There’s nothing worse after a long day on the trail than having nothing to eat but your half-stale pack of trail mix. Thankfully, these days freeze-dried backpacking food makes it much easier for hikers to enjoy a tasty, nutritious, and calorie-dense meal in a lightweight and convenient way.
Shelf-stable, and easy to pack, freeze-dried foods are a great addition whether you’re spending a few days out hiking, or planning a long and grueling trip.
All you need to do is add a few cups of boiling water, allow your food to rehydrate, and then enjoy a hot, nutritious meal straight out of the pouch – no washing up, and no backpacking mess kit needed! Planning a backpacking menu shouldn’t be hard
Taste-wise – let’s be honest, no freeze-dried meal is going to taste the same as the real deal. That being said, this industry has seriously stepped up its game, with many of the flavors on offer being a tasty treat that you’ll find yourself wolfing down and enjoying. After all, things always taste better after a long day out in the wilderness.
We’ve created this guide to some of the best freeze-dried foods on the market, and who they might be suited to – so you can be sure that at the end of a tough hike, you’ve got a meal that feels like a real reward.
Table of contents
- Quick Look: Our Recommendations for Best freeze-dried backpacking food
- How to Choose Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food
- The Best Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food – Reviewed
- Other Flavors to Tempt your Tastebuds
- What You Need to Know About Freeze-Dried Food
- Why Take Freeze Dried Food Hiking?
- How To Prepare Your Freeze-Dried Meal
- Troubleshooting Before You Go
- Nutrition, Calories, and Staying Energized While Hiking
- A Note About Water
- Conclusion
- FAQS
- Gear Up for Adventure: Essential Camping Gear for Your Next Trek
Quick Look: Our Recommendations for Best freeze-dried backpacking food
- Best for Meat Eaters: Mountain House Homestyle Chicken Casserole
- Best for Vegans: Good-to-Go Classic Marinara with Penne
- Best for Vegetarians: Mountain House Pasta Primavera | Freeze Dried Backpacking Food
- Best for Gluten-Free:Backpacker's Pantry Pad Thai - Freeze Dried Backpacking Meal
- Best for Pescatarians:GOOD TO-GO Thai Curry | Dehydrated Backpacking and Camping Food
- Best for Paleo: Paleo Meals To Go
Note: Clicking the above links will take you to further information, current prices and customer reviews on Amazon
How to Choose Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food
Of course, everyone’s tastes are different, so there’s no way of choosing one definitive flavor as the “best” freeze-dried food.
Before we list our highest-rated freeze-dried products on the market, here are a few key considerations you may want to take into account when choosing the right freeze-dried food for you:
Taste
While just about anything may sound delicious after a long day on the trail, it’s still important to make sure you actually like the food you’ve packed!
Freeze-dried foods are improving in quality all the time, but the textures, tastes, and cooking times can still vary. We always recommend testing your food at home to troubleshoot any problems with cooking and make sure you’re going to enjoy your meal after a long day of hiking.
Cost
While some hikers may be more concerned with the nutritional value and taste of their meals, it’s still worth comparing brands and their prices.
Calories
Getting enough calories into your body while hiking is absolutely essential to ensure you have the nutrients and energy to stay healthy and safe while on the trail.
Make sure you choose a freeze-dried meal that will give you enough calories to replace those you’ve burned while hiking. Having multiple servings may be necessary in some cases, so try to calculate how much food you will need before setting off (scroll down for more details on hiker nutrition).
Protein
Protein is essential for helping your muscles recover after exercise, which is why a balanced freeze-dried meal is a preferable recovery meal over more carb-heavy trail snacks. On a long hiking trip, choosing foods that are specifically high in protein may give you the boost you need to keep on going day after day.
Sodium
Having too much sodium in your diet can raise your blood pressure and put you at risk for a stroke or heart attack. Most people will want to avoid these risks, but especially hikers who need to be fit and healthy for the trails!
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, a number that can be easily exceeded if you eat more than one serving size of some foods.
For this reason, we would recommend checking the sodium content of the pouches you are buying to ensure it is not too high.
The Best Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food – Reviewed
Now you know what to look for in a meal, here are our top recommendations for the best freeze-dried meals to chow down on after a day’s hike.
Best for Meat Eaters: Mountain House Beef Stroganoff | Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food
At a Glance:
- Servings: 3
- Calories per Serving: 290
- Sodium: 800mg
- 18g of protein per serving, tastes good, very easy to make
- High sodium content, a single serving pouch may not be enough
More than 75% of customers give the Beef Stroganoff with Noodles a 5* review, so you know it’s got to be good! Many hikers report the chicken casserole flavor to be one of the best they’ve ever had.
