Vacuum sealing rice, vegetables, and mushrooms for backpacking. Is this safe?

[Ryan M]

I'm going backpacking this week and thought it would save stove fuel if we premade some of our meals and vacuum sealed them. I found vacuum sealed rice meals at Trader Joe's like this, but they were expensive so I decided to make my own. I just jumped into it and made a huge pot of rice, carrots, canned peas, mushrooms, and chicken broth. It wasn't until after everything was cooked and sealed that I found the little warning that vacuum sealing mushrooms is toxic.

Does anyone know of safe preserving practices for this kind of thing? And if I seal it loosely and pack it in snow on the trail will it be safer?

 

[thorne]

the vacuum seal thing will be just fine. i have one an they are great. you can vacuum seal just about anything. i have made some different meals for myself, did the vac seal and even froze them for later use. i had made chicken with broccoli and rice, a beef and veggie stir fry,and more.

when i was ready to cook them i either let them thaw and put in pot or i made small hole in bag and tossed it in the micro...

but as for you, yes, go for it, prepare some of your meals as you want to do the vac seal and there you have it. ready to heat and eat. just of course to make sure to keep them in a cooler . they do not need to be frozen i just did that for convince and iw sent gonna eat right away. but for your trip yes its fine.

some of the prepackaged meals they have for campers is freeze dried, so they don't need refrigeration. this is gonna be fresh food so it will need to be kept in the cooler...

enjoy and have fun camping.