A few days ago I was tempted to post in the 'what's your worse meal' thread. This thread gets me a two-for-one.

I can say from experience that the shelf life is somewhat under 20 years. I 'inherited' a couple cases of freeze-dried (not dehydrated) food that was probably 20 years old, but maybe as old as 30, and took a package on a trip. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was eating it.

While I didn't suffer any of the more acute, classic symptoms of food poisoning, I did suffer. I know the food's storage history wasn't an issue (low temps, low humidity)...maybe the packaging failed. In any case, I ended up with years and years-worth of backpacking meals that I couldn't trust. And a very special memory of my first ever solo... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

These days I stick to my own dehydrated meals...usually made from reserved portions of the week's meals and dried just days before a trip.

FB