[kev]

I posted a video on youtube about stockpiling freeze dried food. Several people commented that mountain house pouches are now rated at 30 years instead of 7 years.

Does anyone have the details as to when and why mountain house extended the life of their pouches?

Did mountain house change anything? So are my current 5 and 6 year old pouches rated at 30 years?

I reached out to mountain house and will post any replies they send.

EDIT

Got a reply from mountain house.

Hello Kevin,

Thank you for contacting Mountain House.

I'm including two links for you that contain information on our shelf life and our extended shelf life. This updated shelf life was announced in July of this year and is retroactive to all of our pouches.

http://www.mountainhouse.com/blog/2...ses-shelf-life-freeze-dried-entrees-30-years/

http://www.mountainhouse.com/m/taste.html

 

[Burtenshaw]

http://www.mountainhouse.com/m/taste.html

"Based on our ongoing sensory and nutrition testing of actual Mountain House products, we’ve raised the shelf-life on our pouches to 30 years!"

"Between January of 2001 and June of 2012, we printed "Best if Used By" dates on the back of each pouch. In the fall of 2012, to better reflect the results of our ongoing sensory and nutrition testing, we began printing "MFG mmm dd yyyy" codes on the back of each pouch."

 

[HomeDefense]

I read what they said on their web site, but I find it hard to believe that pouches will last 30 years without oxygen absorbers.

 

[BJJ_Grappler]

They have oxygen absorbers in the packs. Unless I am mistaking them for moisture absorbers.

 

[Mountain House]

Mountain House Shelf Life

I read what they said on their web site, but I find it hard to believe that pouches will last 30 years without oxygen absorbers.

Hi HomeDefense,

We had a dozen of our in-house experts taste a number of different actual 30+ year-old Mountain House pouches. Back in those days they were vacuum packed -- much like our current Pro-Paks -- rather than using O2 absorbers.

We rated all of the entrees on the industry-standard Hedonic Scale (1-9, with 5 as the 'tipping point' of 'neither like nor dislike'). The average of our 30+ year old product was a score of 6.6, or net positive.

If anything, the packaging structure that we're using now is stepped up from back in the 80's and O2 absorbers are more effective than vacuum, so we'd expect current Mountain House pouches to perform even better.

Earlier this year we surveyed our consumers to better understand what they thought of when they thought of "shelf life". Turns out that we've been over-cautious with our definition of "As Good as New", since over half of our consumers viewed shelf life as "Still Tastes Good". (Note: this is still a far cry from competitive claims of "Will Sustain Life", which is a pretty low bar)

That's why we upped our Taste Guarantee to 30 years for both our #10 Cans and pouches. And yep, that's retroactive, so all of those pouches you have from the nineties and naughties now have an extended lease on life (so long as the packaging remains intact...)

Apologies for the long post, but I wanted you to have the whole scoop...

Thanks!

--MH

 

[kev]

Oxygen absorber in mountain house pouches

They have oxygen absorbers in the packs. Unless I am mistaking them for moisture absorbers.

The pro-pak I opened in the video had an oxygen absorber in it.

I am looking at it right now.

 

[Mountain House]

The pro-pak I opened in the video had an oxygen absorber in it.

I am looking at it right now.

Hi Kev,

We've been using O2 absorbers in all of our non-novelty products for over a decade, including our Pro-Paks. It was before the early naughties that the pouches were just vacuum packed.

The new 30 Year Taste Guarantee applies to all MH products with intact packaging, whether O2 absorber, vacuum packed, or both (with the exception of novelties: ice cream sandwich, neapolitan ice cream, and cheesecake bites, all of which have a 2 year Taste Guarantee...)

Hope that helps!

--MH

 

[Heartlander]

Hi Kev,

We've been using O2 absorbers in all of our non-novelty products for over a decade, including our Pro-Paks. It was before the early naughties that the pouches were just vacuum packed.

The new 30 Year Taste Guarantee applies to all MH products with intact packaging, whether O2 absorber, vacuum packed, or both (with the exception of novelties: ice cream sandwich, neapolitan ice cream, and cheesecake bites, all of which have a 2 year Taste Guarantee...)

Hope that helps!

