MREs vs. Dehydrated vs Food Bars: Who has the best?

[HungryMan]

Some websites outright advise against MREs http://survivalacres.com/information/mres.html while many here in the forums recommend a combination of the 3 above for at the very least some kind of variety in their food storage program.
As a companion post to the "Big Three in MREs" thread; I'm curious as to what companies out there (correctly) offer the "Big Three" in both deydrated and 1200-3600 calorie food bar products...again, regardless of price and even more importantly in order of overall quality/taste.

Example:

MREs:
Sopacko; Wornick; Ameriqual; (MRE Star?)

Deydrated:
Mountain House; Rainy Day(Walton?); Alpine Aire; Richmoor; Honeyville

Food Bars:
Mainstay; Datrex; ER bar

Who has the hands down best product in each category...or have I missed a legitimate quality contender? (Current 2010 offerings only please)

Thanks for your help.

[Cracker]

What is your plan with the items?

Energy bars.. nice, but they taste like shit.
Do you want to surive? Great, they work very well, and don't take much space.

If you have a lot of space, get canned/mre food. "Wet food" overall tastes better. Refresh your stock every few years.
Go for dehydrated if you don't have much space, or want to keep it for a very very long time. It still tastes OK.
And if you need a very small pack, go for energybars.. and refresh it every few years.

It's a choice you have to make for yourself. But energybars only contain loads of calories, and some minerals. They don't score very well on vitamins and such (most brands)
And if you have the forcified ones.. watch out, to much vitamines per day is also quite bad if you keep it up for a long time.

[Treesuit]

Hungryman,

I agree with Cracker on this, perhaps you could tell us what your plans are?

I have seen that article you mentioned before on another topic we had here some years ago. I have to admit that that article is outright one sided and wrong, almost biased. It's apparent the author just dislikes MRE (IMP's) in general and has had little training with them or being in the military even though he/she/they said they had experience with training Army Cadets. Well whatever....

I have had enough experience along with alot of other people here on the forum being in the military and being an avid outdoorsman. So I'll offer my 2 cents worth and you can decide for yourself.

Food Bars: they're okay if you need a quick snack. Some brands out there are pretty tasty like CLIFF bars. I found out that if you don't drink enough water you can have some serious constipation with them so try and substitute some fresh fruit/vegetables with them. The DAYTREX-MAINSTAY-etc are fine if your in a long term survival situation but again they too require lots of water. The best food bars that have a great balance of vitamins and minerals in them are the commercial protein bars. They also can last for several months in storage.

MRE: I still think with long tern storage you are going to be fine. Especially if your looking at something portable and quick fixing despite what the article is saying. Sure you might have some reaction to MRE's if your not used to eating them, but you can condition yourself over time. Drawback is your budget. I haven't experimented with the civilian MRE versions before as mine are all real issue items, so I'm not sure what they taste like.

Dehydrated foods: These are great and are very safe for long term storage, but again what kind of budget are you on? Also some varieties may taste different then others. And also they do take a lot of water to re-constitute. Something you may not have on hand or available. Sometimes Mountain House has great deals on some close out/end of season items. Richmoor as well. Cheaper than dirt.com has been known to put up some great deals on these foods. So just hunting and picking around is a great idea. Or sometimes in the buy/sell/trade thread somebody will post an offer or link to one.

[HungryMan]

"What is your plan with the items?.."

Thanks for the reply and advice.

My plan is to offer all three categories for sale in the near future; yet my interest lies in exactly who out there is both purchasing examples of top shelf 2010 product and actually eating or reviewing same this year (or last). Whether we're talking about MREs; deydrated; freeze dried or food bars...it would seem to me that at least one product in each category would round out a well balanced plan if money were not an object and actual food taste/quality indeed was.

[HungryMan]

Hungryman,

I agree with Cracker on this, perhaps you could tell us what your plans are?

I have seen that article you mentioned before on another topic we had here some years ago. I have to admit that that article is outright one sided and wrong, almost biased. It's apparent the author just dislikes MRE (IMP's) in general and has had little training with them or being in the military even though he/she/they said they had experience with training Army Cadets. Well whatever....

