Best Freeze Dried Food For A Camping Trip

One of the most potent passions people have is the urge to go outdoors and somehow connect with the spirit of our forefathers that used to live among nature. For those it works, it works really well. Certainly, it has a therapeutic effect and can get out the feeling of being canned between four walls. All great things aside, there is one big problem with going out camping or hiking: the scarcity of food!

Fortunately, in recent times, the food industry has made great progress. There are now many products that you can have in your travels without worrying about cooking and food-poisoning. It is not an overstatement but you can have food that can go for years without going bad. The shelf-life of these food items just doesn’t end soon. You can have a nutritional meal that was made years ago and you would not have to sacrifice its taste, texture, and value.

It is funny to note that these items do not just find their way to the outdoors like when someone is going hiking, backpacking, etc. There are instances where people just stock on them for a late-night snack if they feel too lazy to actually cook something!

There are hundreds of manufacturers that make this kind of food and claim to be the best. But for a regular joe, it is not easy to find the best from the rest. It could be a mess to try each one of them at home and then pick the winner.

In this article, we will go through multiple brands and discuss their qualities in detail, in order to find the ultimate best.

Before diving into the contest, first, go through the basic premise of freeze-dried food.

What Are Freeze-Dried Food Items?

It may seem like a “modern, scientific” concept but there are many communities in the past that had done this. For instance, the native South American tribes have been freeze-drying their eatables for generations. They were not scientifically literate as we are now, but the old wisdom permitted them to preserve potatoes for a long time. This way, they prevented famine and mass-starvation.

The art of preserving food for long intervals of time was perfected around the mid of the twentieth century. During the WW2, medical professionals started to freeze blood plasma and antibiotics to make them usable for wounded soldiers. After the war was over, the techniques were used at the commercial level and food was the industry that benefited the most from it. Before, it was only supplied to astronauts and soldiers at the fronts as rations.

It is the perfection of process and ease of attaining results that now you can find freeze-dried food anywhere with no trouble at all!

From an exciting journey of outer space to hot war zones, the freeze-dried food has found its way to the households and offer many options. Families love it for its perpetual shelf life and better taste than other ready-to-eat meal packages.

It was only natural that this food penetrated into the ranks of hikers and backpackers who were always looking for something that did not taste like raw meat!

How Does Freeze-Drying Work

The process of freeze-drying took a little time to be perfected at the start. Now, it is pretty standard. Here are the steps involved in freeze-drying any food item:

• The meal is placed in a freezer that operates at extremely low temperatures. This allows the food to freeze instantly. Exposure to freezing temperatures will result in large ice crystals.

• Then, the freeze-drying machine will turn the ice crystals into vapors by employing a method called sublimation. In this way, it will skip the liquid part and convert the solid crystals directly into vapors.

• After sublimation, the food will be dried to get rid of any excess moisture.

• Now comes the packing part. The food is packed in containers and bags like mylar bags, cans, buckets. These are specially-designed with oxygen absorbing capabilities to keep the food from rotting.

Freeze-Drying Is Not Dehydrating

Typically, dehydrating is used to preserve the food. It is different from freeze-drying because there is no residual moisture in the food after it went through the freeze-drying process. In addition to that, it does not lose any nutritional value or structural change, contrary to dehydration. This is the reason why freeze-dried food does not appear to be wrinkly in appearance and rubbery in its consistency.

There are other benefits of freeze-drying over a simple dehydrating process. It is time-efficient because it takes lesser time to rehydrate. Also, the food will be much lighter when compared to its dehydrated counterpart.

Reasons For Storing Freeze-Dried Food

Even after counting a plethora of great things about freeze-dried food, if you are not convinced, here are some of the reasons you need to be stocked up in this food category. It is perfect for those who make instant plans on going outdoors:

Long Shelf-Life

There is only one competitor of freeze-dried food when it comes to the longevity of shelf-life, that is raw honey because it can last millennia without spoiling its natural taste and consistency. But you cannot survive on raw home alone when you are exploring outdoors.

Generally, if you are being cautious, you can store freeze-dried food for 25 to 30 years without making it spoil its taste and texture. The reason behind this phenomenon is the absence of moisture from the food. In the absence of any water content, there is no room for microorganisms to grow and spoil your food. The best thing about freeze-drying is that it can stop the ripening of fruits and vegetables. This means you can have greens on your way to the summit without worrying about being homesick!

When you open the packaging, the years turn into days because of the oxygen exposure. Once it is cracked, you can use the item for a week before it will start to rot. You can make your meal by following the instructions on the label. So, it is always better to have your meal immediately after cracking the seal.