Old freeze-dried meat didn’t make me sick

[Doug Coe]

I bought freeze-dried hamburger online and made my own dinners for freezer bag cooking. Then I put them in the trunk of my car and (as things turned out) left them there for over two weeks.

When I got home I put the dinners in the freezer. A few weeks later I dared to take them on a three night backpacking trip. And eat them!

And lived to tell the tale. No problems. YMMV.

[Alexander S]

People (stranded Russian scientists) have eaten frozen mammoth meat, so I’m not surprised : ) !

[Doug Coe]

At least it was kept frozen!

Yeah, I was a skitch worried but didn’t want to waste it (silly idea if I’d gotten sick). Now I’m less worried about using part of a package of freeze-dried meat, putting the remainder in the freezer, and using it for the next trip.

[Earl G]

I have a data point to add.  About a year ago (May 2017) I ordered a #10 can of Mountain House freeze-dried chicken.  I opened it not long after.  I threw in several moisture absorbing packets, and one oxygen absorbing packet, and kept the can in a dark kitchen cabinet, in an air conditioned house, opening it occasionally.  It is now August 2018 and I’m almost finished with the chicken.

I tested out a backpacking meal at home yesterday, using a small amount of said chicken.  Tastes the same to me :-) I have a healthy immune system and rarely get sick from food, so keep that in mind.  However, the chicken is still super dry… looks the same as the day I opened it.  The can says to use immediately, but may still be OK for up to one week.

I also have a #10 can of MH Breakfast Skillet, opened on May 10th 2018. Haven’t added any moisture or oxygen absorbing packets to that yet.  Ate a serving of that on my backpack last weekend, no problems either, and taste is fine.

As Doug said, YMMV :-)

[James Marco]

Without water, any dehydrated food will last indefinitely. Bacteria needs water to live and grow. But, some foods, even dehydrated, are hydrophilic, meaning they attract moisture often beyond atmospheric humidity. Cold helps reduce this effect to some degree, but just making sure any dehydrated food is sealed should be enough. I have had opened Jacks Links around for over two years, it was sealed and in good shape. I have had some that was in a regular baggie that molded over 3 weeks. Apparently the baggie was poked in a couple spots. Keep it dry! Keep it sealed!

As a corollary, most bacteria and parasites (e. coli, l. giardia, etc) cannot survive the rapid change from water to dry conditions. Using wild water to wash out cook wear is fine provided you dry it out. They cannot form spores that quickly.

[Gary Dunckel]

For the past 8-10 years, I have purchased #10 tins of Mountain House ingredients and vacuum sealed individual portions (chicken, peas, burger, mac/cheese, etc.). They are stored in my cool, dark, and dry Colorado basement, and I have seen that the stored shelf life is well over 5 years. In fact, last week I ate a meal that was sealed in 2010, and it was fine. I don’t bother with including an oxygen absorber nor a desiccant. However, I do my packaging and vacuum sealing on a very cold and dry December day, which I am sure helps with the shelf life.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Now that I’m well over 40 years old, I can tell you that there are a lot of things you think you can’t eat that you can eat without getting sick. Blueberries with little flecks of mold won’t kill you. Weevils in your rice won’t kill you. You can even dehydrate cooked weevil rice and it won’t kill you. You can make instant pudding with water that has all kinds of stuff floating in it and it won’t kill you. Hell, you can drink water with things floating in it and you won’t die.

The trick is to eat these things without your glasses on. You’ll never know.

[Ralph Burgess]

In the old days, a thread about this topic would have had hundreds of replies.   There may be only a dozen or so posts nowadays, but the fact that 100% of us are alive proves that it must be safe to eat all this stuff, right?

[James Marco]

Ha, hey…..!

[Tipi Walter]

Every March I backpack with a wilderness class for 10 days and some of the leaders of the class relish the mold growing off their cheeses.  Cheese mold is apparently edible . . . although bread mold IS NOT.

[David Thomas]

Wheat flour used to have more protein in it.  But due to modern pesticides and storage techniques (like oxygen-deficient atmospheres), there aren’t as many insects in the grain so there’s not as much protein in the flour.

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