Trail meal cost calculator

Three commercial pouches, brand-site prices on 2026-09-06

These three are here because they are the only brand-site entrees in the research that publish both a calorie count and a net weight as text rather than as a label image. Prices are the brand’s own on 2026-09-06 and move.

Peak Refuel net weight is read from the rendered product page only. The brand’s Shopify JSON weight field reports figures more than double the on-page net weight for several entrees, and the brand does not explain the difference. Never pull Peak Refuel net weight programmatically.

What is not in this table

• ReadyWise. Cheaper brand-site entrees exist — Wild Rice Risotto lists at $7.99 — but ReadyWise publishes calories, net weight and servings only as Nutrition Facts label images, so no weight-per-500-kcal or cost-per-500-kcal figure can be produced for it here. [7]
• Good To-Go. Good To-Go states its meals are dehydrated, not freeze-dried, and argues freeze-drying "can break down the cell walls of ingredients, resulting in poor texture". Its figures are not comparable to a freeze-dried pouch and are not shown as one. [8]

A pouch holds two servings by the brands’ own counts, and a meal here is one dinner, so the per-pouch price and the per-meal cost are not the same comparison. Cost per 500 kcal is the column that compares like with like.

The reference recipe behind the prefilled ingredient cost

Costed at Walmart on 2026-09-06. The calorie figure is label arithmetic on the five listings, not a lab result. The weight is as-purchased, not cooked weight: no source publishes the prepared weight of this dish, so the prepared weight you freeze-dry is your own measurement.

The ingredient rows above sum to $1.51. The research pack behind this page states the total as $1.52, a one-cent rounding difference against its own rows. The rows are used here because they are the figures each listing supports.

This is not a finished per-meal cost on its own. It excludes freeze-dryer purchase price and amortization, vacuum pump oil and filter changes, and other maintenance, labor, oxygen absorbers, where the pouch price does not already include them, and the prices are single-day listings.

Why yield is a field and not a preset

No university extension service or freeze-dryer manufacturer publishes a freeze-drying yield percentage for meats, cooked grains, or dairy. There is no preset here and no default value, because supplying one would mean inventing it.

The one published way to get this number for your own food: weigh the trays before and after the run. The weight lost is water. Dried weight divided by prepared weight is the yield to enter here. [20][21]

What is published, and does not substitute for a yield

• Raw foods contain 80 to 95 percent water before drying — University of Minnesota Extension [21]
• Sublimation removes up to 90 percent of a food’s water, and secondary drying an additional one to two percent — University of Minnesota Extension [21]
• Freeze-drying removes up to 98 percent of the water in the food — Penn State Extension [22]

Two extension services publish different all-food figures — about 91 to 92 percent, and up to 98 percent. Both are general figures covering every food. Neither is a yield for a particular dish, and neither is reconciled against the other.

Weight-reduction figures that circulate for apples and onions — 25 lb of apples yielding about 4 lb — are dehydrator figures published for conventional drying. They are not freeze-drying yields and are not used here. [23]

The weight benchmark

about 4 to 5 oz (115–140 g) of food per 500 kcal. Arithmetic on the National Outdoor Leadership School’s paired daily food-weight and calorie bands, across all three of its trip types. [24]

At least 100 calories per ounce, 125 or more is better — 100 kcal/oz gives 5.0 oz per 500 kcal; 125 kcal/oz gives 4.0 oz. Secondary tier. No primary source publishes a calories-per-ounce benchmark; this one is included because it corroborates the NOLS-derived range from a separate direction. [25]

Electricity, and why it carries a flag

No source publishes how many meals fill a batch. Electricity is metered per batch, not per meal, so the per-meal figure below divides by a number you supply.

Harvest Right publishes two different batch-duration ranges — 13 to 35 hours in one place and 24 to 36 hours in another — with no note explaining the difference. Both are offered below. Neither is corrected.

Manufacturer dollar claims, shown but not used

The manufacturer’s own dollar figures do not reconcile with its own published wattage. Running the Small/Medium band (990–1,210 W over 13–24 h) at the June 2026 national rate gives $2.36 to $5.33 per batch against a published claim of $1.25 to $2.80, and the manufacturer does not publish the electricity rate behind its figure. Both are recorded. Neither is corrected, and the claims above are not used in any arithmetic here. (The research pack behind this page records the top of the computed range as $5.32; recomputing it gives $5.33. The difference is rounding.)

