LDP Camping Foods

     If you want a paper price list, then e-mail us your name and address, and ask for a paper price list.   Mail to: Marcus@LDPCampingFoods.com.  You can also download the price list and printout all 18 pages, or just the pages that interest you.  Catalog download  If you wish to place an order now, use our shopping cart, or print out the Mail Order Form, fill it out, and mail it in, or call us at: 800-826-5767 to phone it in.

LDP Camping Foods Home Page

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

    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.

 

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.

 

 

You are visitor #  since November 17, 2009.

This page was last modified on November 18, 2009 .