Freeze Dried food

Preparation, Preparedness & Prevention Fitness and Nutrition
1

So if I were to buy various freeze dried food like the containers of peas, corn, peppers, etc. you can get on amazon.

If I make a ‘meal’ of my choice and vacuum seal it with a small desiccant pack. Would that be ok so as not to go rancid for say a max of 6 months?

Same question if I added dehydrated meat.

Same question if I simply press the air out and use a quality zip lock bag.

If not 6 months what would be my time range?

Storage temps should be considered as seasonal in a vehicle say one week worse case -10 to 115
AND/OR
refrigerated.

I’m trying to figure out once I open the bought items or make my own dehydrated items, how much time do I have to absolutely not cause a spoiled food issue under reasonable conditions.

2

https://theepicenter.com/freeze-dried-dehydrated-food-faq#answer12

Says 1 to 3 weeks Although they don’t go in to the dessicant and vacuum packing.

You might look to dry canning folks for better answers.

http://www.happypreppers.com/dry-canning.html

I haven’t tried it, but what you are suggesting sounds like it would last months maybe

3

Why not go with food from companies like Wise and such? Long shelf life, just add boiling water.

4

I think he is talking about that at least in part. You can buy freeze dried #10 cans from Mountain House which I think still provide the benefit of unit cost and being sturdier for storage(although same unopened storage life as bags). You then end up with 10 servings when the can is opened so something has to be done with it.

No idea why I didn’t think of this place earlier.

https://harvestright.com

Would be worth it for anyone producing their own food I think.

5

Thanks for the links. Not even sure who wise is. I’ll have to check that out.

What I am trying to do is make my own meals that are not loaded with salt like Mountain House and hopefully not as expensive. I drive around town a lot and end up going to WaWa, 7-11, Sheets and it’s expensive, and I always buy junk along with anything else. So there are plenty of places where I drive to pull off into a park or whatever. I want to take a small stove like an MSR and just be able to make a boiling water meal but unlike a hiker I won’t be sweating out salt so I don’t want all that sodium. I want to design some healthy meals in a bag for flavors I like and will want to eat.

The reason I said 6 months is because I watch some of the YT vids of people dehydrating all sorts of things for hiking. Some just say things like ‘now this could last 6 months but we have made a 5 day amount for two people’ … So I think they are just making up that 6 month thing.

So I probably should just make say a 30 day supply. But I was looking at things like this for ingredients…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076X77675/?coliid=I1C2LRZ1TO018W&colid=3RLW72GB6E69S&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084737MO/?coliid=I13DBKW7E8JJME&colid=3RLW72GB6E69S&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007C7H412/?coliid=I2UVS0DV7ATV84&colid=3RLW72GB6E69S&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Then mix that with something like this…
https://www.amazon.com/Idahoan-Mashed-Potato-Flakes-Original/dp/B010XIH204/ref=sr_1_6_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1545161251&sr=8-6&keywords=idahoan+potatoes

or
https://www.amazon.com/Knorr-Pasta-Side-Cheddar-Broccoli/dp/B011B6OW5K/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1545161296&sr=8-3&fpw=pantry&keywords=knorr+pasta

I wouldn’t mind getting some sort of freeze dried meat in there too but it’s not an absolute necessity. I thought of adding some protein powder like is used for shakes. I’ve heard brewers yeast is good to add for some reason.

Mainly I’m trying to quite blowing upwards of $300 a month on crap food and replace it with something more nutritious and hopefully save some money and lose some weight in the process.

So my first thing I need to figure out is how to not poison myself. I know I could also take canned tuna and such, but i want to try to avoid that. I’m aiming for a meal in a bag for everyday use.

I’m still trying to figure out which vacuum sealer and maybe dehydrator to buy but I got to thinking I better learn how not to poison myself first.

ETA: I checked out that Wise site. They have a meat bucket but there are only two low sodium chicken items in it. The Southwest chicken is 55mg. Plus it’s packaged as 3 servings per pack. So I would have to open and at a minimum have those last days. I don’t see that as being an issue. Unfortunately they don’t sell it as a single item. You have to get the mixed bucket and the other meats like beef jump up to hundreds of mg in sodium. If I could get some low sodium one serving sealed packs that would be perfect but I don’t know of any one that does that.

6

Those HarvestRight Freeze Dryers look nice… never seen them before. Wow, those things weigh over 100 lbs!

7

Try this:

https://www.trailcooking.com

That is the same site I picked up freezer bag cooking, but think the address was different back then. Didn’t go through it all, but from what I can recall, meat dishes (dried ground beef “gravel”, chili, spaghetti) will last about 2 weeks in a pack or about 6 months frozen if properly prepared to remove as much fat as possible.

I poured boiling water over my fried ground beef to melt off the fat and the chili made with it tasted like deer chili. The other thing I can recall is the rehydrating is 1:1 dried food to water.