However, I feel that the recommended serving size is too small, and with a low calorie-density per serving you may want to eat multiple servings to ensure you’re getting enough energy.
Best for Vegans: Good-to-Go Classic Marinara with Penne- Dehydrated Backpacking Food
At a Glance
- Servings: 2
- Calories per Serving: 430
- Sodium: 300mg
- Calorie dense, low in sodium, great taste and no preservatives
- Longer prep time (20 minutes)
The vegan classic marinara penne is highly rated for its great taste and the fact that it’s low in sodium, gluten-free and has no preservatives! Some users do report the sachet not being fully rehydrated even after 20 minutes so cook time may be longer than expected.
Best for Vegetarians: Mountain House Pasta Primavera | Freeze Dried Backpacking Meal
At a Glance:
- Servings: 2.5
- Calories per Serving: 210
- Sodium: 580mg
- Tastes good, cooks well, packaging easy to pack out
- Can be watery, single serving size is too small
The Pasta Primavera has a great taste with a creamy sauce, but the general consensus is to cook with a little less water than recommended (1 ? cups instead of 2) for a thicker sauce. May also need cooking for an extra minute or two.
Best for Gluten-free: Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai – Freeze Dried Backpacking Meal
At a Glance:
- Servings: 2
- Calories per Serving: 460
- Sodium: 780mg
- Calorie dense, high in protein (20g), tastes great, easy to pack, also vegan and non-GMO
- Can be a little too watery, high in sodium
The Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai has many people raving about its great taste and is praised for being both vegan and gluten-free but with a high protein content. Once again, this pack can be a little too watery so its best to troubleshoot cooking this meal before you get on the trails.
Best for Pescatarians: GOOD TO-GO Thai Curry | Dehydrated Backpacking Food
At a Glance:
- Servings: 2
- Gluten-free
- Calories per Serving: 380
- Sodium: 500mg
- Low in sodium, no preservatives, tastes good, easy to pack out
- Longer prep time (20 minutes), lower protein content (10g)
This pescatarian Thai curry has a good spicy flavor and nice texture. However, some people find the meal unpalatable and to have a strange taste – perhaps one best tested at home to see if it suits your own tastes before taking out on the trail. Personally, I’m not sure about freeze-dried fish!
Best for Paleo: Paleo Meals To Go- Mountain Beef Stew
At a Glance:
- Servings: 1
- Calories per Serving: 290
- Sodium: 430mg
- Very high in protein (51g), low in sodium, good taste, easy and short prep
- Expensive for a small serving size, shorter shelf-life than most
Paleo Meals To Go is, without a doubt, one of the best freeze-dried food brands for anyone on a paleo diet, and delivers a tasty, enjoyable eating experience. However, this is definitely more expensive than other freeze-dried brands.
Other Flavors to Tempt your Tastebuds
ReadyWise Freeze-Dried Backpacking Food- Noodles & Beef
Mountain House Biscuits & Gravy | Freeze-Dried Backpacking & Camping Food
Peak Refuel Chicken Coconut Curry | Freeze Dried Backpacking Dinner
Mountain House Breakfast Skillet
Mountain House Lasagna with Meat Sauce
Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef | Freeze Dried Camping Food
Mountain House Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich | Freeze Dried Backpacking Dessert
What You Need to Know About Freeze-Dried Food
Why Take Freeze Dried Food Hiking?
Energy-to-Weight Ratio
The process of freeze-drying food can remove up to 90% of its water weight, leaving an extremely calorie-dense, nutritious meal but at a fraction of the weight.
With most freeze-dried meal pouches weighing around 100g with a calorie count of between 500 – 900, you’ll be getting a much higher energy-to-weight ratio in your backpacking food than if you were to take regular food.
Keeping your pack as light as possible is a key priority for hikers, this is a huge benefit of freeze-dried food.
Long-Life
Another bonus of freeze-drying backpacking food – either at home or shop-bought – is that it can’t degrade, so you can leave your pouches at room temperature for a long time without risking the food going bad.
Convenience
Freeze-dried food is extremely convenient for lightweight backpacking, providing a meal that can be cooked with nothing but the pouch and backpacking stove in less than 20 minutes – just add water – meaning no washing up, and no need to pack your cookware.
You’ll need a stove to heat the water though!
How To Prepare Your Freeze-Dried Meal
Freeze-dried meals are extremely quick and easy to prepare (perfect when you’re ravenous after a long day), but if you’ve never encountered them before the food can look a bit like something out of a spaceship!
To prepare your freeze-dried meal, all you need is to add water (preferably boiling) to the pouch, stir and close, and then wait for the length of time indicated on the pack for it to cook. Then stir and enjoy straight out of the pouch.
