Freeze Dried Food Expired (?)
Posted by IronDefects@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 21 comments
Hi folks,
I’m going through my food supplies and located x6 ALPINEAIRE freeze dried meals that will pass their Best Before Date in 2025. X3 Strawberry Granola / x3 Forever Young Mac n Cheese The Mac name is pretty funny at this point hah.
Would you folks still keep these “past date” meals in your emergency food?
This emergency food is not in any sort of rotation like my regular pantry and other food preps. This stash is exclusively freeze dried and all sealed, put away and forgotten about. With that in mind, would you keep these meals in the food stash or is there any threat they will go bad etc?
Any advice or thoughts will be appreciated and I’m sure helpful.
Thanks a bunch,
Smooth_Project2781@reddit
Best before is not the same as an expiry date. Most freeze-dried food is supposed to last around 20 years if the food I'd packaged properly.
Greywolfuu@reddit
Oh wow, really?
BlueAlpine-FreezeDry@reddit
Depends on how long you plan to store it. I used to work at a jerky plant, and the product we shipped to stores had to have a best by date a year out from when we shipped. When packages were found with date not reaching a year, a QC would just erase it and change the date to fit. As far as I know this is pretty standard as "best by" dates are flexible, especially on food that can be stored longer. So if you planning on eating it soon, you should be fine for a while. But if you were hoping to have this stored for many years to come, it will depending greatly on brand, packaging and quality of freeze-dry. Ideally, freeze-dried meals last 25+ years.
Personally, I don't know much about either brand you named, but if you are hoping for long term storage, things you will want to check for is the quality of the bags being used. They will need to be 7-mil per side mylar (not 7-mil total, but 7-mil per side) with an aluminum layer. Included in the bag should be an oxygen absorber. Not all O2 absorbers are equal, but you should be able to tell after only a few months if an O2 absorber has failed because the food will go rancid. Usually, if a bag looks like it's been vacuum sealed, it's a good sign the O2 absorber is doing it's job, as well as proof the bag isn't compromised (a vacuumed appearance doesn't always happen, but if it does you know for sure.) The food itself should have a water content of about 1% or less, but this is pretty stranded for anything freeze-dried, so I wouldn't worry about that as much. Plus it's hard to check without expensive tools.
If all this checks out then if you keep your packages in a cool and dry location it should last well into 20 years regardless of how it's "best by" label reads.
nakedonmygoat@reddit
In general, the pouches remain tasty for about five years, but it can vary by brand and the type of meal. The #10 cans are often rated for decades if unopened, but if you're only feeding yourself and perhaps one other person, they might not be your best option unless you have a high tolerance for monotony or are particularly clever with recipes and spices.
What you're prepping for makes a big difference as well. If you only expect to be without services for a few days, those #10 cans may not be the best use of your money. If you're expecting weeks or possibly longer, you might want to pivot to those for your next purchases.
There_Are_No_Gods@reddit
If I was doing something with these, I'd open at least one and try it, to better gauge how stale it really is. If it's still acceptable, I'd ensure I have more new stock, while keeping this for a while as more of a backup/extended supply. If it's really stale already, I'd feed it to our chickens, or if we didn't have any animals I'd compost it.
If you're extremely tight on cash, you could try to eat through it now while replenishing the stock, to save as much as possible on buying other food (groceries) now.
ommnian@reddit
This is the problem with not rotating your food storage. At some point it will all go bad. Probably not immediately by best-by date, but certainly within a few months or years of it.
There_Are_No_Gods@reddit
This is long term food storage. The point is that you don't mess around with rotating it. You buy it, have it for insurance for \~30 years, then...eat it, feed it to your livestock, or otherwise use it up. Then you buy some more for the next 30 years and forget about it again for a few decades.
It's aiming for a different type of efficiency, that of time, effort, and mental load.
iloveschnauzers@reddit
As a fellow freeze dried stash keeper, I have been there. we ate some that were a few years outdated. They were fine bacteria-wise, but tasted very stale. No after effects occurred!
I keep them as emergency food, sort of a last resort scenario.
iwannaddr2afi@reddit
I came here to say this pretty much. I have started rotating the freeze dried meals into our annual camping and hiking trips so they get used by their dates moving forward. We don't keep a great number of these anyway, so it works for us. :)
big_bob_c@reddit
Both companies currently advertise "up to 25 years". If the packaging is intact, then shake them and compare to newer packages of the same product. If they sound the same, just stick them at the front of the shelf so you eat them first.
Or email the companies with the date codes and see what they say.
big_bob_c@reddit
Incidentally, Mountain House has some #10 cans at 50%off, so if you decide to spend money, might want to check them out.
IronDefects@reddit (OP)
Is the mountain house sale still on? I’ll take a peek and if it is I’ll buy some up. Thanks a ton
DocRichDaElder@reddit
I'm on it now, I see the sales. I'm in the US
essentialpartmissing@reddit
Sale is still on, but I am in the US. I went to their website Mountain House and it shows at the top. Ground beef should show as $47.50. Hopefully, it works for you!
Pyode@reddit
I just bought $600 of their #10 cans for $300. It was crazy.
Augason Farms also had some decent discounts to all told I got well over $1000 of food for about $600.
IronDefects@reddit (OP)
Great suggestion thanks man
rycklikesburritos@reddit
Best before =/= expired. They just say the taste will hold up until then. As long as the packaging is in tact and sealed, you can eat them 100 years past that date. They'll taste like cardboard, and may degrade in nutrients, but won't hurt anything.
Eredani@reddit
If properly stored, even 'expired' food is generally safe to eat. The quality (taste, texture, nutrition) may degrade but its unlikely to be unsafe.
This degradation is a gradual process. It's not like food goes instantly 'bad' at midnight. If the packaging is in tact and has been stored in a cool, dry, dark place, many foods will last almost indefinitely.
And depending on the severity of the emergency, quality may not be a primary concern.
Having said all that, if you are concerned and have the means replace the food now. You will feel better and be good to go for years.
Icy-Ad-7767@reddit
Mountain house has a 30 year on the food pouches now? I know the #10 cans are basically “ until the can rusts through stage now” I would reach out to the company and ask them.
No_NewFriends_2021@reddit
Eat em ?
IronDefects@reddit (OP)
If that’s my best bet I certainly will !
These things have gotten so pricey that I would prefer to keep them in the stash IF I don’t need to replace them.
If it comes down to eat em or they’re going bad… I’ll gobble the suckers up and fork over the cash for some new ones… just avoiding it as I don’t have much cash to spend on “stash and forget” preps right now.