The last little while I've been torn between these two products.
Freeze Dried Meats are pricey and have an average Shelf life of 25 - 30 years depending on the producer.
TVP (textured vegetable protein - Meat Substitute) are rather cost effective and have an average Shelf Life of 10 years.
The Pro's of each product are pretty simple:
Meats:
- Quality Product
- Long Shelf Life
TVP:
- Cost Effective ($10 - $15 per #10 Can)
- Make a good Vegitarian Meat Substitute
- Short Shelf Life (10 years) with proper rotation ensures Freshest Product at all times
Cons for each Product:
Meats:
- Cost prohibitive ($30 - $50 per #10 Can)
TVP:
- Short Shelf Life (10 Years) requires replacing every decade (on going cost) and the need to ensure proper rotation
- Known to contain Trace amounts of dangerous neurotoxin ( http://www.naturalnews.com/033728_TVP_textured_vegetable_protein.html ).
I've always leaned in the direction of Freeze Dried Meats simply because I like the "Get it and Forget it" until you need it approach to Emergency Preperation, but the prohibitive cost of Freeze Dried Meats is disheartening making me consider the idea of TVP's. Now I understand with all crap they put in our everyday foods the idea of trace amounts of dangerous stuff in TVP's is likely not a big deal as we normally wouldn't be eating much of it unless we were already in lots of trouble anyway (SHTF Scenerio).
The 10 year Shelf Life of TVP's is decent, but when you add in inflation after having to replace it every 10 years the cost of the TVP will be pretty close to the cost of the same product of Freeze Dried Meats with a 25 - 30 year shelf life.
In the short term, as a working class smuck, TVP's appear to be the better, more cost effective common sense way to go, but are the Con's are really worth it?
I don't know.
Anyone have any thoughts or input?
DaScribbler
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I WAS a vegetarian for over 20 years - it's a long story 🙂 TVP is an acquired taste and yes it is a reasonable and inexpensive protein source but beyond the neurotoxins you mentioned it's also made of soy. Too much of any good thing is not a good thing and soy mimics estrogen which leads to all kinds of hormonal problems particularly for men. I don't eat soy in such forms as TVP. I am realistic enough to realise that it is hidden in everything which is why we try to eat a home grown diet.
In stressful times we should be eating as nutritious a diet as possible so we WILL survive and THRIVE. Do some research for yourself...men with man-boobs - not thriving from where I stand!! Spend the extra money - you're worth it!
(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ ¸.•'´) ¸.•'´)
*´¨`•.¸¸Anita <>< *.•´¸¸¨`*
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Quack, Cluck, Moo, Hee-Haw, Meow and Baaaaaaa from Shalom Engedi Farm
http://adventures-in-country-living.blogspot.com/
I WAS a vegetarian for over 20 years - it's a long story 🙂 TVP is an acquired taste and yes it is a reasonable and inexpensive protein source but beyond the neurotoxins you mentioned it's also made of soy. Too much of any good thing is not a good thing and soy mimics estrogen which leads to all kinds of hormonal problems particularly for men. I don't eat soy in such forms as TVP. I am realistic enough to realise that it is hidden in everything which is why we try to eat a home grown diet.
In stressful times we should be eating as nutritious a diet as possible so we WILL survive and THRIVE. Do some research for yourself...men with man-boobs - not thriving from where I stand!! Spend the extra money - you're worth it!
LOL 😀
Thanks for the input 🙂
Thats Priceless 😀
I didn't know about the estrogen link to soy, thank you . See this is why I ask about things. I always learn something. You folks are GREAT! Thank You 🙂
DaScribbler
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You're welcome! Hee hee!
(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ ¸.•'´) ¸.•'´)
*´¨`•.¸¸Anita <>< *.•´¸¸¨`*
(¸.•'´(¸.•'´ `'•.¸)`' •.¸)
¸.•´
( `•.¸
`•.¸ )
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Quack, Cluck, Moo, Hee-Haw, Meow and Baaaaaaa from Shalom Engedi Farm
http://adventures-in-country-living.blogspot.com/
Let's not forget that Monsanto has pretty much obliterated non-gmo soy...that means that almost all soy is now frankenfood, genetically modified to be Roundup resistant. I don't know about you, but I'm a little weary of such plants...never mind that science has not yet had enough time to properly explore the long term effects of gmo's, but that if it is Roundup resistant, you can bet your bottom dollar that it has been sprayed with the stuff too! Why grow Roundup resistant plants if you're not going to use Roundup in the first place?
LOL @ the man boobs comment Anita ... I wonder what it would do for us? 😉
I am considering meat TVP to provide a little variation in our long term storage. I have also been doing some reading on biltong. I am hoping to try a multi-level approach to the food storage, but TVP is a front-runner due to its affordability and good shelf life, and the ability to mimic 'comfort food' meat.
