Posted on 04/05/2011 8:48:26 PM PDT by blam
Freeze Dried Food Distributor: Six Month Wait Time Amid Extreme Shortages
Author: Mac Slavo
April 5th, 2011
If there was ever a sentiment indicator for economic uncertainty and fear, this would be it.
As of April 2011, major distributors of freeze dried food, namely the Mountain House brand, are indicating that shoppers should expect delays of nearly six months on any orders placed today:
***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE AS OF 04/05/11*** All Mountain House & Nitro-Pak food storage #10 cans are in EXTREMELY HIGH DEMAND due to national & world current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have greatly increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving HUGE shipments WEEKLY to fill our customer orders, but demand exceeds the available supply. Most Mountain House dealers have been been cut off & receive no food, period. Supplies are VERY SCARCE. Like Disneyland, the line is long but still slowly moving. Please be patient. This is a line you do not want to get out of!
…
All canned food orders and units may take up to 160 days to ship. Thank you for your business!
Source: Nitro-Pak
Other large distributors we contacted indicated similar shipping delays, with many simply marking their freeze dried food inventory as completely “out of stock.”
Mountain House has advised they are expanding their production facilities, but this upgrade will not be completed until the third of fourth quarter of 2011.
When we first covered the shortages of freeze dried food in December of 2010, a spokesperson for Mountain House, the largest freeze dried food manufacturer in the world, indicated that they were estimating the shortage to abate by February or March of 2011. In February, we received an update from Mountain House, which further pushed out the availability date to the Summer of 2011, and feedback from the largest freeze dried food distributors indicated shipping delays of 30 – 60 days. This most recent alert suggests that while freeze dried food manufacturers are working round the clock, demand for emergency supplies continues to sky rocket at an unmanageable pace.
Economic uncertainty, fear of inflation, government policies, natural disasters and the mysteries surrounding the 2012 doomsday date have been cited as the primary reasons for the parabolic spike in demand over the course of the last six months.
Because there will likely be no relief for any of those fears in the near future, we suggest to our readers that demand will continue to increase well into 2012, and question whether the new facilities being built for freeze dried food production will be enough to offset demand. As more people come to the realization that things may not be exactly as they seem, further demand will likely flood the market going forward.
Due to the uncertainty in the freeze dried food market, those concerned with acquiring quality, long-term food storage should consider and act on other options.
As we’ve suggested previously, dehydrated foods and MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) are one option that remains available at major emergency food distributors. The other options would be to self-stock and package dry goods, like the 11 Emergency Food items that can last a lifetime, including wheat, rice and beans. Most have a shelf life of 20 – 30 years and provide a well balanced, nutritious diet in the event of an emergency, widespread disaster or protracted crisis.
Better watch out because all of us know you have fresh eggs!
We are over 200 miles from the coast, so it would have to be bad to hit here. I live less than two miles from the nearest fuel station, and have several others within five miles. I usually keep several five gallon cans on hand and rotate them to keep fuel fresh. I keep a few gallons of mid grade for my small engines.
Yep! We were living 200 miles from the coast when Katrina hit and rambled right on up to within 30 miles of us on its way north east. It wiped out the power from the generation stations to the south of us and 99% of the poles carrying the electric lines along its path.
Red, I’m skeptical, too. Mountain House has six processing plants, and it’s not the only freeze dried company around. They just happen to do more with entrees in #10 cans, and that makes more sense for “entities” than does freeze dried produce. I have a good deal of f/d produce and use it as I would any other ingredient. The f/d entrees are for quick meals in emergency situations.
http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/
Don't forget to buy canning lids. These reusable ones look interesting. I've bought three dozens to try but haven't put them to use yet.
"In fact, despite the best-before date, the food has an almost indefinite shelf life if kept at moderate temperatures. Food canned more than 100 years ago and recovered from sunken ships can still be biologically safe to eat."
You know how I feel about the topic. Mountain House is a quality product. Modern MRE’s are actually pretty good.
Me too.
I believe you. The MRE complete meal would be the ones to have around!
Heck, I just pitched some leftover MRE’s from Katrina when we moved.
Let’s see...how long can I survive on sun dried tomatoes, homemade granola and many, many jars of jelly? I’m thinking a few years! :)
My Dear Old Dad is all over this stuff. He’s a ‘survivalist’ from WAY back when.
One thing I’m looking into is a way to get water from my 300’ well without electricity. So far, it ain’t lookin’ good! Luckily, there’s a lake across the road, and I live in a relatively unpopulated area... :)
Ladysmith & I are wishing for Toilet Bucket Seats in the very near future.
Some of this seems goofy, but living in Tornado Country, I already have a lot of survivalist gear stashed along with water and canned goods. Oh, AND a can opener, LOL! Can’t hurt, might help! :)
I’ve been storing the small 99cent packages of Martha White muffin mixes. You only have to add water, they have cornbread, strawberry, blueberry and wild berry muffin mixes and biscuits.
You can add milk as well but you don’t have to. I figure it is one way to get bread quick and easy, even if it has to be over an outdoor fire.
I have also been storing dried and evaporated milk. Lots of other things of course but I wanted to specifically cover some type of bread because I sure will miss the bakery goods and I’m not a “from scratch” baker.
We also store spam, canned chicken, tuna, han, dried and canned potatoes, all kinds of canned vegetables, soups, gravies, (to go with the rice and beans), pasta, water, coffee, tea, canned juice and fruit, and ammo.
I freeze all my boxed or bagged mixes (muffins, pancake, waffle,rice, beans)for at least 24 hours before I store it (suppose to kill bugs).
If nothing bad happens it will still go to good use.
” Ladysmith & I are wishing for Toilet Bucket Seats in the very near future. “
http://www.ehow.com/way_5340405_ideas-plans-build-outhouse.html
You need to have some peons to empty and/or burn the bucket contents! In the Marines we had those idiots who could not follow orders or were just all-around putzes to do the pull out of the half 55 gal. drums from the six seaters and burn the contents!
That never stopped anyone before. They'll jack the prices anyway just to make the profit.
Happens all the time with gasoline.
There are other makers of fd foods in #10 cans, yet only the largest is sold out?
The fact that the feds are buying is not the large issue to me.....rather, it is the fat that they are hiding the fact that they are doing so.
That is disturbing.
Great article! Thanks for posting.
I can't argue with that. I have all the canning supplies but have decided not to can unless I have to.
All my food 'supplies/stocks' are the commercially available type.
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