I was going through my BOB and discovered two Mountain House meal pouches that I stuck in there sometime in the past. These have been in my bag, in the truck, for who knows how long. During the summer the temps inside the truck probably hits 120 degs and winter temps usually don't get much below the low 20's. The "Best by" date on the package was back in 2016 but I figured it would be a good test to see if they were still good so the wife and decided to have them for lunch. We prepared the Sweet & Sour Pork with Rice as the instructions explained.
The meal was a 2 serving pouch and that was pretty accurate for us. We've used MH a couple of time when camping on the motorcycle and I would say that this old meal didn't seem to have the full flavor it was supposed to have but was still pretty good. I'm guessing a fresher meal would have had even more flavor and I'm sure if they had been stored in a more constant temp. that would have made a difference too. The pork was a bit chewy, the rice and pineapple were fine. Neither of us had any ill effects. If you have some outdate MH products I would at least try them out.
I bought some new replacement meals and they have best by dates of 2050 & 2051! I'll be 95 in 2050 so I doubt I'll have to replace these due to age!
I also began going through our RV and have found a bunch of outdated stuff in there. A box of Golden Grill Dehydrated hash browns close to 20 yrs old still hydrate and cook up fine. The same with 10 yr old Idahoan Instant mashed potato's. Canned fruit 10 yrs beyond best by dates have been good also. We haven't tried the 10 yr old tuna and canned chicken yet but I'll post something when we do.
Bon Appetit!
