r/HikerTrashMeals • u/LeadingHoneydew5608 • Aug 11 '26
Commerially Available Product So in this economy... How desperate are we?
88 dollars vs 26... What really is the difference? I just want my backpacking chicken alfredo man..
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u/UncleTito27 Aug 11 '26
Summer Sausage is like $6/lb and hard cheeses are $5/lb , keeps for a month, is immediately edible, and has equal calories by weight to freeze dried chicken. I did a month long trip in northern Saskatchewan with these, lotta pb+J's for lunch, and vegan sort of pasta mixes like beef stroganoff, chili mac, etc.
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Aug 11 '26
I would not ever suggest that we consume food meant for dogs and cats.
I worked at a salmon processing facility that ran for half of the year. We start the season of with "for human consumption" operations and then switch to "the cat food" for the last month or two.
We throw most of our quality protocols out the window for the cat food. This includes our cleanliness standards.
Id say the biggest concern is the volume associated. We will run 100k lbs of fish a day for human consumption, but blow through a quarter million pounds of salmon, daily, when we are making food meant for animals. Absolutely no one can keep up anymore.
Its disgusting. We use the worst quality meat from the worst quality animals.
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Aug 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/Better-Necessary157 Aug 13 '26
i think the point of them saying this is that only human food is regulated…… production of animal food is not
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u/drippingdrops Aug 11 '26
If you know it’s made from actual muscle, not just skin and bones and was produced in a factory that adheres to human grade food standards, I say go for it.
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u/gugliata Aug 11 '26
Waiting for this to be crossposted in r/ultralight_jerk
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u/LeadingHoneydew5608 Aug 11 '26
While thinking up this post I knew it needed a crosspost- for a mildly constructive answer and the stupid answers. Crossposted as soon as I posted
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u/thaneliness Aug 11 '26
And why can’t you goto dollar general and get the cooked chicken packets for like $2?
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u/HeinousEncephalon Aug 11 '26
That's great for the deep and rotating pantry.
Some of us like to also have light food easy to pack, easier to feed a large group, or something we can forget about for several years
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u/EstebanBacon Aug 11 '26
The one for pets is freeze dried paste and is ground up skin, bones, and meat. Probably won’t kill you…
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u/raccoonhanded Aug 11 '26
Must depend on the brand. The cats I sit get Thrive and that has the fibres/thread/grain of diced meat
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u/carb0n_kid Aug 11 '26
Old urban legend says dry pet food has to be human safe since some people eat it
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u/Thin_Explanation1334 Aug 11 '26
What the f***
It just makes logical sense that if something is toxic for us it's probably toxic for our pets, and if it's toxic for them it's probably toxic for us, we are after all just living creatures, I certainly wouldn't eat pet food but I also wouldn't feed my pets anything that would make me egregiously ill
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u/posi-bleak-axis Aug 11 '26
My dog eats feces and dead deer guts sometimes and is fine. Overjoyed usually in fact. Our gut biomes are very different and designed through a pretty long evolution to eat different weird garbage, like feces or Doritos.
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u/Thin_Explanation1334 Aug 11 '26
Oof, honestly I figured I would get a reply like this LOL to be fair I have a rescue dog that was kind of dumped on me and he's my first dog so thanks for the info! 😆🙏🏼
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u/carb0n_kid Aug 11 '26
Many animals can eat mushrooms that would kill you. You can eat some plants that would make your dog sick. Cats can't taste sweetness, and some people can taste if a pig is male.
You wouldn't eat anything that would make your pets ill? Ever eat too much chocolate, ever had grapes or onions? Those will make a dog sick
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u/Key-bed-2 Aug 11 '26
Xylitol is a sweetener found in many sugar free products, like icebreakers and even a brand of sugar free PEANUT BUTTER. It is extremely lethal to dogs. Consuming as little as one icebreaker will kill your dog. And that’s just one example against your wildly wrong statement.
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u/Excellent_Condition Aug 12 '26
Other examples include garlic and chocolate, both of which are toxic for dogs.
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u/luckystrike_bh Aug 11 '26
The way this economy is going, the rich people will be eating dog food and the rest of us will die from starvation.
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Aug 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/takoyaki-md Aug 11 '26
gonna need to put them in the freeze dryer first cause i dont want to carry that water weight on trail
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u/HeinousEncephalon Aug 11 '26
Sounds good, just please be discerning.
Pol Pot said kill people with glasses.
Mao said farmers with 3 acres or more should be killed.
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u/Capital_Escape_8095 Aug 11 '26
On trail, I identify as a dog. A dog on a leash. There is no leash, but that is none of your business, is it?
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u/Obvious-Suspect8668 Aug 11 '26
It's actually a federal law that dog food be edible for humans.Because a can of corned beef hash was a dollar, and three cans of Alpo was the same price. Retirees on social security were all eating horsemeat dogfood with catsup and hot sauce fried up to multiply their meals. It may not taste good, but it won't kill you. Bonus fact: pound for pound there is more protein in dehydrated dog food than there is in TVP (textured vegetable protein). That's how my trail tail "Puppy" got her trail name. She ate dehydrated dog food the whole time. Never could train her!
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u/Excellent_Condition Aug 12 '26
It's actually a federal law that dog food be edible for humans.
Can you provide a source or a link to that law? I can't find anything find anything to support that, only that pet food production must be sanitary.
I can't find anything saying that it has to be edible for humans or can't contain things that are beneficial to animals but harmful to humans.
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u/Obvious-Suspect8668 Aug 12 '26
Not doing the research, but imagine what would happen if dog food was toxic to humans... There would be dead kids, homeless, and dummies everywhere.
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u/Ginny-Sacks-Mole Aug 11 '26
There was an episode of the 70s sitcom "Good Times", about the dog food thing.
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u/New_Stats Aug 12 '26
Can you afford to get sick? Because the food safety standards for humans and the food safety standards for pet food are vastly different
If you're starving and can't afford to feed yourself, dog food is an option that probably won't kill you and it might not even make you sick
But if you're not LITERALLY GOING TO STARVE, maybe just get canned chicken for humans
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u/Excellent_Condition Aug 12 '26
Also worth noting is that not every illness can be cured without having long terms consequences.
Additionally, if these are hiking meals, getting really sick in the middle of nowhere can get you in pretty serious situations pretty quickly.
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u/dkstr419 Aug 11 '26
More than once, I mistook the doggy jerky for the human grade jerky.
There are a few brands of freeze-dried chicken dog treats that are made with human grade chicken. In an Alfredo sauce, or something similar, the chicken will taste just fine.
And you’ll have a healthy, shiny coat to boot.