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As others have said, dehydrated foods are expensive so think of it as another form of food storage with it’s own pros and cons. The pro is it takes up less room than canned goods and may have a longer shelf life. Other than the higher cost, the cons are the serving sizes are too low on calories and the reconstituted amount may be smaller than advertized (see the proof on imstillworkin’s youtube on that). As for personal taste, purchase single cans from various companies and try them out on your family to see which they like or can’t stand before stocking up.

During a big sale and with free shipping, I bought a 6 week supply of freeze dried food last year, it is something that I have lusted for since the 1970s but just couldn’t afford.

I like not only having the additional 6 weeks of stocks, but I think of it as back up in case I’m sick or injured and not fully up to speed on feeding myself, the preparation is easier than the incredible effort it will take to use my #10 cans of dried beans.

I really don’t look forward to the labor and water and fuel, and cooking time monitoring, and canning involved to make use of my cheaper dried foods, long term storage.

I tend to skip the freeze dried foods since they are so expensive. They certainly taste better than dehydrated, but I don’t think they are worth the cost except as a treat (freeze dried ice cream is awesome!) or to complement other food storage items (adding freeze dried ham or sausage to beans adds a lot of flavor and you don’t need a lot.)

I mainly go for the cheaper, long lasting, dried items that I would use up whether there was an emergency or not. I started by buying super pails of beans, wheat berries , and rice. I figured out I could pack them myself much cheaper, so I did that and added some other types of beans and rice for variety. Sugar, honey, and salt will last forever. Baking soda will last a long time, and you can make baking powder by adding cream of tartar, which also lasts. I packed them in Mylar with oxygen absorbers.

Think of what you normally eat and see what in it can be stored. Figure if you want a ‘fast food’ scenario or can wait for beans or rice to cook, or can bake bread. I also like the purity of the dried ingredients-some of the freeze dried packaged meals have questionable ingredients.