When it comes to survival food there’s certainly plenty of choices, but which one is the best to take with you and what are the pros and cons you should watch out for?
M.R.E’s
Stands for meal ready to eat and provides the single most complete meal experience. Made for soldiers in the US, these packages contain a main meal along with various sides and drinks. They also provide the highest amount of calories in a single meal and come with a flame-less ration heater, giving you the ability to have a hot meal and coffee in the middle of no where.
Advantages:
- Provides the highest amount of calories from a single meal than any other ration type
- Gives the widest range for a single meal
- Flame-less ration heater allows hot food without the need for a fire
- Normally comes with other useful items, such as a small amount of toilet paper, chewing gum and tooth picks.
Disadvantages:
- By far the heaviest ration, with the average M.R.E weighing in between 600 to 700 grams and requiring 3 per day. At this weight a weeks worth of food would weigh 4.2kg to 4.9kg, over 2kg heavier than freeze dried food.
- Since they are designed for soldiers they normally have a very low fibre content and very high salt content, typically designed to make a soldier poop as few times as possible while in the field. This can be either an advantage or disadvantage depending on your situation.
- Shelf life of only 5 years from the date it was made, which is good for most situations but still the shortest shelf life out of all the options.
- They are normally quite bulky as non of the water has been taken to reduce the size and theres also much more packaging involved .
Dehydrated food
This type is made by creating some kind of meal, then putting it in a machine that dries it and removes as much moisture as possible. There is still a little moisture left in the finished product and the process also removes some of the taste. This is one of the foods you can make at home, as dehydrating machines aren’t expensive at all.
Advantages:
- Professionally dried food has a shelf life of around 10 years from the point it was made.
- Can easily be made at home
- Very lightweight
Disadvantages:
- Loss of flavour
- Requires much more water to prepare
- Cannot eat without first hydrating
Ration Blocks
These are some interesting little things, but normally not the kind of ration you would take with you in large amounts. They can typically be found in things like lifeboats on ships and in short term, survival situation emergency kits. Each block provides the full daily calorie allowance for an adult, as well as all the vitamins and nutrients etc.
Even though there are many different brands of this ration type they generally fall into 2 main categories, sweet and savoury. The sweet ones taste like someone put a cheese cake on top of a large treacle sponge and squashed it down into a tiny bar, they are incredibly dense to eat but usually very tasty and rammed full of sugar.
The savoury ones taste like someone made a gallon of beef and vegetable stew, and then some how squashed it into a little block. They aren’t quite as tasty as the sweet version, but one advantage of these is you can break a piece off and dissolve it in some hot water to make a reasonably tasty soup. Sometimes these also come in a condensed bread type bar with various other ingredients in, which are more pleasant to eat directly but don’t quite make as good a soup.
The blocks are usually stamped, marking out the breakfast, dinner and supper sections, and even though they provide everything you need to stay alive, they do nothing to fill you up on their own. In the event of being stranded somewhere you didn’t have access to plenty of water to make soup, these would end up being quite unpleasant after a while. These things last for anywhere between 5 to 15 years depending on the brand and type.
Advantages:
- Very compact, you could fit a weeks worth of food in the pockets of a standard coat.
- The sweet ones are very tasty, and the savoury ones can be made into a soup to provide a more filling meal.
- One of the cheapest ration options in comparison to how long they last against the other types.
- Needs no water or any kind of equipment to prepare.
Disadvantages:
- The sweet ones can become sickly quite fast, and the savoury ones aren’t the best tasting in comparison to other ration types.
- Boring variation and least choice. Life boats will most likely only have one type on board, and if you order a pack they will likely all be one flavour, and eating the exact same flavour and nothing but can get boring really fast.
- Even though they provide what you need, they can leave you feeling hungry. The contents are very condensed and simply don’t provide the volume your stomach needs to feel full, and if you don’t have the ability to make soup all the time from the savoury ones, surviving on nothing but these will leave you constantly feeling hungry.
Freeze dried food
This one is my personal favourite for various reasons, and by far the longest lasting. Freeze dried food is made by first cooking a normal meal, then freezing it at a very low temperature, normally somewhere between -30 C and -50 C. After the freezing its put into a machine which creates a vacuum and sucks out all the moisture, and since the freezing at such low temperatures makes the water expand considerably, the process can remove almost all of it.
This means that these type of rations have a very long life span and are very light weight, with professionally made freeze dried food lasting for up to 25 years. Even when opened and exposed to the air, most dishes will still be good for up to 1 year.
This version also comes with the most variety and can be bought containing only one ingredient, such as a tub of potato slices or just peas. This makes them the best choice for permanent long term survival shelters. They are also the lightest of the choices as they have more water removed than any other ration type, though this can also work against them as you cant eat them without hydrating them first, as the food would suck moisture out of your stomach and make you dangerously thirsty.
Advantages:
- Biggest range of meals and individual ingredients
- Longest shelf life by far – up to 25 years
- The lightest weighted ration out of all types
- Very compact, the single serving packs can slip in between all the gaps in your backpack you just couldn’t cram that extra pair of socks into.
- The process does not suck any of the flavour or nutrients out the product.
Disadvantages:
- One of, if not “the” most expensive of the options, depending on what you go for. The process to make this kind of food requires much higher levels of technology and takes considerably longer, with the average time to create a batch being up to 40 hours. This lengthy process is often reflected in the price.
- Requires large amounts of water to prepare a days worth of food, and cannot be eaten without re-hydrating first.
Which ever ration type you choose, the single most important thing to consider is your situation and how long you’ll be in it. If your constantly on the move for a couple of days then M.R.E’s or freeze dried meal packs would be my first choice, were as freeze dried food would be the best to stock a long term survival bunker for example. Ration blocks are always handy to have a couple of days worth just incase or in some kind of small emergency kit, but you’ll regret having nothing but these on a long walk as you’ll constantly be hungry.