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Dehydrated Food 101

Benefits of Dehydrated Foods For Long Term Food Storage

dehydrated food

Whether you're looking to stock up on food for a camping trip or building an emergency food storage, dehydrated survival foods are a popular choice.

Dehydration is the process of removing water from food (which stops spoiling by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, yeasts and molds).

You can get a wide variety of dehydrated foods today - everything from fruits, vegetables, eggs, butter, puddings, meat substitutes, wheat, pasta, legumes and more.

There are some definite benefits that these foods provide over other survival foods like freeze dried meals and MREs. Here are just a few:

#1 More Affordable

Dehydrated snacks and foods tend to be more affordable than freeze dried meals.

Because of this, you'll notice a large difference for example between a 1 year storage of dehydrated foods vs a 1 year storage of freeze dried foods. If you're on a budget but still want to store food with a long shelf life, dehydrated meals are a great option.

dehydrated food

#2 Long Shelf Life

These foods also tend to have a longer shelf life than a typical MRE or canned food. Depending on the type of food and the packaging involved, dehydrated snacks and foods can have a shelf life of 10 - 25 years.

So you can store them for a very long time without having to rotate them out and buy more. This can again save you money.

#3 Lightweight and Easy To Carry

Because all of the water is removed in the dehydration process, this food is much lighter than your typical MRE or canned foods. This means you can carry a lot (i.e. in a backpack or bug out bag) without it weighing you down.

#4 More Variety To Make Your Own Meals

There are a lot of foods that you can only get dehydrated (not freeze dried). And there's so much variety (see the list above) that you can use these foods to make up your own meals.

So if you are the creative type and want the flexibility to cook your own meals from scratch so to speak, these foods are a great option.

So those are some of the benefits. Are there any downsides?

Well, dehydrated foods, in general, don't have the same consistency or texture as freeze dried foods. They don't retain as much of their nutritional value or taste. So there is a bit of a downside.

This is why many survival food manufacturers like Wise Foods mix both dehydrated and freeze dried foods in their long term storage packags - so you get the best of both world - taste and affordability.

How To Store:

It's not hard to store your dehydrated survival food. Just place it in a cool, dry place and forget about it. Keep it sealed until you want to use it to ensure a long shelf life.

Where To Buy

You can buy a large selection of dehydrated foods online - fruits to eggs and butter - to grains and pasta at Nitropak.

Or for more places to buy dehydrated and other survival foods see our Emergency Food Supplies page.