--MH

If you need any help with taste and "affects" on the digestive system, I am willing to help test. :



The Naughties (Les Canailles in French) are a pair of little humanoid persons that Gargamel created to help capture the Smurfs in the movie The Smurfs 2. They resemble Smurfs but have light grey skin with blue freckles and like to cause trouble.

noughties pl (plural only). The first decade of a century: from 1900 to 1909, 2000 to 2009, etc. :upsidedown:


:thumb:

 

[dmas]

Got some beef stew marked til 2046. Wish I could last that long.

 

[Writer's Block]

This is why MH is and remains my number one "go to" long term storage food for emergencies.

It is the backbone of my prep storage both for my home and for my kits and packs.

I LOVE this company's products. Have been using them for almost two decades now and never been disappointed.

 

[kev]

Hi Kev,

We've been using O2 absorbers in all of our non-novelty products for over a decade, including our Pro-Paks. It was before the early naughties that the pouches were just vacuum packed.

The new 30 Year Taste Guarantee applies to all MH products with intact packaging, whether O2 absorber, vacuum packed, or both (with the exception of novelties: ice cream sandwich, neapolitan ice cream, and cheesecake bites, all of which have a 2 year Taste Guarantee...)

Hope that helps!

--MH

Thank you very much!!!!!

This is why mountain house is my go to people for freeze dried food.

 

[TomArnold]

It sounds like you're guaranteeing the taste for 30 years. What about nutrition? Do you have a shelf life guarantee for that? Personally I'm more interested in the food being nutritious than that it tastes great. Don't get me wrong, tasting good is a nice thing for sure, but something that tastes meh but has usable calories, carbohydrates, etc is tops.

 

[OldCorps]

MH is my primary prep food. Everything else is secondary.

 

[OldCorps]

It sounds like you're guaranteeing the taste for 30 years. What about nutrition? Do you have a shelf life guarantee for that? Personally I'm more interested in the food being nutritious than that it tastes great. Don't get me wrong, tasting good is a nice thing for sure, but something that tastes meh but has usable calories, carbohydrates, etc is tops.

That's one of the nice things about the Freeze-drying process, very little nutrition is lost in the process. Once the food is hydrated it's almost as nutritional as fresh. Thus the focus on taste becomes much more important. It's a time proven method (been around since about 1200 A.D.) for preserving food.

 

[rogueshot]

Impressive. Glad I bought MH!

 

[TomArnold]

That's one of the nice things about the Freeze-drying process, very little nutrition is lost in the process. Once the food is hydrated it's almost as nutritional as fresh.

I know that. I was more interested if they have quantifiable research showing that x% of nutrient y every z months.

 

[Hick Industries]

Older mountain house pouches were made from a plastic material. When I buried several of these in a cache for eight yrs, some of these pouches had split open.

I purchased a large number of pouches four yrs ago hat have survived very well. These were not cached, they were stored in an unheated garage.

My newest mountain house pouches are made from a foil laminate. These new foil pouches are the most impressive and perhaps this is what they rated for 30 yrs.

 

[OldCorps]

I know that. I was more interested if they have quantifiable research showing that x% of nutrient y every z months.

The small loss happens during the freeze-drying process, not over time.

 

[NY Min]

The small loss happens during the freeze-drying process, not over time.

No, there's going to be some very slow ongoing loss over time as well--which they are apparently busily not looking at. I find that a little disappointing. Yeah, it's nice to know the stuff still tastes passably good after many years, but tastebuds are notoriously poor at detecting nutritional degradation, even early rancidity. I'm sure the use of O2 absorbers has greatly extended quality life, but just removing oxygen doesn't stop all internal chemical processes.

 

[Mountain House]

It sounds like you're guaranteeing the taste for 30 years. What about nutrition? Do you have a shelf life guarantee for that? Personally I'm more interested in the food being nutritious than that it tastes great. Don't get me wrong, tasting good is a nice thing for sure, but something that tastes meh but has usable calories, carbohydrates, etc is tops.

Hi TomArnold,

The calories and macro-nutrients will be fine (i.e., fats, protein, carbs), although the micro-nutrients/vitamins will vary somewhat. The good news is that vitamins may be easier to come by than calories in an emergency, depending on your location (e.g., pretty easy to gather a salad year-round here in Oregon...)

Thanks,

--MH