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Real Meals

 

FAQ's

 

Do you use compound meat in any of your meals?
We only use the freshest meat we can locally source. We use real chicken breast, beef mince and award winning bacon in our meals.

 

The meals seem light, are they going to be enough food?
Because our freeze drying is so cutting edge we’re able to dry our meals down to extremely low water content levels. What you need to look at is the rehydrated weight and calories instead of the dry weight.

 

Why are the bags contorted and crinkled?
The bags are vacuum packed. Freeze drying relies on the freezers having an effective vacuum to remove all the moisture. Vacuum packing then removes all the oxygen. There are a few companies around the world who vacuum pack and charge for it, we do it for free! We vacuum pack because we believe it provides the end user the best possible meal for wherever you are in the outdoors, in a hut, a tent, or camped in a peaceful location somewhere. Throughout our entire production process, our number one goal is getting you the highest quality, tastiest meal possible, and vacuum packing is the guarantee. If we didn’t vacuum pack, we’d need to put an oxygen scavenger sachet in each meal, and we don’t like that for many reasons.
The vacuum packed bags are also space savers, fitting them into a loaded back-pack, a sea kayak, a dry bag, whatever you’re packing for, the vacuum packed bags will fit better, with no risk of being damaged.

 

What size serving are they?
We don’t put serving amounts on our meals because to put it simply everyone is different, what some companies call a single serve can be inhaled in one mouthful. If you’re worried about the serving size we recommend looking at the calories and the rehydrated weight not the dry weight.

 

Are your meals dehydrated or freeze dried?
All of our meals are 100% freeze dried to make them super lightweight.

 

How do I rehydrate the meals?
Making up the meals is easy! Simply open the bag, pour in hot or cold water, mix and wait 10 minutes for it to rehydrate. All our water measurements are in half cup measurements – none of this 1 and 23/45ths of a cup stuff.

 

Can I use cold water to make them?
Yes you can, all you have to do is wait a bit longer for them to rehydrate (particularly any chunks of meat).

 

Is it possible to do a whole trip only eating freeze dried food?
100% yes. In fact, that’s our ultimate goal is having a complete range of options that allows for that. We have done it, and we’re always looking at innovative ideas to make this even better. Here’s an example:

Breakfast: Banana Oat Porridge
Morning Tea: Fruit Trio, Berry Smoothie
Lunch: Couscous Salad, Baby Beets
Afternoon Tea: Mango Lassi
Dinner: Sri Lankan Curry
Dessert: Chocolate Cake Pudding

This menu will provide all the calories, and flavours for an enjoyable day.

 

How long do they last?
We’ve put 2 1/2 years shelf life on our meals. If a freeze dried meal is properly dried, packed in the proper packaging and stored correctly it will effectively never go off. Over time the dynamic flavours will decrease (it will taste more bland). Outside of the packs they have a short shelf life. This is because they are effectively the same as fresh food when opened. We don’t use preservatives.

 

How important are Calories, kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ)?
How important? Consider this, these numbers have only really entered our modern world in the last few decades. Prior to this, humans have survived for millions of years. Even today, arguably the healthiest societies have no idea what a calorie is. Humans have evolved to eat a selection and variety of food and flavours. They have the ability to instinctively know what to eat, when to eat it, and how much to eat. At Real Meals, we believe in human ability to manage their energy, and for that reason we resist the trend of eating by numbers. Our meals have ample energy and variety to make every trip an enjoyable one. We know that having an immensely satisfying meal at the end of a hard day is what is most important.
And let’s be honest, if you come home from a tramping trip and have lost a bit of weight … is that a bad thing?

 

Do you have any gluten-free options?
We do! Look for Gluten-Free at the bottom of the product description, found on products such as:
Eggs, Cheese, & Chives, Honey Yoghurt, Boysenberry Yoghurt, Dal Makhani, Apples and Creamed Rice, Tropical Pudding, Mango Lassi, Baby Beetroot, Fruit Trio, Berry Smoothie or Basmati Rice.

Or simply search our site for 'gluten-free' (including the hyphen) and all gluten-free options will be listed for you to choose from!


Do you have any dairy-free options?
We do! Look for Dairy-Free at the bottom of the product description, found on products such as:
Banana Oat Porridge, Moroccan Tagine, Wilderness Stew, Tom Kha Gai, Sri Lankan Curry, Dal Makhani, Tropical Pudding, Baby Beetroot, Fruit Trio, Couscous Salad or Basmati Rice.

Or simply search our site for 'dairy-free' (including the hyphen) and all dairy-free options will be listed for you to choose from!


Do you have any vegetarian meals?
We do! Look for Vegetarian at the bottom of the product description, found on products such as:
Eggs, Cheese & Chives, Cheesy Mash, Mac 'n' Cheese, Mexi Nachos, Banana Oat Porridge, Bircher Muesli, Boysenberry Yoghurt, Honey Yoghurt, Basmati Rice, Apples & Creamed Rice, Chocolate Cake Puddng, Tropical Pudding, Dal Makhani, Moroccan Tagine, Baby Beetroot, Berry Smoothie, Couscous Salad, Fruit Trio and Mango Lassi.

Or simply search our site for 'vegetarian' and all vegetarian options will be listed for you to choose from!

 

 

See here to learn more about what makes Real Meals tick (and what makes them so tasty!), or check out the range here.