I don't know of any Canadian manufacturers, but there are a few Canadian distributors around. My money goes to Briden Solutions. The owners are preppers and they support the forum by pointing their clients to the website. Although the products come from Utah, it's about the closest thing we have to an actual Canadian supplier. There are a couple others, but Briden is the only one I know of that reaches out to the prepper community not only to sell goods, but actually get involved in support and education.

I couldn't agree more.

Most of my Freeze Dried product comes from these guys.

Awesome Product. Great Service. Absolutely Two Thumbs Up!!!!

They actually post on this board as well, so please support them.

Perfesser,
Ok, I was thinking something the same actually. Since cooking for one is a drag, thinking of just making my own packages up. Go to Grain Process in TO, get bulk and Mylar them up.

How resistant to heat are mylar bags ie: boilong water?
I have put together a few home made MREs that just need to boiling water added then let sit to simmer...but I planned on using a one person mess kit to cook them in. If I packed them in mylar bags, could I add the boiling water to the bag and let is simmer in there?

mylar is what the MRE's and other products come in.
Drop in boiling water, add in boiling water and keep them in the canteen cup to eat of. Easy clean up then, just dispose of the mylar bag, add water to the Canteen Cup and drink up after meal coffee/tea.

Next Up: Dehydrated - Creamy Vegetable Rice

From: Food For Health International
Sealed Shelf Life: 20 Years
Opened Shelf Life: N/A

This Creamy Vegetable Rice came from my Food for Health Bucket, it was a 5 serving Mylar Pouch. Food for Health offer many Entree/Meals that are 100 percent vegetarian with high nutritional values and no hydrogenated oils, trans fats or added MSG.

I decided to sample and review this Product after a Member here reported having a bad experience with it.

As per cooking instuctions I brought 5 cups of water to a steady boil then added the contents of the Mylar Pouch. As I added it, it reminded me a lot of a soup mix with rice.

As it was cooking I have to admit the phone rang and I lost track of time. As per the instructions it should have been cooked 28 - 30 minutes, as I got distracted by the phone I actually cooked it about 35 minutes. The result was a rather bland, tasteless kind of Mush. Even going a little heavy on it with Salt and Pepper didn't help much.

This Mush like concoction was certainly filling. So although I didn't care much for the taste it would certainly satisfy a hungry tummy.

One thing I was impressed with is the ingredients clearly state that this product is made with: "Non GMO Soy Flour" Although I am not a big fan of soy in general, anyone who knows anything about soy these days knows that its not easy to find it as Non GMO anymore. So its nice to see that Food for Health goes out of its way to ensure the soy it uses comes from a non GMO source. Kudos for that!

Overall, I am undecided on this product. Taste wise: It gets a big Thumbs Down! But it was filling and its Non GMO Status really helps it in my view.

Would I buy this product again? Undecided

DaScribbler,
excellent review, well written and thought out.!

Bloody he** (double hockey sticks)... lol
I really believe there is so much engineering going on with so many foods, it is almost impossible to track! That article was a little scary...hadn't seen that in my reading yet, good to know. Since they say trace amounts, I weighed the pros and cons and would probably still be pro TVP since I am looking at the TVP for a long term emergency food solution.
I plan to use the Thrive meats for the same thing, soups and stews...

Here is a PDF showing which Thrive foods are non GMO, MSG free and gluten free. It may help you with your shopping list, Paintergirl.
http://www.shelfreliance.com/pdf/parties/ThriveAllergensReport.pdf

Aside from the creepiness of a "no touch cooking experience" that they think it's safe to heat mylar in an oven to 425 probably means it OK in boiling water.

DuPont Teijin Films, a global leader in polyester film, is promoting its new Mylar® COOK range, ground-breaking ovenable films designed to deliver a no touch cooking experience for meat or fish. The Mylar® COOK range has EU food contact approval for use in a microwave or conventional oven and in the USA has received FDA approval up to 425°F (218°C).

