Hello, my friend and welcome back! The good people over at Legacy Food Storage recently sent me a sample pack of their Entrees. The one we chose to test was the enchilada beans and rice pack and we did in fact have it for dinner last night. In today’s review, I’m going to give you my opinion of it, so grab a cup of coffee my friend and have a seat while we visit.
Seller & Price: Legacy Food Storage .com and the price for 4 – 1lb of different sample meals ( total of 16 servings ) is just $39.99 at the time of this writing.
Description: Buying food storage can be a big commitment. That’s why it’s important to sample survival meals before you buy to ensure you get the best product for your money. When you buy Legacy Premium’s Entree sample pack, you get a taste of four savory meals that Legacy Company has to offer. Buy the sample pack today, and we think you’ll see why Legacy Premium is the best food storage company in the industry.
First impressions: I like the style of the buckets; they should make stacking food easier. Each pack is clearly marked with what it contains, how many Servings, and all nutritional information. Something worth mentioning is that these are VEGETARIAN meals, with protein but they contain no meat in them at all. Not being a Vegetarian, I had my doubts I must admit! It is however Survival food so I guess you can’t have everything right?
Type of testing done: As I mentioned we prepared it for dinner last night and followed the directions on the package to the letter, no additions. They were simple, just add boiling water to a pot and pour in the entire contents of the package. Stir and let set. I could even make this food.
PROS:
- No MSG
- Only made with Non-GMO foods.
- They use Sea Salt for seasoning.
- Vegetarian
- Full Nutrition Label on package
- Taste Great!
- Freeze dried and ready to eat.
- Larger serving size, 1.5 cups. (One serving was enough for me.)
- 25 year shelf life.
- Low cost per pound of food.
CONS:
- Non-Re-closable packages.
- Directions call for 6.5 cups of boiling water, and stir in whole bag ( Once it is opened you have to cook it all and lose what you cant eat, if no refrigeration source)
- No Meat! (If you, like myself want meat, you would need to kill something to eat with it.)
Conclusion: While I really like the way it tastes, and that it’s non-GMO food, I’m really hung up on the non-re-closable package thing. If you are just one person, you would be wasting a lot of food and water. Next, is the no meat factor, I know vegetarian food is good for you and all, but personally in a SHTF situation I want meat in my preps for when I don’t have any fresh or preserved meat. I buy survival food so that in an Emergency, when I can’t find something to eat or the weather is too bad to forage or hunt, I will have something nourishing to eat and that includes meat. The lack of meat and the non-re-closable bags are a big problem for me. It’s for this reason, I give it 4 stars.
Now don’t get me wrong, they taste great and are good for you, but they need some improvement. I wonder if anyone will ever get smart and package their meals in one serving meals for when you’re out hunting or working away from your campsite. As long as they put several servings in one pack, they need to make them re-closable. Meals are an important part of survival and this taste great and will last a long time. If you’re cooking for a group then this may work for you and the price is great as well. Please visit legacyfoodstorage.com and check out all of their great meals and deals.
Don’t forget to enter our contest to win a FREE bucket of Sample Entrees, courtesy of Legacy Foods. The drawing will be on July 15th, so enter today.
Thanks again for visiting my friend and until next time, stay safe, stay strong and stay prepared. God Bless America!
-Sarge-
Thank you so much Sarge for trying our meals, we welcome all honest reviews as it helps us become a better company! Thank you too Huggy for your wonderful kudos and suggetstions! I have brought these points to the proper attention, but would like to share why Legacy made these decisions and welcome additional feedback.
Regarding the packaging: Legacy offers the largest serving size in the industry, no doubt. They’ve made some smart decisions in order to be able give the customer this higher quality food, larger portions, all Non-GMO yet still remain price competitive with the other smaller serving companies.
If food storage companies packaged in single serving packages, they would be much pricier than they are now. This is why all companies package in multiple servings. Packaging costs are ridiculous. Just like the smaller packages at the grocery store vs. the larger – sometimes the smaller ones are not all that much cheaper than the bigger ones!
