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Shelf Life of MREs and Freeze Dried Foods

Freeze Dried Foods

    The shelf life will vary even within brands mainly by fat content.  The more fat in the food, the less time it will take for the flavor to go a little bit off.  The packaging makes the biggest difference.  The way a product is packaged will determine how much moisture and oxygen is present in the food when it is packaged (less of each is better), and how much will seep in over time.  Below is a general guideline for storage at room temperature, ~75°F.  These numbers are conservative, and deal mainly with flavor.  If you open a pouch of any age, and it's damp inside, you should discard it.

 ~25+ yrs     Mountain House cans  An example of Mountain House's shelf life

~5-15 yrs    Gourmet Reserves cans
   ~7 yrs       Mountain House pouches
   ~4 yrs       AlpineAire
   ~3 yrs       Backpacker's Pantry, Natural High, and Richmoor
   ~2 yrs       Adventure Foods

    The lifetimes of all of these freeze dried foods, no matter how it's packaged, can be extended by storage in cool conditions.  Heat will shorten the times listed above.  Since there is almost no water in the packages, storage below freezing is not a problem, and will extend the shelf life quite a bit further.

 

    If the above information is not detailed enough, you can contact the manufacturers through their websites listed below.

 

Adventure Foods

AlpineAire / Gourmet Reserves

Backpacker's Pantry

Mountain House

Richmoor / Natural High

 

MREs

    The shelf life of MREs can be quite long.  Temperature is the determining factor.  However, since there is water in the MRE pouch, you should avoid repeated freezing and thawing, so the ice crystals won't damage the texture of the food.  Below is a table of the expected shelf life of MREs.

 

Temperature   Months

     120°F             ~1

     110°F             ~5 

     100°F           ~22

       90°F           ~55 

       80°F           ~76

       70°F         ~100

       60°F         ~130

 

    Temperatures lower than 60°F should extend the shelf life past 130 months, but there's not enough data on tests of MREs stored at lower temperatures for more than 12 years.

 

 

This page was last modified on October 27, 2007 .