Federal Government buying out Freeze Dried Food Produce

Some of you may remember that FEMA advertised for a supplier of millions of ready made meals earlier this year to use in the event of a disaster but weirdly said it was specifically for survivors of a disaster in the New Madrid Fault Zone

www.fbo.gov...

Today a company supplying freeze dried food cannot sell any more to the general public as the Federal Govt has purchased all of their entire stock of Entrees leaving them with none

www.yourfoodstorage.com...

It does not bode well.

Oz

Originally posted by Ozscot
Some of you may remember that FEMA advertised for a supplier of millions of ready made meals earlier this year to use in the event of a disaster but weirdly said it was specifically for survivors of a disaster in the New Madrid Fault Zone

www.fbo.gov...

Today a company supplying freeze dried food cannot sell any more to the general public as the Federal Govt has purchased all of their entree stock leaving them with none

www.yourfoodstorage.com...

It does not bode well.

Oz

This is the fiscal quarter that everyone has been warning about.
Have you seen? Serious means SERIOUS. This is only retail sector. Everybody has been numbed by so many warnings with no results. Hang on to your hat!

U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.

This does raise a red flag to me. But there are still many sources in which freeze-dried foods are available...

Here is one source after a quick search-click here

Yet how strange I'm looking at this string of text on the the General Services Admins web site : www.fbo.gov...

Note: There have been modifications to this notice. You are currently viewing the original synopsis. To view the most recent modification/amendment, click here

If you click it it takes you here and says this :

Solicitation Number: HSFEHQ-11-R-Meals Notice Type: Cancellation Synopsis: Added: Jan 27, 2011 3:59 pm This RFI is being cancelled in its entirety effective as of 4 pm Eastern Time on January 27, 2011.

Contracting Office Address: 500 C Street SW Patriots Plaza -- 5th Floor Washington, District of Columbia 20472

Primary Point of Contact.: Julieann L. Phillips, CONTRACTING OFFICER [email protected] Phone: 202-646-3234 Fax: 202.646.1765

www.fbo.gov...

So they say they cancelled the RFI yet the www.yourfoodstorage.com... states they can't fill any orders because of:

Mountain House has received a huge contract from the Federal Government. Because of this contract they are not supplying thier dealers with any new product until at least September 1, 2011.

Hum how odd..whats really going on?

reply to post by Ozscot


Oh no! I was just telling my boyfriend a couple days ago that I wanted to get some freeze dried foods from Mountain Co op to put in our emergency kit. And Mountain House is my favorite Boo!

On another level that does raise a bit of an alarm.
Wonder how often, if at all, the companies that produce the freeze dried foods shut down like this for big orders.
Might not find anything relating to government but a reference point would be nice. I'm off on a hunt

reply to post by TheRealTruth84


Thats not exactly true...there are only two primary suppliers of Freeze-dried material in the USA that could handle a large order, say on a government scale: Van Drunen in Illinois and Oregon Freeze- Dry. There are many smaller outfiits and companies that Freeze-dry herbs and vegetables but the largest small timer I know of in Sandy, Oregon has their 400+ cu units (Serail, and Stokes) filled to capacity and couldnt come close to producing a million meals readily. Mountain House is the retail venue from OFD and it is the bulk of their sales that I recall, whereas Van D, produces bulk powders of fruits, berries and veggies.

Freeze Drying is VERY cost prohibitive, water and electric alone work out to $1.25 per pound of water removed and the research on drydown ratios means a noobie to meal packaging would lose a ton of money doing bench runs on large enough runs to have an accurate ratio for big lots.

an example of how much water is removed in Freeze drying is: watermelons 22:1, tomatoes 17:1, ginkgo leaf 2.74:1. Most roots come in between 3 and 5:1. I can go on but you should get the point at $1.25 per pound of water it would be tough to jump into the game on a rapid basis on a large scale...the logistics is incredible.

Whereas freeze-drying is fantastic for preserving enzyme, color and "freshness" it is incredibly at risk to deterioration due to its hygroscopic nature...meaning it absorbs water at a much faster rate. I don't know how I feel about their choice of freeze-dried material for massive quantities of emergency foods as the storage and retention of the items becomes a risky proposition if the packaging is opened or damaged in any way.

I suspect the original FEMA request for tenders for 14 million ready made meals was withdrawn because some 'idiot' in their office stated where they were for - which would have alarmed the people of that region. If I lived in the New Madrid Fault Zone I'd be asking 'What do they know that they aren't telling us?'. They can't remove the request however as too many people have seen it on line and have copies of it which would only lead to an even bigger claim that it's a conspiracy. So they simply cancelled the tender request. But then what happens?

It's usually a Govt requirement that big purchases are put out to tender so that the lowest bidder wins and saves the tax payer a lot of dollars - yet I can see no tender request which is live currently for freeze dried entrees - and yet Mountain House say they have sold out to the Federal Govt?

