Dehydrated and Freeze-Dried Backpacking Dinners (Gear Guide)

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Jeff,

My wife has hereditary high blood pressure and even one day of high sodium intake raises her systolic pressure by about 8 to 10 points. That’s not “uninformed opinion”, just repeatable the facts.

[Roger Caffin]

Sadly, anything with meat in it can not be imported into Australia from America. Apparently the Health Dept does not trust the American food regulations.

Equally sadly, Australian and NZ packaged foods of this sort are either inedible or are salt bombs. Despite long hard trips, we find we simply cannot stomach the local stuff. Sometimes we take a 1-man pack and bulk it out with rice or noodles to feed the two of us, just to get the salt level down.

Sigh.
Cheers

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Roger,

Oz and the EU have the “no importation of US meats” for a good reason. Most of our US cattle and hogs are given hormones and antibiotics for greater profitability.

When I shop for meat I look for the ORGANIC label or I don’t buy. Same with dairy products.

 

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Eric

Just so.

Cheers

[Bill in Roswell]

I do choose tasty meals with lower salt content, but it’s hard to avoid unless you plan far ahead. What the FD companies could do is cut the salt in half, throw in a little salt package and let customers determine how much salt they need. As mentioned, a good blend of spices offer more flavor than just salt alone.

I will also mention that a lot of campers eat FD meals typically found at outdoor stores (and even in grocery stores in the mountains) that are not burning off 3,000-5,000 calories per day as a backpacker would – hunters, fisherman, paddlers, etc.. So listen up food cos., cut the salt and throw in a package of salt when you throw in the oxidizer pouch. Let the eater decide how much they want!

Cheers,
Bill in Roswell, GA

[Roger Caffin]

Remove ALL salt and throw in a small salt package!
Or just remove all salt and tell the customer to salt to suit.

Cheers

[Ben H.]

I agree with the comment above that they add the salt because it tastes like crap without it.  One of the forums I was on a several years back had a rep from Mountain House show up and say they are aware of the salt issue and developing alternatives…. nothing ever came of it.  The problem is that their typical weekender consumer might be drawn to the reduced sodium meal at REI… or worse yet become aware of how much sodium the typical meal has.  If they buy the reduced sodium meal and it tastes like crap they may be turned off the product for there lifetime.  You see how much brand loyalty there is in this thread  (“I like brand XXXX and never really liked brand XXXX”).  A single pouch has 1-3x your daily recommended intake.  People will eat that for a single meal.  How much salt are you getting from all the other meals and snacks you eat during the day.  You may need a bit more salt while out hiking and sweating… but not THAT much.  You also need more calories… so just by eating more you are going to get more salt.

[Roger Caffin]

These days, we make our own meals from basic raw ingredients. The meals provide all we need for a week.

Part of the problem is that the mfrs think they have to come up with exotic meals, very often weird Asian concoctions, to compete with other vendors. To be sure, the picture on the package looks glamorous, but the stuff inside rarely matches the picture. The other half of the problem is that Joe Average BUYS the stuff for his week-end camp-out.

Cheers

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Ryan, the glaring omission from otherwise detailed information is a SODIUM PER SERVING column.

Could you add that info to update this article?

 

[Andrew D]

This is something I will heavily be focusing on when attempting my own freeze dried meals.

 

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