Another note, Bauly foods seem to have their issues sorted out and have real FD meat products for sale in Canada. I gather the head honcho passed on and they had a bit of trouble coping.

Freeze Dried - Ice Cream Sandwich

From: Shelf Reliance/Thrive Foods
Sealed Shelf Life: 25 years
Opened Shelf Life: 2 years

Last year I took advantage of a Black Friday Sale at Thrive Foods and purchased a few #10 Cans of Freeze Dried Ice Cream Sandwiches. Each Can contains 14 servings or 14 FD Ice Cream Sandwiches. The can I opened is date stamped as manufacturered in October 2012 so this product is less then a year old at the time it was opened.

In its Freeze Dried state it looks like an actual Ice Cream Sandwich. Its really kind of weird as everything in our experience tells us this product is suppose to be cold, but its not... In tasting this product I found them to be kind of hard and crunchy and strongly reminded me of a sponge toffee that used to be on the market. It actually tastes like a real Ice Cream Sandwich. I was rather taken back at how sweet they are. Due to them being so sweet I imagine its not something that I would eat very often, but in a high stress SHTF situation these would definitely make a nice "feel good" food.

I'm still tempted to reconstitute one of these just to see what would happen but they are meant to be consumed in their Freeze Dried state.

Over all, due to this being a rather unusual product that you don't see everyday and a rather novel feel good food I have to give them a Thumbs Up!

Would I buy them again? For myself: Undecided. For children and those with a sweet tooth that would benefit from a feel good food in a high stress situation: Definitely!

Freeze dried ice cream just seems wrong to me 🙂 but I would still want to try it! thanks for all the reviews - it's been very helpful!

Freeze Dried - Green Peas

From: Shelf Reliance/Thrive Foods
Sealed Shelf Life: 25 years
Opened Shelf Life: 2 years

Tonight I was bored and decided try another sample from my Emergency supplies for Review. I decided to open a Mylar Bag of Thrive Freeze Dried Green Peas. These Green Peas were Packaged in Sept. 2010 so are 4 years and 7 months old at the time of review.

When opening the Mylar Pouch the Peas look like dried/hard little green peas. Sampling in their freeze dried state they taste exactly like crunchy peas, they are pretty good. For curiosity sake I decided to reconstitute them. The directions say to soak them in hot water for 3 to 5 minutes. Well, when adding them to hot/warm water I found they constituted almost instantly into fresh green peas. Very good, very tasty. After being in warm water they seemed so fresh you would have never known that these where freeze dried.

I definitely recommend these anyone interested. They were really good.

Would I buy these again? Definitely!!

Freeze Dried - Space Snack - Fruit Mix

From: Vancouver Freeze Dry Ltd.
Sealed Shelf Life: 3 years
Opened Shelf Life: N/A

I saw this Product in a Local 7-Eleven. When I saw it two things caught my attention... First Freeze Dried. Being someone who likes to try and prepare for the worst Freeze Dried Food products are always on my Radar. Second, product displays a clear Red Maple Leaf with the words "Made in Canada". So I clearly had to give this a shot.

Space Snacks are marketed as a Children's snack food and are available in single serving mylar like packages, in three varieties. This particular Fruit mix consisted of Freeze Dried Apples, Blueberries and Strawberries. When opening the package my initial impression was that the product had been crushed as the Strawberries looked smashed but the Blueberries were in intact and the apples had been cut into little squares so clearly this was just how the product was intended.

The taste however, just wasn't there. All three products were like a crunchy paper with little to no taste. All were of very poor quality.

I like the fact that this is a Canadian Made product. The fact that it is marketed as a Children's snack and not an actual long term survival food may explain its poor quality. A shelf life of a mere 3 years I think disqualifies it as true Freeze Dried product.

Would I buy this again? No!

Thanks for posts dascribblar, first time I have come upon them. Cheers