Legacy consciously chose not to put a zip seal on the package and increase that package cost to the customer. It would double the packaging costs. There are only 4 servings to a package and if you don’t eat all 4 ( lets say you mix and split the package, just using a chip clip to close) you have up to 2 weeks (no refrigeration for dry ingredients) to prepare the remaining portion which is easy to do, even for one person. This is another way Legacy can keep their cost down and still remain competitive with other companies yet providing a better product. Looking at it another way, other companies which have the zip close, give you less food, sometimes more additives and are still priced higher! Most people prefer more food when they find out. :o)
When outdoors and cooking in the pouch, I can see a zip close necessary – which is why we do put them on our Bannock camping line which, incidentally does have meat!
Regarding no meat: Food storage meat is very expensive if you have ever looked at it. The majority of companies either put an acceptable meat in the meal to satisfy, or they use the inexpensive textured vegetable protein. Meat eaters will always want more!
We offer combo packages that are coupled with meat for a fantastic solution for meat eaters as well as sell additional individual pouches.
You might think then protein is an issue? With Legacy, there is still comparable protein from the beans and cheeses, its just not from meat. Doing some research you will find our protien is comparable if not more than our competitors, and we still provide larger servings.
I hope that explains a bit on why Legacy has chosen to do things this way to provide the best product.
Respectfully,
Amy
Legacy Foods
Amy, thank you for your insightful response.
I wasn’t aware that the costs of including a Ziploc component to your meal pouches were so OUTRAGEOUS! But now I know and can appreciate your business model WRT to the “Why.”
One thing (only ONE thing, Huggy? is what the readers are saying if they’ve seen my other posts. LMAO!) I neglected to mention in my first reply to The Sarge is portion claims of the Legacy or any OTHER meals for that matter.
First off, if you take the time to read the dietary information on the package it shows the number of meals per package but that particular information isn’t really accurate to the subject.
As an example, the “Serving Size” is based on the “average” calorie intake as specified by the gubment to keep your weight within gubment criteria they dreamt up some place.
Anyway, the average caloric intake for the “average” adult is 2,000 calories PER DAY to maintain your current weight without any other considerations.
The serving sizes on the Legacy foods is of much less importance when dealing with a SHTF scenario.
If you’ve ever been personally involved with a highly energetic and stressful situation, once the adrenaline wears off and assuming you aren’t made sick to your stomach because of what you’ve seen, you’ll probably notice that your stomach is growling if not trying to eat your backbone.
It has been shown that qhen dealing with the aftermath of a SHTF situation, your body will burn through calories like crazy because you now have a LOT more work to do.
The short answer is if you try to strictly follow the “Serving Size” as posted, you’ll likely starve to death in no time at all.
Stress itself burns a LOT more calories and you’ll need a LOT more calories if you expect to function or even get by and survive on.
So when it is all said and done, depending on your eating habits and your size (a 6’6″, 230 lb man will NEED a LOT more food/calories than a 5’2″ 105 lb athletic female who may be stuffed with the standard serving size), the “average” person will need more food calories.
This all boils down to the package sizes being discussed here.
A Four-Serving package may seem like a waste if you are on a stress-free hike, but the guy who is blazing your trails through the jungle vines and fighting off Polar Bears (?) will probably be eyeing YOUR portion and asking for anything you don’t eat.
So in the end, if you are putting back Legacy foods packages of Survival foods, remember you’ll most definitely require FAR MORE calories when in a SHTF/Survival scenario.
This holds true regardless of who the food manufacturer is. But if you eat your freeze dried foods when you go camping or fishing or hiking in a non-stressful situation as a means to rotate your stock, carry along a few 1 Gallon Ziploc baggies just in case you DO need to haul out the excess cooked foods. Just let the original package cool down to the touch if you “cooked” the foods in the bag by adding boiling water.
After that you should be good to go and have leftovers when you get back to camp or your vehicle or setting up a new camp and are hungry but it’s not chow time.
