Product Review
By
72 Hour Emergency Food
Welcome back, Friday again? I swear I was just saying this to you yesterday? The time flies by these days and just won’t slow down, no matter what I do… I refuse to embrace this fact but will continue to work around the reality of it!
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Alright, I have another product to talk to you about this week. This is the 72-Hour emergency meal kit from Mountain House. I think most of us are familiar with the Mountain House brand. They produce top of the line freeze dried meals for the backpacker crowd as well as us more Doomish preppers.
Mountain House is known in our circles for their extremely long shelf life products. The bulk packed product in #10 cans, this is the size of a old school metal coffee can, has a 30 year shelf life. I don’t know about you but thats impressive to me. I don’t recommend that we put all our eggs in one basket by purchasing only these VERY long term products. To get that shelf life you pay the price – Top of the line and probably the most expensive product available.
(12) Meal envelopes per case
Their product that is more main stream is used by hikers and back packers for the more important weight issues. These packages are almost weightless. They do take up space but save on weight, I believe the bigger of the concerns. These envelope style packages can be found at most any sporting goods store and generally in a wide variety of meals. Last I heard even Walmart was carrying these in most of their stores. The shelf life on these is rated at 7 years… It’s not the 30 you get from the cans but still more than adequate!
The contents of this particular product, the 72-Hour emergency meal kit, are compossed of 12 of these lightweight pouches. (6) main dish entree’s, (3) Breakfast entree’s and (3) vegetable side dishes. They have a good variety of items represented, so at least you have a choice and shouldn’t have to eat the same thing each day. Not that you would get appetite fatique in the first 3 days but still I would suppose that having a choice in an emergency setting would be a plus…
These meals are contained in their own cooking pot, dish. Meaning that you just add boiling water and allow to sit. They only take a few minutes and then you can eat them right out of their packaging. This makes preparation and clean up a snap. I do think that this would be a huge bonus if it came down to using these someplace other than safety of your own kitchen. I see why these are a popular backpack meal. Ease of use and quick clean up would be handy on the trail.
Now the down side or reality check… With all good things usually comes a trade off. These aren’t the cheapest products as I’ve already mentioned. Now for what you get in a fairly small buy it and forget it package they aren’t BAD but it can be done a lot cheaper for those of us on a tight budget. You do pay for the convenience factor! I will put a link to where these are products are available. Priced today at about $45.00, that comes out to $15.00 a day or $5.00 per meal. When I say meal, I am going off of the manufactures definition of meal.
Moving right along to this “Meal” definition… This case of food would easily keep you alive in a 72 hour emergency but it is quite limited. If you are preparing for much more than a short term power outage or grab and go senario, you had better think again. These cases do have something to eat 3 times per day but the total calories only come to 3051. That only slightly more than 1000 per day. Yes, you can survive without ill effects but you had better plan to be doing a lot of nothing for those 3 days. If you think you will have to be doing anything strenuous or even walking for that matter, plan on adding additional calories!
- Complete Nutrition Information on each case
As you know we’re a family of three and have purchased several of these cases. I’ve seen them over the years but hadn’t added them to the stockpile until a year or so ago. I found a sporting goods store having a parking lot sale and decided to buy the last of the cases they had out. They were marked down, not sure why but everything in the tent was, so I got them for a good deal. These fill the role of extended short term storage foods in our plans. We have a good pantry stocked with everyday items as well for our first line food storage. If we found ourselves in a stop everything and grab the bug out bags situation, we could also quickly take these along to extend the bags range.
I do have to give these a thumbs up! I’ll only do that though with the caveat of, don’t make these into anything more than they really are! If you have a hole in your preps these could fill it. Sometimes we find ourselves in unique circumstances and need something compact that you just don’t have to worry about for years, these will also fit that role. I think that at $45.00 per case, the expense is justifiable… If you haven’t tried these foods yet for yourself, this might be a way to sample a variety fairly cheaply, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed…
I found these available through Amazon.com at the following –
http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-House-72-Hour-Emergency-Meal/dp/B000G2TOMM
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I hope you all have a great weekend! I’m off to the BOL as soon as I close the office. I might even just take it easy and enjoy the scenery this weekend? Try to catch a few episodes of “Gang Land” and dream up something interesting to talk about next week! See ya!
Prepper
