Freeze-dried food and hiking food

Freeze-dried food and outdoor meals for outdoor activities, bushcraft, hiking, and camping

When you are out on an outdoor trip, practicing bushcraft in the forest, or camping, freeze-dried food, outdoor meals, and long-lasting food are the optimal choices to keep your energy up. Freeze-dried food weighs almost nothing, takes up minimal space, and has a shelf life of up to 25–30 years when properly packaged. It is perfect for hikers, campers, preppers, and anyone who values easy food to take on a trip. The advanced processes like gentle freeze-drying preserve almost all nutrients, flavor, and texture, and you just need to add hot water directly into the bag or pot to have a nourishing meal in 5-10 minutes.

Outdoor meals - easy food to take on a trip

Freeze-dried food is perfect for hikes and outdoor expeditions. The food is compactly packed in portion packs, and you just need to add hot water to have a nourishing meal. The packages take up little space and weight, so you can bring food for many days or several people without it taking up much room or weight in your hiking backpack. You can prepare freeze-dried food directly in the bag, so you don’t have extra or unnecessary washing up or waste.

Freeze-dried food in field rations tailored to your needs

You can assemble field rations yourself for a whole day or several days with many different dishes, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Long-lasting food for outdoor meals and field rations is also available in vegan, gluten-free, and lactose-free versions.

Long-lasting food and prepper food

Freeze-dried food is not only suitable as outdoor meals. If you want extra security and increased preparedness in case of crises, long-lasting food is a very good investment. Freeze-dried food is ideal for prepping in your home emergency kit and survival kit or as a supplement to canned food and freezer food.

Freeze-dried food doesn’t take up much shelf space, and with a large and varied selection, you are assured of nourishing and filling, varied meals for all times of the day, even if you are without power one day. Just make sure to have filled water containers and, for example, a camping stove in your emergency kit – then you can easily cook without electricity.

Should I choose freeze-dried food or canned food?

Whether you should choose freeze-dried food or other long-lasting food like canned food is an individual matter. If you are a couple going on a single-day trip, for example hiking, hunting, or fishing, it’s easy to just take a can of ready-made food in your bag. It just needs to be quickly heated on, for example, a Trangia, and then you have a solid, hot meal ready. Canned food is also ideal as camping food, where you might have more space than in a hiking backpack.

If you are going away for several days, canned food will take up and weigh significantly more in your backpack, and here the compact freeze-dried meal packs are ideal. Freeze-dried food is perfect both as survival food in the field, meals on shelter trips or hikes, camping, trekking, traveling, sailing, and many other situations where you need compact and lightweight food with easy preparation.

Can you make your own outdoor meals?

Yes, you definitely can! Even relatively easily and cheaply.

Homemade freeze-dried food is probably something few of us can manage, but there are other options.

One option is to dehydrate your own homemade outdoor meals, which can be done in a dehydrator or in the oven. However, there are a few basic tips you should have in place. You can read more about it in the book Tørrende lækkerier, which you can find here, where there are also recipes for outdoor meal dishes and how to do it.

Another option we ourselves have regularly used on shorter trips is vacuum-packing homemade food. This can be pasta with meat sauce, rice and chicken curry, or almost any leftovers from dinner that are suitable to be reheated in a pot and then frozen so they are ready to take on a trip. If you pack the vacuum-sealed bags with newspaper around them, and one inside the bag (in case of leaks…), in your backpack, they will stay cold for quite a while.

Freeze-dried outdoor meals - Keep your energy up

When you are out on an outdoor trip, it is crucial that besides staying warm and dry, you also get food in your stomach.

It is important that you are full so you can keep your energy up and sleep well at night. It goes without saying that you need food during the day to keep your body going, but it is also important to go to bed full so you get a good night’s sleep and thus have energy for a new day when you wake up.

When we are out on a trip, the body uses extra energy, both for movement, to keep warm, but actually also the brain, even though being outdoors is mostly relaxing. So nourishing food in your stomach is a really good foundation for a good experience when you are out.

No food and drink, no hero.

Here at Survivalstore.dk you will find both a good selection of freeze-dried outdoor meals and inspiration on how you can make your own outdoor meals and assemble your own field rations if you prefer that.

We do both ourselves, as there are advantages to each.

Did you know? Advantages of freeze-dried food

• Long shelf life: Up to 30 years without preservatives
• Lightweight and compact: 98% less water content = less weight
• Almost full nutrition: Up to 97% preservation of nutrients
• Preserves flavor and texture: Tastes almost like freshly made food
• Easy and quick preparation: Just add water and wait a few minutes