The original request is bizarre - Fed Govt is responsible for sending emergency food supplies to any disaster zone in the USA - so when they are purchased they could just as easily end up being sent to Calif if a quake were to happen there - or the Yellowstone area if something were to blow there - so why did they specifically say 'For the New Madrid Fault Zone'?

And now they have purchased Mountain House's entire stock of Entrees which ordinarily would have lasted them until September this year - just like some of you have asked above - it begs the question - What is 'really' going on?

Oz

Sounds more like someone in Government had a relative/friend in the company.

Cancelled the bids for contract, and gave it to friends company.

I think it is called corruption (bypassing Govt Contract Bidding Procedures).

Dig just a little folks, don't believe what Alex Jones tells you please???
Mountain House
This link may allow you to sleep tonight.

Originally posted by Ozscot
Some of you may remember that FEMA advertised for a supplier of millions of ready made meals earlier this year to use in the event of a disaster but weirdly said it was specifically for survivors of a disaster in the New Madrid Fault Zone

www.fbo.gov...

Today a company supplying freeze dried food cannot sell any more to the general public as the Federal Govt has purchased all of their entire stock of Entrees leaving them with none

www.yourfoodstorage.com...

It does not bode well.

Oz

edit on 31-3-2011 by Ozscot because: Forgot to put entrees

edit on 31-3-2011 by Ozscot because: (no reason given)

Oregon Freeze Dry has been a long time supplier for the military. It is what most of their business was based upon initially. Business was always good when there was a war going on or some kind of military need. In fact, that is why the brand Mountain House was created. It was created to take their freeze dried foods into other venues in order to keep the business from going under during more peaceful times when there is less military demand.

You can always tell when something is coming down the pipeline, in terms of military action, when the #10 cans are in short supply or no supply at all. So, for them to cut off their suppliers completely....that is a big deal.

EDIT: edited to add...I am going to do some more checking and I hope others do as well. I am not seeing that statement from Mountain House anywhere else and it very well could be that the website which the OP linked is just trying to boost their sales via artificial demand. Companies do it all the time. I even worked for a few that did it, unfortunately. Its not nice and its not pretty, but its true. They do it all the time.

reply to post by g146541


Unfortunately that pertains to the earlier order in January which we know was withdrawn - and has nothing to do with their sales of Entrees to the Federal Govt currently. It does not solve the issue of Mountain House saying on one page (from months ago) - "We did not sell anything to the Federal Govt" (1-27-11) - and "We sold out of Entrees to the Federal Govt" on 04-01-11. Something obviously changed in the interim.

Oz

reply to post by itscocobaby


maybe thats why it has been cancelled because it has been filled.

The mountain house page is a bit confusing. There is no date on the page to determine when it was last updated. I did check all the #10 cans on site and they are all out of stock. Whether or not that is because they sold them all to the govt is to be determined, but regardless who they have sold them to, its an interesting find because of the fact that they cant keep up with the demand. Someone is buying them up so thats enough to perk up my antennea alone. Peace

reply to post by Ozscot
There was so much going around the internet, cat out of the bag so to speak. they are playing the shell game with their orders. There probably are more. They can't afford to let the sheeple know they knew what, when and where something was going to happen ahead of time. For people in Southern California and New Madrid, This is something to look for, Thank you for letting us know about this,,, S&F

Or simply call/email the lady listed at DHS and ask her?

Maybe it's for the troops over in Libya? Or the troops their planning to put in Libya?

no it clearly says new madrid faultline..ok seriously wtf??

did you all hear about the coffins FEMA ordered as well, stored in Atlanta and Ohio?

dailypaul.com...

Ouch, I just read their prices. I can get a 12 pack of MREs for about $60-70 and you can stay healthy on just one a day for periods up to about two weeks.

Bottom line, when you go to the grocery store, grab a jumbo bag of rice, beans, or some other non-perishable. Keep jugs of water that you switch out and refill occasionally. Just buy one of each per shopping trip and it adds up pretty quickly. I missed the beginning of the school year when my term of service with the army was over, and lived with my mother during that time until I could register. Over that period, I accumulated a massive amount of dry goods, dehydrated milk, and stored water. This is all while paying rent and living on a reduced income.

When the floods here happened, my mother freaked out because I was gone(by this time I was at college and stranded in my dorm room) and she had no food stored aside from stuff that went bad when the power ran out. She hadn't prepared because this was an unforeseen threat. I called and told her to look in my old closet and she realized she would be in worse shape and have less food if the national guard had rescued her.

File this away. If you live in the area, take precautions. If you don't live in the area, still take precautions. A quake might not happen. A flood might happen. In any case, a nice rice an lentil soup is good to have even if no emergencies happen.

reply to post by SalemsLot


Go to Walmart- they recently started carrying this stuff- a little freaky!