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PostPosted: July 31st, 2002, 2:24 pm 
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Location: Calgary, Alberta
After my Georgian Bay trip I had quite a large supply of leftover dehydrated food. Before the trip, it was all stored in the freezer. Can I now take what I didn't use and refreeze it? What effect will that have on?


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2002, 7:03 am 
I have seen commercially prepared freeze dried foods stored in an unheated building all winter long. Even with the inevitable repeated freezing and thawing, there has been no decrease in quality or taste. If you are storing dehydrated or freeze dried meat with a high fat content, the fat could develop a slightly gamey "off taste," but the quality will remain satisfactory for many months. Storing the meat products in a freezer would probably help to minimize the problem.


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2002, 7:30 am 
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Location: Guelph, Ontario Canada
I do it all the time. The way I understand it (though I could be wrong) is that the only reason you shouldn't refreeze things is something about loss of texture, which is somehow related to crystallization - and my dehydrated stuff has had the texture beaten right out of it anyway. I've noticed no loss in quality when I refreeze dehydrated stuff and even trail mix. I do keep it in the freezer rather than at room temperature because my stuff is homemade and thus has no preservatives - I suspect if you have commercial stuff it has an expiration date to go by...


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2002, 7:42 am 
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Location: Copper Cliff, Ontario, Canada
There are really only two reasons to freezed dehydrated food.

1. For dried or jerked meats that still contain moisture and a certain percentage of fat, it will extend the shelf life from a month to a year or more.

2. For completely dried foods like veggies, etc. it's a way of making sure you don't get bug infestations or mould from trace moisture.

I wouldn't worry at all about refreezing anything that's dehydrated. Even refreezing fresh foods is more of an aesthetics/quality thing than a safety issue.


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PostPosted: August 1st, 2002, 11:34 pm 
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Joined: August 19th, 2001, 7:00 pm
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Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada
Freeze dried meals with meat in them can go bad - real bad. They don't degrease it totally when they make it, so the fat in the meat can go rancid. I recommend freezing it after a trip to extend the life of it.

Better yet, save big bucks and dry your own meat.

Cheers


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PostPosted: August 8th, 2002, 1:46 am 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Every year I end up with extra dehydrated food after my trips. These are mostly dried veggies and soup mixes stored in vacuum sealed bags.

I just pack them away in a box and store them until the following year out of the sunlight and in a cool place.

So long as they were dried and cooled before packing they should keep fine until the next paddling season arrives.

Any left over dried meat products are used up trying out new recipes.


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PostPosted: October 22nd, 2016, 4:10 pm 
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Reviving a dead thread now that it's autumn and wondering what to do with my unused gold plated effort laden dehydrated food.

The thinking early this millenium was the meat might be iffy but vegetables are fine to refreeze. We still all agree?


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PostPosted: October 24th, 2016, 1:04 am 
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Joined: September 3rd, 2001, 7:00 pm
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Location: Picton, Ontario Canada
I freeze all my leftover dehydrated food all the time....including the dried meat. The main dried meat I use is ground beef which I cook with spices, onion & soy sauce.

I have never had a problem with any of it, even years later & even the meat! It tastes as if I just dried it recently.

My bags are not sealed airtight - I use mostly old (cleaned) milk bags & zip lock bags as the containers.


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PostPosted: October 24th, 2016, 8:05 am 
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I usea Food Saver vacuum sealer and dont have issues with spoilage with ground beef and ground pork. Air can't get in nor moisture.

I did have issues with shrimp which holds more water.IIRC those were in ziplocs, which I trust far less.


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PostPosted: October 24th, 2016, 10:33 am 
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Thanks folks, gives me eating with confidence.


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PostPosted: October 26th, 2016, 11:04 am 
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littleredcanoe wrote:
I usea Food Saver vacuum sealer and dont have issues with spoilage with ground beef and ground pork. Air can't get in nor moisture.


I did this with freeze dried chicken and it worked fine. I had bought a large can of the stuff but there was a dire warning on the label that it would only last for one week once opened and I wasn't planning on eating it all in one week!

So I portioned it out into camp sized meals and then vacuum sealed them and chucked them in the freezer.

One year later dug them out and tossed them in the pack. Ate them over the course of a week - no issues.


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