# MREs or Freeze dried ???



## Jeff02 (Mar 9, 2013)

Good day fellow preppers,
Would like your recommendation on the following;
I am preparing my Get home bag. Currently I live about 15 miles from work and I would like to have enough food for three days. I will have access to streams and rivers for water (Will be treated or boiled)on the way, but will still carry water. My concern is the food staying in my vehicle during the summer month where the temperature inside my truck can easily get over 100 deg during the work day; because of where I work I would not be able to bring my bag into the cooler temperatures of the work place. 
So finally here’s my question, which would be better, survive the heat of my vehicle MREs or Freeze dried??

Thanks for your Help


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

MRE's are good keep a long time. Freeze dried is expensive but stores longer. Requires water if you eat it dry you will drink a lot of water.
Hint trunk is generally cooler that in the car


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## bennettvm (Jan 5, 2013)

I prefer to make my own meals. Especially after trying one of those Wise meals. ugh! Much cheaper and better food quality to make your own. Bag it up yourself. Dried rice, pastas, split peas. Beef jerky, etc.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Neither are good for leaving in hot vehicles - period!

If I am reading this right, you are wanting three day's worth of food to consume while enroute back to the house from work when the S makes contact with the F?

A cooler with those reusable ice block things, and put the MREs in there. MREs are what you'll want for such a situation as they will provide you with a whole lot of calories you'll be needing to burn while force-marching back to the house.

Again, though, do not leave them cooking in the truck over the summer and expect them to last.


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## Jackbauer2218 (Mar 18, 2013)

freeze dried for me I buy mountain house I pack it in my camping and my bug out packs.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

I work from home but have a get home bag in my truck 24/7, if I am in town it is a 15-20 mile walk.

For such a shot haul I keep 3 x 1 pound vacuum packed packages if gorp (peanuts, m&ms, raisins, etc). 20 miles isn't that far, between foraging and the 8 pounds I could afford to lose, I could travel a week, 20 miles will take me a day or 2 at best.

If I travel out of town I throw in a case of MREs, I don't keep them in the truck all this time for temperature considerations.


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## Denver (Nov 16, 2012)

The get home bag has energy bars and hard candy. If things are bad, you dont want to have a fire to worry about. Our get home bags are just that. Get home then bug in or out.


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## Space (Mar 14, 2013)

I'm not sure you need either to be perfectly honest. Walking at a brisk 3 miles an hour it should only take you about five hours to walk home. You don't really need food for that amount of time do you? Ok, let's say you're walking at 2 miles an hour, still only takes about 7 and a half hours. Or even at one mile an hour, which is very slow, it should only take you 15 hours, two leisurely days of walking. But that being said, you might consider a few easy things like instant oatmeal and instan mashed potatoes with some beef jerkey. They all last about a year at a go so you can trade them out after that. It's a cheaper solution to a problem that may not be as bad as you think. I would recommend testing out how long it takes you to walk from work to your home (I did, turned out it was less than a day at my pace).


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## Zortano (Jul 5, 2013)

I use MREs a lot. But I wouldn't use the just laying around in the truck I would try to come up with a cooling system like solar cooler. You could always try bringing them as a lunch. But small snacks sound ideal for the distance you talking about lighter the better


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## AvengersAssembled (Dec 13, 2012)

In my go bag, I have components from MRE's I've stripped down and some freeze dried. In my area, I can get an unopened case of MRE's for $35, a pretty good deal. But you can't store either of those in an adverse climate. I do have some of these 1,200 calorie food bars though, Mayday brand. They say they can be left in temperatures up to 149 F, are eaten without any preparation, and are pretty compact. I've eaten some, they aren't bad or anything, but I'd be ready for a real meal after a few of them!


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## DoubleA (Nov 9, 2012)

Neither MREs or freeze dried.

Check out lifeboat rations, specifically Mayday Rations. Available via Amazon. Vacuum sealed, nutritionally balanced, desinged to withstand high temps, 5+ year shelf life, no cooking required. Not as fancy as MREs and freez dried, but perfect for a BOB/GBH BAG.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

MRE's are the way I set my bags up. In a vehicle where I have the space for 3-4 gallons of water, then it's a toss up between the two. Freeze dried is perfectly fine in that situation since I have the water available and not shorting myself on drinking water.


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## Tripper52 (Dec 8, 2012)

Space said:


> I'm not sure you need either to be perfectly honest. Walking at a brisk 3 miles an hour it should only take you about five hours to walk home. You don't really need food for that amount of time do you? Ok, let's say you're walking at 2 miles an hour, still only takes about 7 and a half hours. Or even at one mile an hour, which is very slow, it should only take you 15 hours, two leisurely days of walking. But that being said, you might consider a few easy things like instant oatmeal and instan mashed potatoes with some beef jerkey. They all last about a year at a go so you can trade them out after that. It's a cheaper solution to a problem that may not be as bad as you think. I would recommend testing out how long it takes you to walk from work to your home (I did, turned out it was less than a day at my pace).