Troubleshooting Before You Go
As with any food, you’ll always find at least one person whose meal didn’t cook in the recommended time, or who simply didn’t like the taste of a meal others find delicious.
Cook one of your backpacking meals at home to make sure you like it (if it tastes good on a plate it’s going to taste amazing in the wilderness!), and to test your cooking times so you always have an edible meal.
Freeze-dried vs. Dehydrated Food
Freeze-dried and dehydrated meals are often confused for one other, but there are actually some big differences between these types of food.
Firstly, freeze-dried food is made by placing the food in a vacuum chamber, lowering the temperature to below freezing, and then slowly raising the temperature so that the water inside the food moves from a solid to a gaseous state while leaving the nutritional value of the food intact.
Dehydrated food, in contrast, is made by circulating hot and dry air across the food.
So how does this affect the food? One of the most immediate differences is the weight: freeze-dried food will weigh significantly less than dehydrated food, making it more convenient for hiking. Dehydrated food does lose more nutrients through the process, compared with freeze-dried food which will retain almost all of its original nutrients.
Nutrition, Calories, and Staying Energized While Hiking
The Mayo Clinic suggests that a 160 lb person will burn an average of 438 calories during a one-hour hike. If you are regularly hiking for 5 – 6 hours a day, you could, therefore, be burning upwards of 2,600 calories!
It’s important to dial in your food and nutrition to ensure you’re consuming enough calories to replace what you’ve burned. If you don’t provide your body with enough energy, it will start using muscle instead of fat stores or fuel from food.
Packing freeze-dried backpacking food is one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can get a calorie-dense, balanced meal (rather than carb-heavy energy bars or fat-rich trail mix) without carrying too much additional weight with you.
A Note About Water
All freeze-dried backpacking meals require water to cook, so make sure you have enough clean, filtered water to drink while hiking and to cook with later in the day.
If you will be hiking to a campsite with a water source, it may be a good idea to only pack water for the hike itself, and then refill once at the campsite to save on weight.
Will Altitude Affect My Freeze-Dried Meal?
Good question – and actually, yes, altitude will affect the cooking time for your freeze-dried meals. This is for two reasons:
- Water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes
- Water evaporates faster at high altitudes
This means that your freeze-dried meal will probably need a longer soak time when you’re at a higher altitude than it would at sea level. A good rough guide is to add an extra minute for every 1,000 feet of elevation you’ve gained.
Don’t forget to Leave No Trace!
A major benefit of freeze-dried foods is their convenience. Just add boiling water to the pouch and eat directly from it, eliminating the need for plates or bowls.
Your spoon can simply be washed with leftover boiling stove water, and you can then close the zip-lock pouch to place it in the bottom of your pack to be packed out to leave no trace in camp.
If you’re looking for more information on flavored water enhancers, backpacking stoves, or hiking poles, our website has a wealth of articles that can help. We are also seeking adventure stories! If you journal or have a hair-raising adventure tale, submit your story and be featured on our site.
Recommended read: The Ultimate Camping Food List – Easy Camping Meals & Ideas, 5 Best Plus Size Hiking Pants for Men – Big & Tall Hiking Pants
Conclusion
In the world of backpacking, the importance of a nutritious, lightweight, and convenient meal cannot be overstated. That’s where freeze-dried backpacking food shines as an exemplary choice. Offering a perfect blend of taste, nutrition, and convenience, these meals are a backpacker’s best friend.
Whether you’re trekking through serene trails or scaling challenging terrains, the right freeze-dried meal can energize your adventure. From savory chicken and rice to delightful vegetarian options, there’s a flavor to satisfy every palate.
Remember, the best freeze-dried backpacking food is not just about quelling hunger, it’s about enhancing your outdoor experience. So, next time you pack your backpack, make sure to include some of these fantastic freeze-dried delights!
FAQS
Freeze-dried food is often hailed as the best choice for backpacking due to its lightweight and compact nature. These meals are quickly and easily rehydrated, saving both time and fuel on the trail. Additionally, freeze-drying preserves the nutritional value and taste of the food, ensuring that backpackers can enjoy delicious and nourishing meals even while away from home.
One of the significant advantages of freeze-dried backpacking food is its long shelf life. Typically, these meals can last anywhere from 5 to 25 years when stored properly. This extended shelf life is due to moisture removal, preventing bacteria and mold growth, making these meals reliable and safe for long-term backpacking adventures.
Absolutely! The world of freeze-dried backpacking food caters to a variety of dietary preferences, including vegetarianism. There are numerous vegetarian options available, ranging from hearty pasta and flavorful curries to comforting soups and stews. These vegetarian meals provide the same convenience, taste, and nutritional value as meat-containing options, allowing all backpackers to enjoy a satisfying meal on the trail.
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Last update on 2025-10-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