The running-cost calculator covers this ground in full, including which published cost claims can be checked at all: Freeze dryer running cost calculator.

Packaging

Starter Set — 50 Bags, 50 Absorbers, Sealer — Sold by Sublime Pantry. 50 snack bags, 50 matched oxygen absorbers, and a sealer. If you are pricing packaging for the first time, it is one way to fill the packaging field above.

What we could not source

• A freeze-drying yield percentage for meats, cooked grains, or dairy. No extension service or freeze-dryer manufacturer publishes one, which is why yield is an input on this page rather than a preset.
• A meals-per-batch figure for any freeze-dryer model, from any publisher. Electricity is metered per batch, so the per-meal electricity figure divides by a number you supply.
• A metered kWh-per-batch reading from the freeze-dryer manufacturer. It publishes amps, watts and dollar claims, and the dollar claims do not reconcile with its own wattage.
• Calories, net weight and servings for ReadyWise entrees. All are published as Nutrition Facts label images rather than text, so the cheapest brand-site entree in the research cannot be scored here.
• Amazon pricing for any of these brands. Product pages block automated retrieval, so only brand-site and retailer prices appear.
• A primary-tier calories-per-ounce benchmark. The 4-to-5-oz band on this page is arithmetic on NOLS’s own paired weight and calorie bands; the calories-per-ounce version of it is secondary.
• The prepared weight of the reference recipe. The pack costs ingredients as purchased and does not publish what the assembled dish weighs going into the machine.

Next

• Freeze dryer running cost calculator
• Batch planner
• Oxygen absorber calculator

Sources

All checked 2026-09-06.

1. Chicken Teriyaki with Rice — Mountain House (OFD Foods), primary, accessed 2026-09-06
2. Shelf Life — Mountain House (OFD Foods), primary, accessed 2026-09-06
3. Sweet Pork & Rice — Peak Refuel, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
4. Freeze Dried Meal FAQs — Peak Refuel, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
5. Pad Thai with Chicken — Backpacker's Pantry, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
6. FAQ — Backpacker's Pantry, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
7. Wild Rice Risotto, Casual Camper — ReadyWise, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
8. FAQ — Good To-Go, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
9. Great Value Boneless Skinless Diced Chicken Breast, 2 lb, Frozen — Walmart.com, primary (price), accessed 2026-09-06
10. Great Value Long Grain Enriched Rice, 32 oz — Walmart.com, primary (price), accessed 2026-09-06
11. Great Value Frozen Peas and Carrots, 12 oz — Walmart.com, primary (price), accessed 2026-09-06
12. Great Value Sweet Cream Salted Butter Twin Pack, 32 oz — Walmart.com, primary (price), accessed 2026-09-06
13. Great Value Chicken Bouillon Powder, 3.75 oz — Walmart.com, primary (price), accessed 2026-09-06
14. 7.5 Mil MRE Mylar Half-Portion Bags and Oxygen Absorbers — PackFreshUSA, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
15. Wholesale 7.5 Mil MRE Mylar Half-Portion Bag 8"x6"x4.5" (500) — PackFreshUSA, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
16. How Much Does It Cost to Run a Freeze Dryer? Power & Operating Costs — Harvest Right, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
17. How Much Energy Does Freeze-Drying Use? — Harvest Right, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
18. Home Freeze Dryers — FAQs — Harvest Right, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
19. Electricity Monthly Update (print version) — U.S. Energy Information Administration, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
20. How to Rehydrate Freeze Dried Food — Tips and Techniques — Harvest Right, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
21. Preserving Food at Home: Freeze-Drying — University of Minnesota Extension, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
22. Let's Preserve: Freeze-Drying — Penn State Extension, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
23. Home Drying Foods — Utah State University Extension, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
24. 5 Steps to Plan a Camping Menu — National Outdoor Leadership School, primary, accessed 2026-09-06
25. Meal Planning for Ultralight Backpacking — REI Co-op, secondary, accessed 2026-09-06

Sublime Pantry has no affiliate relationships, sponsorships, or paid placements as of publication. We sell packaging; where a product we sell appears, it is labeled.