Mountain House vs. Augason Farms vs. ReadyWise: Which Food Storage Brand Should You Trust?

Mountain House, Augason Farms, and ReadyWise are the three names that come up constantly in long-term food storage conversations, and each one gets recommended by someone. The honest answer is that they’re not interchangeable — they differ enough on consistency, taste, and value that which one makes sense depends on what you’re actually building toward.

Mountain House: The Most Consistent, at a Premium

Mountain House has built its reputation on freeze-dried entrees with genuinely long shelf life — the company has raised its official shelf-life claim to 30 years for its freeze-dried entrees in pouches and cans. Quality is generally consistent across the lineup; most meals are solidly good, though not every single one lands (reviewers note the beef stew in particular gets mixed reactions). The tradeoff is price: Mountain House typically costs more per serving than the other two, and once a pouch is opened, it needs to be eaten within about a week, while an opened #10 can needs proper repackaging to maintain long-term storage.

Augason Farms: Cheaper, but Inconsistent by Product

Augason Farms is generally the lowest-cost option of the three, and it covers a wider range of product types beyond just entrees — bulk flours, soup mixes, burger mixes, and freeze-dried fruit alongside meal items. The catch is that quality varies noticeably by specific product rather than being consistent across the line; some items perform fine while others (certain soup mixes and flour-based products, by reviewer accounts) disappoint. Because of that variability, it’s worth buying a small sample of any specific Augason Farms product before committing to a bulk order, rather than assuming consistent quality across their catalog.

ReadyWise: The Most Mixed Reputation

ReadyWise (formerly Wise Company) has the most polarized reviews of the three. Some reviewers report meaningful improvement since the company’s rebrand, while others still rate taste and quality below Mountain House. ReadyWise has also faced a lawsuit alleging that some long-term food supply kits provided as few as 453 calories per day — an allegation, not a proven fact, and the company has stated it has since improved calorie counts and nutritional content. Given that history, ordering the smallest available sample size before a bulk purchase is the more cautious approach with this brand specifically.

What This Means for How You Should Buy

None of these three brands is uniformly “best” — Mountain House wins on consistency if you can pay the premium, Augason Farms wins on price if you’re willing to sample individual products first, and ReadyWise carries the most reputational risk of the three based on past complaints and reviewer splits. A reasonable approach for any serious long-term storage plan is to buy small test quantities across brands before committing to a large bucket or case order, since taste tolerance and specific product quality vary enough that your own household’s reaction is the only test that actually matters.

How to Check a Kit’s Real Calories-Per-Day Before You Buy

Before buying any multi-day or multi-week emergency food kit, do the math yourself rather than trusting the number printed on the box. Most kits list a headline figure like “72-hour supply” or “30-day supply,” but that label only tells you how many days the manufacturer decided to stretch the food across — not how many calories you’ll actually get on any given day. The two numbers that matter are on the nutrition label: calories per serving, and the total number of servings in the kit. Multiply those together to get total calories, then divide by the number of days the kit claims to cover. That result is the kit’s real calories-per-day, and it’s often lower than you’d assume.

A reasonable baseline for adult daily planning is around 2,000 calories per day, which lines up with general dietary guidance for a moderately active adult. That number should move up, not down, for anyone doing heavy physical labor, for teenagers, or for cold-weather situations where the body burns more energy just staying warm. If a kit’s real calories-per-day — the number you just calculated — comes in meaningfully under 2,000 without a stated reason, treat that as a planning gap to fill with additional food, not as a flaw to simply accept and work around later.

The red flag to watch for is a kit that markets its day count using a lower daily calorie assumption than what’s typical for the category — for example, a kit that calls itself a “14-day supply” but only works out to roughly 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day once you run the serving math yourself. That’s not necessarily a kit you should avoid outright, but it is one you should buy with a clear understanding that it’s not a full-calorie plan on its own, and budget additional calories from another source accordingly rather than assuming the label’s day count means full nutrition.

Our guide to the best emergency food kits and how much food to store per person walks through this same per-person, per-day math across several popular kits, so you can compare real calories-per-day rather than the marketing headline before you buy.

Key Takeaways

• Mountain House is the most consistent in quality and carries a 30-year shelf-life claim on freeze-dried entrees, at a higher price point.
• Augason Farms is generally the cheapest option but quality varies by specific product, so sample before buying bulk.
• ReadyWise has the most mixed reputation, including a past lawsuit over calorie counts in some kits, though the company says it has since improved.
• None of the three is uniformly best — the right choice depends on your budget and tolerance for inconsistency.
• Buy small test quantities of any brand before committing to a large bulk order, since taste and quality vary by product and household.

Related Reading

If you’re building out your own freeze-dried meals instead of buying pre-made, our guide on freeze-drying complete meals at home covers the DIY alternative.

FAQ

Which brand has the longest shelf life?
Mountain House’s freeze-dried entrees carry an official 30-year shelf-life claim. Augason Farms and ReadyWise shelf life varies more by specific product, so check the packaging for each item rather than assuming a blanket number.

Is Augason Farms worth the lower price?
For many products, yes, but because quality varies by item rather than being consistent across the whole line, it’s worth sampling a specific product before buying a large quantity of it.

Should I avoid ReadyWise entirely?
Not necessarily, but given the brand’s more mixed reputation and past calorie-count controversy, ordering the smallest available sample size first is a reasonable precaution before a larger purchase.