The simple answer is no. Not all emergency food storage is created equal. As with many things, you get what you pay for. There are two major varieties of long-term food storage: dehydrated and freeze-dried. There are pros and cons to each.
There are a few things to consider when buying your long-term food storage. You want to look at the quality of the ingredients, shelf-life estimation, taste, and type.
Let’s talk about the two most popular types of food storage first.
Freeze-dried Food Storage
Freeze-dried foods are usually much higher quality than dehydrated foods. Foods that have been freeze-dried tend to last several years longer than dehydrated foods. Their average shelf life is 25 to 30 years. Food tends to maintain its nutrition much better during the freeze-drying process than during dehydration.
Freeze-dried food is also easier to prepare than dehydrated food. Generally, all you need to do is add water and it’s almost instantly reconstituted. You can make sure that the food you are buying is actually freeze-dried by looking at the preparation instructions. If it requires boiling water and several minutes, the product probably includes some dehydrated foods as well.
You will want to look for freeze-dried food in a can. It stores much better than the varieties that come in a pouch. Because they maintain their shape and flavor really well, freeze-dried foods are actually good right out of the can. In fact, there are quite a lot of baby food products that are just freeze-dried fruit and yogurt.
It takes more equipment to freeze-dry food properly. The downside is that this results in it generally being more expensive. It’s usually worth the extra money though because it offers better flavor, better nutrition, and stores better and for longer than dehydrated food. It is also easier to store because it is so lightweight.
Dehydrated Food Storage
It’s already been established that dehydrated food storage isn’t quite as good as freeze-dried, but it has its benefits as well. For one, it can be a lot less expensive than freeze-dried food—allowing you to build up a lot of storage more quickly. Also, if you are using it simply for emergency purposes, you may not care as much that it isn’t quite as good as freeze-dried. It is still edible and not disgusting, after all.
It can be beneficial to include both freeze-dried and dehydrated foods in your long-term storage. Fruits handle the dehydration process very well and can be snacked on right out of the can. Be aware that vegetables will take more work and need to be in something like a stew or casserole to taste good. As with freeze-dried food, choose dehydrated foods that come in a can.