I have had enough experience along with alot of other people here on the forum being in the military and being an avid outdoorsman. So I'll offer my 2 cents worth and you can decide for yourself.

Food Bars: they're okay if you need a quick snack. Some brands out there are pretty tasty like CLIFF bars. I found out that if you don't drink enough water you can have some serious constipation with them so try and substitute some fresh fruit/vegetables with them. The DAYTREX-MAINSTAY-etc are fine if your in a long term survival situation but again they too require lots of water. The best food bars that have a great balance of vitamins and minerals in them are the commercial protein bars. They also can last for several months in storage.

MRE: I still think with long tern storage you are going to be fine. Especially if your looking at something portable and quick fixing despite what the article is saying. Sure you might have some reaction to MRE's if your not used to eating them, but you can condition yourself over time. Drawback is your budget. I haven't experimented with the civilian MRE versions before as mine are all real issue items, so I'm not sure what they taste like.

Dehydrated foods: These are great and are very safe for long term storage, but again what kind of budget are you on? Also some varieties may taste different then others. And also they do take a lot of water to re-constitute. Something you may not have on hand or available. Sometimes Mountain House has great deals on some close out/end of season items. Richmoor as well. Cheaper than dirt.com has been known to put up some great deals on these foods. So just hunting and picking around is a great idea. Or sometimes in the buy/sell/trade thread somebody will post an offer or link to one.

Mr. Green,
Sorry that I didn't see this before posting my thanks to cracker; yet we certainly appreciate the above as well.

I'm not certain how one couldn't offer Mountain House as a product line...Sopakco I'm told is as consistent quality-wise (or better) as any...there seems to be no consensus whatsoever on the 3600 calorie food bars (except that store bought are better)...and I'm having a hard time seeing where anybody out there is eating Honeyville's lunch if the quality is there also (have a few myself/never tried them).

Again, it comes down to consistent quality and health/caring of the manufacturer to me. If they aren't the quality leader in the category and conduct themselves as such; we're not interested in representing them as their reputation obviously reflects on us.

Edit: Maybe price is everything in these hard economic times; yet I'd rather talk about a product and (hopefully again) the people that back it rather than get caught up in who is the least expensive.

Somebody has the best quality product out there in 2010 and people are paying for it...yet there seems to be few on the forums who either have an opinion either way (quality-wise) or are maybe even actually buying product this year in the first place.

[HungryMan]

Btw Treesuit...didn't mean to refer to you earlier as "Mr. Green" ...quoted your post and the little green smiley icon was at the very bottom spelled out as such...and I mistook it for your name.

I'm still interested very much in high quality (only) 2010-11 product both in regards to this topic and the "Big 3 in MREs" sister version as well.

With these menus changing as often as they do across pretty much every product line save the food bars; it is amazing to me that few are apparently in line to buy or haven't already purchased 2010 produced meals.

My assumptions so far in regards to the OT:

Sopakco is the highest quality consistently produced (12 pack) civilian MRE available...

Nobody can compete with Mountain House on taste or quality (keeping in mind that cost is not a factor here)...

...and that Mainstay and Datrex are #1 and #2 in the 1200 to 3600 calorie food bar market; with no other bar out there delivering 3600 calories; varied temperature storage life and (exceptional) taste as well.

[Cracker]

Nobody can compete with mountain house?
Try DryTech from Norway and be amazed..

[housil]

I´m in the lucky position to have both.


Drytech from Norwegian Ration:














To me, BOTH are the best (in taste) freezedried food I ever had!

Mountain house has a little advantage in varity and they have them vacuumend too. Also different sizes:







The biggest disadvante of Mountain House over here is: Not available...

[German_EPA]

The biggest disadvante of Mountain House over here is: Not available...

thats history housil give me a little time

[Treesuit]

Hungryman,

Yes, Housil is right. DryTech is very good and offers a lot in the form of calories and does have some variety. Mountain House is right up there are well. Lucky for us here in the states we have in in abundance. If you want to you could contact Housil, Norge or some of the other European memebers and see if they could send you a DryTech ration. DryTech is pretty standard for some of the armed forces over there.