You may have guessed this meal was designed for backpackers. Therefore it’s light (6.6 oz), in a durable container that also serves for cooking, and withstands extremes of temperature without problems, and has a good shelf life — all excellent qualities for emergency bag food, BOB or GHB or whatever. It’s not as compact and calorie efficient as true emergency rations, but it’s tastier and, well, more comforting.
Substantial meals that make it easy to avoid allergens, light weight and stable enough to keep in a go bag, requiring only boiling water to cook and under $6 a bag.
To prepare, you add some boiling water, stir, seal the zip-lock, and wait 20 min. It comes two ‘meals’ per bag, but each is 340 calories and 18 g of protein and enough food to feel like an actual meal so that’s pretty reasonable. You can get them for under $6 per pouch.
This option might be particularly attractive to people with allergies and food sensitivities (there’s a post on how to deal with those here on the site) as the ingredients are brown rice, vegetables, and spices. You know what you’re getting. This one’s gluten-free and vegan.
We’ll be getting more of these. Unlike many emergency rations sold to preppers, it smelled, looked, and tasted like Real Food — and good food at that. Not great, but good. It was somewhat spicy by American standards and mild by Indian food standards; I liked the mixture of spices but would have preferred it just a bit stronger. The vegetables were very nice, with a good variety and they managed to retain good mouth feel and texture. It made a plateful of food too, so I felt I’d had a real meal (with one of the two servings in the pouch).
This is one of the two servings in the pouch; a plateful of real, tasty food.
The nutrition is very good. 340 calories is the weak point; it’s more designed for people who could mostly spare a few calories so it’s a bit lighter than I like emergency meals. However, there’s 18 g of protein (from brown rice and lentils), lots of iron (70% RDA) which can be scarce in survival foods and is too low in many American diets anyway, good Vit A and C, some calcium, and all the fiber you need for a day. That’s actually important; many emergency foods are awfully low on fiber and that promotes constipation. While it seems unworthy of notice, that problem actually gets quite troubling (say for soldiers living on MREs). The nutrients are also in the forms we’re designed to absorb; not true of all supplemented foods.
I see this as a once-a-day type meal for a grab and go bag, and as a supplement to home stores. There’s only so much chili and pasta with cream sauce and pancakes one can eat, after all. Also, at $3 per meal I’ll be *happy* to rotate these stores, as it made a very handy and good couple of lunches. I’ll be trying some other flavors soon.
