Dehydrated food

[Cherokee Bill]

Quick question: Dehydrated food, stored in vacuum sealed bags, should have a shelf life of __________ !!

[Just Bill]

depends-
totally fat free food (veggies, many fruits)- a year easy
some fats (dried pasta sauce, complete meals)- six months
If it really has to last- store items pantry style (separate items) for later mixing. flavor and texture migration tends to happen the longer you store complete meals. I've had some complete (full day of meals) packages end up with everything tasting like coffee and the coffee tasting like nothing in as little as three months. Coffee and beef jerky seem to be the worst offenders.
Those are safe numbers- your food could last much longer. Archeologists have found native American pemmican that was safe to eat over 100 years after it was originally made.

[Dogwood]

texture migration

is that a technical term?

[Dogwood]

Archeologists have found native American pemmican that was safe to eat over 100 years after it was originally made.

100 yr old Pemmican and 100 yr old pure honey sound like a treat.

[rustmd]

i dehydrate all my hiking dinners and vacuum seal them. . .i store my stuff in my basement 'fridge, not freezer. i count on it all lasting a year, maybe a bit longer.

i hike a lot and eat a lot. . .i'm still here.

.com

[Another Kevin]

I make up my freezer bags close to a trip, from separately dehydrated ingredients. I find that the ingredients are less likely to take damp in canning jars than in freezer bags. I don't trust stuff with significant fat content for more than a few months, although a sniff test will tell me if it's gone rancid. Dried vegetables packed in sterile canning jars last approximately forever. Although I usually wind up using a batch within a year anyway.