. Try it. Eat it. Do you like it?
I have been “burned” in the past. Many years ago I purchased a fairly large quantity of freeze dried (and dehydrated) foods from a particular brand which today is no longer in business. The purchase was part of our diversified food storage plan and we didn’t eat any from that purchase for many years. Then we decided to try some. Yuck. Not so good. Lesson learned.
Before You Buy Freeze Dried Food…
The takeaway from this is that freeze dried food is expensive. So before you buy a lot of it, do the following. Research well known brands, compare value by cross checking calories, and buy a small sample first.
Continue reading: Pros & Cons | Freeze-Dried, Dehydrated, Canned, Grains, Legumes, MRE’s