Well based on the advice in this thread I had decided against TVP's and ended up buying Freeze Dried Meats from Mountain House.
Then... I stumbled across a Canadian company running a Black Friday sale on TVP's and because I'm a sucker for a sale (and the fact that the company is totally awesome to deal with) I ended up ordering a few cans of TVP as well.
So I guess I ended up kinda of strattling the fence on this one and giving my Emergency Pantry a little more variety then I had intended 🙂
Thanks to everyone for their input 🙂
DaScribbler
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Have any of you tried TVP? It's one item that you really don't want to put into storage and never use till you "need" it. It is an acquired taste and you will need to experiment with some recipes to find something you like. I recommend adding it to something and not eating it on its own,
...then there's the man-boob part of it 🙂
...and as Denob said above if it's soy - it's GMO'd - the percentage of non-gmo'd soy is miniscule and going to be impossible to find. I'd rather eat any other kind of beans and stay away from the potential long term effects but as I said earlier unless you never eat processed food you are probably eating soy every day already.
What is the world coming to??? ...oh yeah - that's why we're here:)
(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ ¸.•'´) ¸.•'´)
*´¨`•.¸¸Anita <>< *.•´¸¸¨`*
(¸.•'´(¸.•'´ `'•.¸)`' •.¸)
¸.•´
( `•.¸
`•.¸ )
¸.•)´
(.•´
Quack, Cluck, Moo, Hee-Haw, Meow and Baaaaaaa from Shalom Engedi Farm
http://adventures-in-country-living.blogspot.com/
Have any of you tried TVP? It's one item that you really don't want to put into storage and never use till you "need" it. It is an acquired taste and you will need to experiment with some recipes to find something you like. I recommend adding it to something and not eating it on its own
I've been considering opening up a can when they arrive and playing with adding it to various dishes just to see if its actually edible.
I've had Soy Burgers in the past and they were pretty gross so if TVP's taste anything like Soy (since its pretty much made of soy) if definitely going to take some getting used to.
If there is any ligitimacy to the study that found Neurotoxins in TVP's in a SHTF Scenerio I either won't have time to worry about it or the Neurotoxins will leave me too mentally impaired to notice my budding man-boobs 😀
DaScribbler
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Oh NOOOO - tvp doesn't taste anything like veggie burgers - veggie burgers taste good!!!!!!
....If there is any ligitimacy to the study that found Neurotoxins in TVP's in a SHTF Scenerio I either won't have time to worry about it or the Neurotoxins will leave me too mentally impaired to notice my budding man-boobs ...
ROTF!!!!
(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ ¸.•'´) ¸.•'´)
*´¨`•.¸¸Anita <>< *.•´¸¸¨`*
(¸.•'´(¸.•'´ `'•.¸)`' •.¸)
¸.•´
( `•.¸
`•.¸ )
¸.•)´
(.•´
Quack, Cluck, Moo, Hee-Haw, Meow and Baaaaaaa from Shalom Engedi Farm
http://adventures-in-country-living.blogspot.com/
I like TVP, never had a problem with the taste. I only eat it once every 2nd week or so.
I have heard a lot of good things about tvp, there is a blog or two out there as well as a few youtube videos where they demonstrate cooking with it. I like the idea of buying some tvp meat versus being stuck with spam...
Well as I mentioned in a previous post here, I ordered some TVP's as part of a Black Friday Sale.
They were ordered on November 26th and finally arrived December 21st.
They were shipped directly from an American Supplier. My advice, let's keep all our business in Canada. If it takes a month to get a TVP product from the U.S. to Canada then its just not worth buying from the U.S. even if it is cheaper.
Anyway, I'll be opening one of the cans in the next few weeks and will post a review.
DaScribbler
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As much as i try to keep a positive attitude to try new things, Freeze dried meat doesn't work for me. While its light weight and packages tight, there is little advantage over cured, dried and salted meats. Look at the prices of freeze dried food. With 4 bucks of sodium nitrate salt cure, you can cure, dry, and preserve over 300 pounds of meat. Its easy to learn, and easy to do. Butcher supply shops give free classes and lessons.
If you're on foot, freeze dried has the edge, but if you're staying put, you're wasting valuable cash that can be put into better resources.
While salts are not the best thing for our health, neither is starvation.
Biltong is so easy to do and has great flavour for soups and such. Beans or greens would go great with it.
Find a you tube vid and have a look. I haven't canned any meat or made jerky but Biltong was so easy. All you need is coarse salt and cider vinegar, corriander and pepper.
I do want to get some FD meat for my long term "in case" stash but haven't yet. I have 2 or 3 #10's of various TVP but I'm not a big fan of it.... when I'm not that hungry.