Endeavoring to “take one for the team”, our family did our second test in reviewing the freeze-dried meals that are out on the market by testing the Mountain House Chili Mac meal.
I’ll just get to the point. Surprisingly – we liked it! It had flavor, it was spicy, it had a lot of meat, didn’t have a ton of beans (we’re not bean fans), and for the 2-serving pouch we were eating from, it gave 3 of us a nice little snack-sized meal that could’ve easily been enhanced with some fruit and crackers for a small meal. It would easily feed 2.
The premise of the meals in a pouch is that you pour boiling water into the pouch, seal it up, wait about 10-15 min (on both the Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods and the Wise products we tried, we found that leaving it in a little longer than the directions said gave us a better result), then grab a spoon and tuck in. Beware that the pouch will be just as hot as the boiling water you’re putting in it.
Also read: How to Use Mountain House Freeze Dried Food Pouches
Comparing this to the Wise Food Chili Mac we tried, Mountain House beats Wise hands-down. It was more flavorful, and that, alone, made the biggest difference to us. It was also cheaper for the 2.5 servings. Both company’s products are not organic, do contain soy and other preservatives and enhancers, but when you’re looking at emergency food that will store long term, or get you through an emergency situation, that’s probably isn’t going to be your main concern. 
Before we fully jump on Mountain House’s bandwagon, we do want to try a few of the other flavors (edited: we later did a review of a wider variety of pouches here), but based on this one taste test, Mountain House beats Wise Food by a long shot.
Check out our review of more Mountain House flavors here.
You can read our Wise Food review here:
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