How Long Does Dehydrated Backpacking Food Last?

Commercially sold dehydrated backpacking food can last anywhere from a little over 2 years, to up to 30 years, depending on the brand and the meal. Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai with Chicken has the shortest shelf life (2.25 years) due to the peanut butter packet inside, while Mountain House Chicken and Rice has the longest shelf life (29.75 years).

Introduction

I was at REI the other day, picking out more of those freeze dried backpacking meals that you rehydrate with boiling water, for my article Which Gluten Free Backpacking Hot Foods Are Good for Day Hiking? So I thought I’d do a survey of the expiration dates of the various backpacking meals the store sells, across three name brands, with four to six samples per brand. The table below is what I found.

Brand	Meal	Expiration Date on Shelf	Time to Expiration
Backpacker’s Pantry	Mushroom Stroganoff	May 2032	10 years
Backpacker’s Pantry	Pad Thai	Jan 2025	2.5 years
Backpacker’s Pantry	Three Amigos Veggie Stew	Jan 2031	8.5 years
Backpacker’s Pantry	Cuban Coconut Black Beans and Rice	Jan 2025	2.5 years
Backpacker’s Pantry	Wild West Chili and Beans	Mar 2032	9.75 years
Backpacker’s Pantry	Pad Thai With Chicken	Oct 2024	2.25 years
Mountain House	Beef Stew	Mar 2052	29.75 years
Mountain House	Beef Stroganoff with Noodles	Mar 2052	29.75 years
Mountain House	Homestyle Chicken Noodle Casserole	Mar 2051	28.75 years
Mountain House	Pasta Primavera	June 2051	29 years
Mountain House	Rice and Chicken	Feb 2052	29.75 years
AlpineAire	Mexican Style Veggie Bowl	Oct 2026	4.5 years
AlpineAire	Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Rice	July 2027	5 years
AlpineAire	Santa Fe Black Beans and Rice	June 2025	3 years

How Long Does Backpacker’s Pantry Food Last?

Depending on which meal you buy, it can last 2.25 to 10 years. The Pad Thai dishes come with a internal peanut butter packet to be added to the reconstituted meal, and thus has a shorter expiration date.

How Long Does Mountain House Freeze Dried Food Last?

Mountain House dehydrated meals last 28 to 30 years depending on the meal. These long expiration dates make it ideal for low maintenance disaster preparation.

How Long Does AlpineAire Food Last?

Depending on the meal, it can last 3 to 5 years.

Further Reading

Now that you’ve figured out how long backpacking food lasts, there’s still lots of stuff to know:

I’ve got more hiking gear articles here, and more camping gear articles here.

Also, I have several articles on the Jetboil MiniMo, Jetboil Fuel, my personal experiments to find my MiniMo’s fuel efficiency, etc. Check those out on my Jetboil page!

Take care!