Update: We were overruled by customer feedback asking for boil-soak pouches, and our position has since changed. In 2020, we transitioned all meals to heat-safe and waterproof pouches. You can add either boiling water/cold water to rehydrate meals in the pouch. For hikers that prefer to use actual dishes for eating, please use the pouch for your waste. While our new packaging is less compact than before, it is smaller than other brands. You can see it here.
Cook in Bag
We use this term to describe the enormous backpacking meal pouches designed for reconstituting the meal and as the serving container. The pre-cooked dried meal is effectively “cooked” by pouring boiling water directly onto the food particles within the bag, reheating it for a few minutes, then scooping it from the pouch to your mouth.
Pouring hot water into plastic strays away from Outdoor Herbivore’s business philosophy of clean organic ingredients and less packaging waste. Due to environmental and personal health concerns, we will not sell our products within these plastic pouches. Instead, we offer products capable of cooking within your reusable cook bag or a cook-pot.
Why not?
We realize the pouch method simplifies the cooking and cleanup process, but it also offers disadvantages that outweigh the advantages.
Personal & Environmental Safety
Plastic particles and other chemicals may migrate to the food. Just because the FDA has given the thumbs up does not mean it is safe over the long run. In reality, you get the pleasure of testing the long-term health risks. Plus, Outdoor Herbivore is looking for ways to limit our exposure to plastics and incorporate eco-friendly packaging within our business.
Space, Weight & Waste
These single-use bags are large and heavy because they double as both an eating and cookable packaging apparatus. The bags have to be larger than the food product inside to accommodate the water and allow for the food’s expansion via rehydration. Indeed these bags could be washed and reused for another meal; sadly, we got the impression that these bags rarely are. Instead, they are packed out and disposed.
Plastic bags are not biodegradable.
The plastic only separates into smaller pieces over several centuries. It takes 1,000 years for the environment to break down the plastics into microplastics, releasing toxins and contaminating nearby water, soil, and wildlife. 
Group Hiking
If you are hiking alone, it may make sense to use single-use pouches. If you are hiking with other individuals who also enjoy the cook in bag convenience, each person must carry a pouch. The consequences quickly compound when each party adopts this method—also factor in the collective weight savings. Obviously, there will be considerable weight savings if two or more people share a meal packaged in a single bag.
Utility of Space
The density and size of the pouches can present challenges when minimizing space.
Cook Time
We understand that most of us would prefer not to labor over a hot stove waiting for a hot cooked meal outdoors. However, is a 10-minute simmer and 5-minute cook-pot wash that long? If you are concerned about running out of fuel while backpacking, read our cooking to save stove fuel.
Rinsing pots is not that terrible of a task. Here are some tips that you may find useful for making clean-up a breeze.
Tips for cleaning your pot
- Add 1 TB of olive oil when you boil your water. This adds calories to the meal plus makes it easier to clean up if you do not have a coated pan. We use a non-coated aluminum pan and do not have any trouble cleaning with this method.
- Add some water to the pot, swish it around and drink. Soup! Seriously, this works fine if you are low on water or not near a source of water. Why waste food bits or water on cleaning when your body can use it?
- Dip it or lick it. Have some spare bread or tortilla? Wipe the pot clean with a chunk of bread and you’ve got an instant dip! No bread? How about licking the pot clean? No wasted nutrients!
- Soap? You don’t need it. Just pour ¼ C of water into the dish and swoosh with a one-quarter sized sponge (at home divide and cut a household scouring sponge into 4 squares).
- If you feel you need to use soap, we highly recommend Dr. Bronner’s Magic 18-in-1 Organic Hemp Soaps. These soaps are 100 % organic and can be used on everything from cleaning yourself, dishes, shaving, to brushing your teeth.
An in depth comparison of Cook in Pouches sold by various camp food suppliers versus One-Pot Meals sold by Outdoor Herbivore
7 thoughts on “Cook in Bag? No!”
good
I agree cooking in a cooking bag is a bad idea as it has lots of disadvantages which directly or indirectly affect food and environment too.
Boil in the bag isn’t adding boiling water to the bag, the meals are sealed in a foil pouch and the pouch is added to boiling water for a while that cooks the meals inside the bag.
I am a very small food processor who has been getting more and more into dehydrated meals, especially listening to my daughter and son-in-law talk about what it takes to plan their meals for their treks. She had asked me if I would be willing to convert my current bags to a “cook bag” and I really appreciate your position. I am also involved in a zero waste effort in our city and would love to get away from the plastics even for storage but can’t see to find any decent alternative yet.
As a novice backpacker, i was all about simplicity of this method but this perspective is really thought provoking and true. This is a great article and i am happy i read it.
Outdoor Herbivore, have you considered packaging your meals in Omnidegradable bags by TekPak Solutions? They claim their packaging “will break down in any environment where microbes are present… even in a completely anerobic landfill they will break down into organic matter in 1-5 years.”
California has stringent laws in place that require any environmental claims on packaging meet applicable ASTM standards. This packaging does not meet those standards.