Once again, problem solved.
Huggy
PS, sorry for the long reply. I’ll try and be a bit more concise and less verbose in the future.
Amy, thanks again for your input and Sarge, THANKS A BUNDLE for creating your website blog AND for the case I recently won.
When the dust settles, I’ll take a couple of pictures to send to you and 3vgear.com.
Good morning, Sarge, and Howdy to you.
Like you, I have sampled the Legacy brand of storage foods and came away with nearly identical opinions as you have written here.
I did a bunch of research when first starting out and creating a stockpile of various freeze dried foods such as meats, veggies, fruits, legumes and etc., but somehow missed the Legacy brand at the time.
Whether is was because they weren’t then in business or if I was so enamored by some of the other Big Name producers like Mountain House and such, but I have since learned that Legacy seems to have the others beat hands down when it comes to pricing and that is important if you aren’t rich.
In today’s world where we all need to stretch our budgets even more, this can mean all the difference in whether or not an individual or family can afford to make a purchase to put back for emergencies or not, and this is a HUGE factor when you consider that few can afford the outlay of, perhaps, thousands of dollars and more yet if you have a family.
With that being the case, going the Non-Meat road (blah) could mean the difference of eating or not. However, once I learned about the vegetarian aspects of this food, I realized all was not lost. I just had to be creative.
You see, as I mentioned earlier, I have a, shall we say, sum of Mountain House foods, Auguson Farms, and several other brands that DO have Honest to Goodness GLORIOUS MEAT in them or even just cans of beef crumbles, white chicken chunks and others. Some are seasoned and others are just plain GLORIOUS MEAT! (Do you sense a theme here, Pardner? LOL) and my intention is to add whichever kind of meat I want to my Legacy “Meatless Chow” and instantly create a tasty meal that also has GLORIOUS MEAT in it!
Obviously, you have to factor in that now you have an opened container of GLORIOUS MEAT to use within a semi-short period of time to extract as much food value as you can, but since I don’t eat GLORIOUS MEAT for every meal (don’t hate me. The struggle is REAL! Hahaha!), if I think I will be eating whichever GLORIOUS MEAT over an extended period of time, I break out my FoodSaver machine, divide up the balance of the GLORIOUS MEAT into whatever serving sizes I want or need and seal away. Problem solved and I needn’t fear of having one (or more) opened cans of Meal X go to waste. Just pull out an individual packet, add to Meal Y of Legacy food (if that’s what’s for lunch or dinner) and rehydrate away!
Getting back on track, the Legacy brand of foods are a good value for what you buy but there are alternatives to adding GLORIOUS MEAT to make it much more Carnivore Friendly by adding some canned meat or other Freeze Dried morsels should you desire. (I DESIRE!)
But DagNAB IT I sure wish Legacy would incorporate a Ziploc feature to their meals for the reasons you specified. Granted, if you are feeding a troop and leftovers won’t be an issue, then no biggie. But if it is just one person who stopped for a bite and doesn’t want to waste the balance of a prepared meal, that could be an issue.
Sure, I could pack along a couple of actual Ziploc bags for that potential (and I DO carry spare baggies for the Just In Case thingie), but if the meal packet is HOT from the boiling water you just mixed in and for whatever reason you need to UnAss the A.O. RFN, you run the risk of melting the cheapie Ziploc bag and making a mess inside your pack or abandoning your precious food.
I, for one, would be willing to pay an additional few cents per meal for the convenience of a quality Ziploc feature but that’s just me.
But you know what?
That decent weight empty meal pouch can be cleaned out and used to make a waterproof container for other goodies you might have or need to keep dry down the road.
Genius, RIGHT?!? 😉
You are Welcome.
Legacy, are you listening??? 🙂
Thanks again for the article, Sarge.
I’m still learning new stuff every time I read your articles.
Keep up the good work and Keep your powder dry.
God Bless.
Huggy
Thanks Huggy, and I agree 100%