Freezed dried food question.

[CountryKat]

I hope I dont irritate anyone in here about asking about this subject in different forums.

Dh and I want to have a variance of different types of food storage in our prepping. One of them is freeze dried. Can you tell me what company has been a good one to go to for this type. The only ones I know of right now are Thrive with shelf reliance, Mountain House & Emergency Preparedness. I had ordered some freeze dried food samplings from Thrive but still am waiting on the shipments after several customer service mishaps. Not sure what to think there but am starting to look for another company. We tried a Mountain house dinner pack for 2 servings that I picked up from Walmart. It actually tasted good and was easy to prepare. Dh said he would try it again (chili mac). Any thoughts would be helpful. We are having other kinds of foods from canning, dehydrating, dry bucket kinds but also want the freezed dried.

Thanks,
CK

 

[Living the Simple Life]

Honeyville Grains has lots of options for freeze dried. Also, Chef Tess has a blog where she posts lots of "meals in jars" using freeze dried products that are supposed to be shelf stable for a number of years - sort of homemade convenience meals.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Make your own. Dry ice will do it. It is really cold stuff and most grocery stores just throw it away after their shipments are put into freezers.
Just a suggestion.
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[terri9630]

Make your own. Dry ice will do it. It is really cold stuff and most grocery stores just throw it away after their shipments are put into freezers.
Just a suggestion.
Trim sends
//BT//

How would you do that?

 

[RhondaLynn]

How do you make your own freeze dried foods with Dry Ice.. I saw the above post and really wonder about this????

Rhonda

 

[~gd]

Darn, I wrote a reply late last night, I must have forgotten to post! You need more than super cold, you need a high capacity vacuum system to do true freeze drying. First you super freeze [dry ice may work we always used liquid nitrogen. You place the frozen material in the vacuum chamber and start increasing the vacuum. When the frozen mass stops getting warmer the process has started. The water sublimes because it is below the triple point. By sublimes I mean that it passes directly to water vapor from ice without ever becoming liquid water [think of reverse frost where water vapor goes to ice without becoming liquid water] the temperature of the frozen material is actually lowered because the ice is evaporating without becoming water. The process is controlled by the vacuum with the temperature indicating how the process is going. I can get you a used lab rig for around $20,000.
Most food is done by flash drying where liquid is exposed to a cyclone of air resulting in the evaporation of liquid fast enough to freeze and dry the food in a single step but you need a factory to do that. ~gd

 

[Pirtykitty]

Shelf Reliance has a wonderful selection of freeze dried food and gluten free items.