It may well be there Chris, that Susan is thinking of stuff like the forces pouched ration pack boil in the bags instant meals there, as her main point of reference as to what a 'boil in the bag' meal can be like. As you say though, there are in fact a few variations upon the theme!
Either that, or maybe she just is thinking along the lines there of one needing to be carrying with one an extra amount of water, in carrying and using all dehydrated foods, to spur them to life at mealtimes perhaps?
Talking of the UK forces rat pack boil in the bag ones here for a moment though, do not eat the pasta and meatballs one! You might regret it! I did, on eating one the other day here, as it is swimming in a sauce that is far too heavily over spiced up with a ton of unnecessary herbs! It was still repeating on me some fifteen hours later! Not what one wants really! Someone please email or write to that swearng chef bloke of tv fame, Gordon, to sort those things out for the better!
Z, I do wish you all the best of luck in the world there mate, I'm pleased about the new store; plus very pleased for you too, in being brave enough to try to do a business start-up in these uncertain times, and too proud to know it is you, an OM'er I've often chatted to online in the OM forum here! Good stuff there, Z!
Chris T is absolutely correct: all the meals we sell are dehydrated, we don't sell any "boil in the bag" ones. 'Fraid I'm not sure where the reference to "boil in the bag" came from!
Good stuff, Chris / Zubald ! I wish you every success...
One comment - you have listed the weights & calorie content of the meals; but for me I would want more information for comparison. Such as the breakdown of fats, proteins & carbohydrate - possibly sodium content & ingredients. I know it's a lot to ask, but I think (from threads on this site) that a good number of outdoors consumers are fairly conscious about what they are eating. I personally try to avoid artificial ingredients where possible - and am vegetarian - so wouldn't buy these products online if I didn't know what was in them.
And on that note, I'm sure that there could be room to sell energy bars and other outdoors-applicable foods. I'm finding it difficult to find UK suppliers of the excellent Larabar products for example; and I know that Jon has recommended Torq products before now but I've never found one to try!
These are just suggestions - it's your business and I'm sure you have given these things careful consideration. Hope it's a great hit!
A massive research failure in that article and all the more embarrassing considering that wet and dehydrated meals are chalk and cheese, so to speak. It really should be corrected as it might put off UL punters.
Two questions I had which I couldn't find the answer to were how much does each pouch weigh and how long do they last (I imagine people will buy a few at a time rather than one or two)?
Thanks for the feedback, always welcome! We'll look at getting together some ingredient and more detailed nutrional info, possibly as a link to a PDF file from the Product pages by brand. We are always happy to provide info for specific products on request of course.
In general terms, the Mountain House meals are very low on artificial ingredients. For example, this is the ingredient list for their Pasta with Lasagne Sauce:
Hopefully Susan will correct the confusion about the dehydrated meals. Perhaps they would be better called 'cook in the bag' rather than 'boil in the bag' as the image inferred is dunking the sachet in boiling water to warm it up rather than pouring water into the pouch to rehydrate.
To find the weight of each item, from a list click the product name or image to get the detail page for that individual product. The weight given is the weight of the complete item as per our postal scales, that is the "rucksack weight" (as opposed to the "weight without packaging" which you will often see on product packs).
The shelf life of the meals ranges from 2 to 5 years. The Be-Well products currently in stock are 2+ years, the Adventure Food ones 3+ years, some of the Mountain House ones 5 years. So you should have no problem with them going out of date!
Buying in bulk is a very good idea, as there's free delivery for £50+ orders and for an order value over £200 we can give extra discount (email or phone us for details).
Talking of the UK forces rat pack boil in the bag ones here for a moment though, do not eat the pasta and meatballs one! You might regret it! I did, on eating one the other day here, as it is swimming in a sauce that is far too heavily over spiced up with a ton of unnecessary herbs! It was still repeating on me some fifteen hours later! Not what one wants really! Someone please email or write to that swearng chef bloke of tv fame, Gordon, to sort those things out for the better!
Z, I do wish you all the best of luck in the world there mate, I'm pleased about the new store; plus very pleased for you too, in being brave enough to try to do a business start-up in these uncertain times, and too proud to know it is you, an OM'er I've often chatted to online in the OM forum here! Good stuff there, Z!
The one I had, in date too I hasten to add, was terrible! Far too many herbs, and the pasta already overdone too; and, since I only heated it in water the shortest possible effective allowable time, it should not have been like that!The fault merely was simply with the overdone amount of the ingredients in the boil in the MOD ration pack bag meal there, nothing else, James.
We've got some snack bars / flapjacks coming onto the website soon, including a Fairtrade Organic Apricot and kernel bar from Tropical Wholefoods which is very similar to the TORQ bar 1.
Chris, OutdoorsGrub.co.uk (was Zubald) wrote (see)
We've got some snack bars / flapjacks coming onto the website soon, including a Fairtrade Organic Apricot and kernel bar from Tropical Wholefoods which is very similar to the TORQ bar 1.
First... congrats on your grub venture... and for offering 'real' food instead of little packets of poisonous chemicals.
Second... I sometimes get bulk orders from Tropical Wholefoods and the last package I got included a couple of free samples of their new fruit and nut bars. They wanted me to try them out and fill in a form to return to them. They were absolutely delicious, and you should really push those products because they're head and shoulders above the usual reprocessed cardboard bars you get in so many other places.
They sent me two of the Mango ones and they were delicious. Could smell the fruit as soon as I tore the wrapper, and the taste was enough to make you drool. Mind you, it was a four-page questionnaire that came with them, and the depth of questioning was intense. I guess they really value the opinion of their customers. If you're going to be dealing in them, then point that out to them and see if they'll send you some trial samples. From where I'm looking, if you taste them all, you're more likely to be able to speak with authority about them to your customers.
It may well be there Chris, that Susan is thinking of stuff like the forces pouched ration pack boil in the bags instant meals there, as her main point of reference as to what a 'boil in the bag' meal can be like. As you say though, there are in fact a few variations upon the theme!