If you are trying to get home in a SHTF scenario, you have to plan for a worst case, hostile environment. Walking 3 miles an hour ASSUMES a friendly environment with out having to hide or evade. A more realistic pace would be about a half a mile an hour as you stop periodically to evaluate your surroundings and route for obstacles and hostiles. At USAF Survival School, we were taught to move for 10 mins and stop for 15 mins to assess your environment (listen and look for signs of pursuit or to re-evaluate your route). At that pace, you're looking at a minimum of 32 hours on foot (if all goes well and there are no complications). Maintaining that level of alertness in an extremely stressful environment would be near impossible and would necessitate finding a safe hide place realistically every 8 hours to rest for an average of 90 mins. So to do the math: 8 hrs of travel at .5 mile an hour = 4 miles before resting. 15 miles/4 miles of travel legs ( at 8 hrs duration) = 4 legs at 8 hours each (32 hours travel time) + 3 rest stops at 90 mins each (4.5 hours rest time) and your looking at a minimum of 36.5 hours (a day and a half) to get home through a hostile environment and that assumes that you are able to stick to your original route. It could increase much more if there are complications and you have to travel around hostiles. Type of environment would also affect your pace (Urban vs. Rural, Flat vs. Mountainous, Wooded vs. Open, etc, etc) and would also affect your evasion tactics (night vs day travel).

If you include having to travel with some kind of injury, you travel time could increase further. Also, keep in mind in this scenario with physical, mental and emotional stress amplified, your caloric burn rate is going to be much, much higher. So IMHO, doubling the amount of food that you would need that would take you from 36 hours of food to 72 hours of food to plan for the absolute worst case scenario seems pretty smart to me


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## vandelescrow (Nov 17, 2012)

Tripper52 said:


> If you are trying to get home in a SHTF scenario, you have to plan for a worst case, hostile environment. Walking 3 miles an hour ASSUMES a friendly environment with out having to hide or evade. A more realistic pace would be about a half a mile an hour as you stop periodically to evaluate your surroundings and route for obstacles and hostiles. At USAF Survival School, we were taught to move for 10 mins and stop for 15 mins to assess your environment (listen and look for signs of pursuit or to re-evaluate your route). At that pace, you're looking at a minimum of 32 hours on foot (if all goes well and there are no complications). Maintaining that level of alertness in an extremely stressful environment would be near impossible and would necessitate finding a safe hide place realistically every 8 hours to rest for an average of 90 mins. So to do the math: 8 hrs of travel at .5 mile an hour = 4 miles before resting. 15 miles/4 miles of travel legs ( at 8 hrs duration) = 4 legs at 8 hours each (32 hours travel time) + 3 rest stops at 90 mins each (4.5 hours rest time) and your looking at a minimum of 36.5 hours (a day and a half) to get home through a hostile environment and that assumes that you are able to stick to your original route. It could increase much more if there are complications and you have to travel around hostiles. Type of environment would also affect your pace (Urban vs. Rural, Flat vs. Mountainous, Wooded vs. Open, etc, etc) and would also affect your evasion tactics (night vs day travel).
> 
> If you include having to travel with some kind of injury, you travel time could increase further. Also, keep in mind in this scenario with physical, mental and emotional stress amplified, your caloric burn rate is going to be much, much higher. So IMHO, doubling the amount of food that you would need that would take you from 36 hours of food to 72 hours of food to plan for the absolute worst case scenario seems pretty smart to me


True but, the human body can survive with out food for 3 days. Even in your worst case scenario you will be home in that time. Provided your home is still there.

I would not expect a SHTF scenario to escalate so quickly where if you were at work when it happens, you have to move that cautiously, so soon. I expect most people to be oblivious how serious it really is for the first day or 2.

OP: do you have a desk or locker at work you can put a few meals in?


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

vandelescrow said:


> True but, the human body can survive with out food for 3 days. Even in your worst case scenario you will be home in that time. Provided your home is still there.
> 
> I would not expect a SHTF scenario to escalate so quickly where if you were at work when it happens, you have to move that cautiously, so soon. I expect most people to be oblivious how serious it really is for the first day or 2.
> 
> OP: do you have a desk or locker at work you can put a few meals in?


Just a FYI

The human body can survive 3 days without WATER, jeemanizeeeze you can go entire weeks without food, but water is the key to survival

I am revising my get home food plan, if you are more than 30 pounds over the weight you graduated high school with, then just get a good water source and walk home, the exercise will do you good and you can certainly afford to lose the weight.


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## vandelescrow (Nov 17, 2012)

Montana Rancher said:


> Just a FYI
> 
> The human body can survive 3 days without WATER, jeemanizeeeze you can go entire weeks without food, but water is the key to survival
> 
> I am revising my get home food plan, if you are more than 30 pounds over the weight you graduated high school with, then just get a good water source and walk home, the exercise will do you good and you can certainly afford to lose the weight.


Thanks for the correction, that's what I meant, falling asleep when I wrote it. 3 minutes with out air, 3 days with out water, 3 weeks with out food.


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## Tundra Dweller (May 18, 2013)

vandelescrow said:


> 3 weeks with out food.


Lets see much of anything happen in that last week..... I would bet your body is pretty much just trying to survive.. NOT trying to go anywhere, do anything....


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

Most folks can probably last a month without food but it won't be a happy month. Your energy level is very low when you are starving and you won't be thinking as well as you normally do. When you are suddenly thrown into a situation where you are burning lotsa calories you body takes awhile to adjust. You won't get really hungry until you have been doin' it a week or two. 

If it is bad enough to worry about security I would only move at night.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

For three days I would just go with energy bars. As stated, stored in a small cooler in the trunk of the vehicle.


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