[NOTE: The Provident Pantry name has been retired and replaced with the name Emergency Essentials (named after their store). Anywhere in this comparison you see mention of Provident Pantry substitute that name with Emergency Essentials. All of the information is still applicable today].
At Top Food Storage Reviews we love looking at preparedness products, especially new products and brands as hope springs eternal. Today we are going to take a look at Rocky Mountain Food Reserves, a new in-house private label brand for Nitro-Pak and compare their freeze dried green beans head to head with the Emergency Essentials Freeze-Dried Green Beans.
Comparing freeze-dried foods from brand to brand can be interesting. The cost of having a freeze-drying tunnel is very high and the market demand is not high enough for most re-sellers to vertically integrate and do it themselves, so in the end they are often buying from the same sources. Most people don’t realize it but there are only 4 or so freeze-dryers in North and South America. There are more when you look at Europe and China but overall this isn’t something unique that is being done by either of the two companies here. They are simply ordering in freeze-dried green beans and canning them.
There are several other key points to look at when buying freeze-dried food though. The factors we look at are the following:
1. Brand reputation. Quality matters and buying from a brand that is trustworthy is a good bet.
2. Dryness. Believe it or not some freeze dried food is dryer (better) than others. That is why you don’t pay so much attention to fill weights when it comes to freeze-dried foods. A can that is a little heavier means the quality might not be as good. As long as the fill levels are comparable, you will actually want the product that weighs less. Crazy huh? But it is true.
3. Price. Freeze-dried foods are more expensive by nature when compared to dehydrated food storage and you can find some significant price differences from brand to brand.
4. Shelf Life. Traditionally speaking #10 cans have outperformed mylar pouches when it comes to keeping the food decaying properties out of food’s reach. Most companies advertise a 20-30 year shelf life on 100% freeze-dried items and the real life experience from almost 50 years of experience from Mount House (Oregon Freeze Dry) shows that 30 years is absolutely attainable with freeze-dried items.
5. Nutrition. It is food after all right? Make sure that the two foods you are comparing are similar. If not the differences in some cases can sometimes be significant enough to warrant paying more.
Freeze-Dried Green Bean FACE OFF! Provident Pantry VS Rocky Mountain Food Reserves
1. Brand Reputation. While Nitro Pak has been around for even longer than Emergency Essentials, Nitro-Pak’s in house brand, Rocky Mountain has not been around nearly as long as Provident Pantry. Thousands of customers have been buying and rebuying that brand for a long time as opposed to the newer Nitro Pak offering.
WINNER: Provident Pantry
2. Dryness. In our taste test, both freeze-dried green beans were of high quality. Crisp when eaten dry, the two offerings were a nice snack on the go but also good when reconstituted by sitting in water for 5-10 minutes. Disclaimer: even though the Provident Pantry can was purchased from a Scratch and Dent sale in Salt Lake, the seam did not appear to be compromised so this head to head test should still be accurate.
WINNER: Tie
3. Price. Provident Pantry walked away with this part of the competition. At a price of 14.95 per can at the time of this review, the Emergency Essentials can was 25% less than the Rock Mountain Food Reserves. Both cans advertise a 6 oz weight so there is no need to compare cost per ounce since the food amounts are the same.
WINNER: Provident Pantry
4. Shelf life. Both Emergency Essentials Freeze-Dried Green Beans and the Nitro-Pak brand advertise a 25 year shelf life. Again most items that are 100% freeze dried food are going to last about the same time when stored in a #10 can. No real difference here so they tie again.
WINNER: Tie
5. Nutrition. Both freeze-dried green beans have about the same nutritional data. Only real differences are a few calories and a little more fiber both of which are slightly superior in the Provident Pantry brand.
When comparing a vegetables or fruits you will rarely find big differences, it is mostly the ready to eat meals where huge differences occur.
WINNER: Provident Pantry by a slim margin.
OVERALL WINNER:
So there you have it, by technical knockout Emergency Essentials’ Provident Pantry Freeze-Dried Green Beans has beaten out the newcomer to the ring Rocky Mountain Reserves by a count of 3 to 0. If price wasn’t so significant I’d recommend both but with the difference so big the winner is clear.
WHERE TO BUY
Check out the Emergency Essential’s Freeze-Dried Green Beans
Check out Nitro-Pak Green Beans now.
