Expedition Foods Rolled Oats, Apple and Blackcurrant

Expedition Foods Rolled Oats, Apple and Blackcurrant is a freeze-dried breakfast pouch: oats, sugar, coconut milk powder, freeze-dried blackcurrants and freeze-dried diced apple, made by adding water. It comes in three sizes, 450kcal, 800kcal and 1000kcal, needs between 250ml and 450ml of water depending on which you buy, and is ready in 5 minutes with hot water¹. The maker gives it a shelf life of up to 5 years, which is what makes it worth keeping in a cupboard for a morning when the power is off or the shops are shut¹.

For a household getting ready for emergencies, the useful points are simple. It needs no fridge, no cooking and no electricity, only water, and the maker states that all of its meals can be prepared with room temperature or cold water if you give them longer to rehydrate². Official advice for power cuts is to keep food in that does not need electricity to prepare, so a pouch like this fits the plan directly³.

This page sets out what is in the pouch, how to make it, how to make it without hot water, how to store it as a ration, and the allergen points that decide whether it suits your household. It is one product among many; for the wider picture, start with Emergency Food: A Household Guide to Stores, Safety and Meals Without Power.

Three pack sizes and what each one weighs

The pouch comes in three servings, which the maker labels single serving at 450kcal, high energy serving at 800kcal and double serving at 1000kcal¹. The same three sizes run across the maker's meal range, so the labelling is consistent if you buy other pouches from the same brand². Choosing between them is a question of how much weight you are willing to carry against how much energy you get from one pouch.

All figures from the maker's product page¹.

The pattern is worth reading carefully. The 1000kcal pack weighs 272g gross and gives you 722g of prepared breakfast, but it also takes 450ml of your drinking water to make up. The 450kcal pack weighs 129g and takes 250ml. If water is the scarce thing in your store rather than space in your bag, the smaller pack is the lighter draw on your supply per serving, while the larger pack gives more energy for the weight you carry. The maker describes the product as having the highest calorie-to-weight ratio, which is the claim behind the larger sizes¹.

For a household storing food at home rather than carrying it, weight matters less than cupboard space and water. A 1000kcal pouch is a substantial breakfast for one person, and the 450kcal pouch suits a lighter eater or a child. If you are working out how much to keep in total, the guide to how much emergency food to store per person sets out the arithmetic.

How to make it, and how to make it without hot water

The maker's instructions are short and worth following in order¹:

1. Remove the oxygen absorber sachet from inside the pouch.
2. Slowly add hot water, stirring as you pour.
3. Close the bag.
4. Wait 5 minutes for the food to rehydrate.

The maker's general guidance for its meals is the same: slowly add hot water while stirring until the meal is fully rehydrated². Stirring as you pour is what stops the powder clumping at the bottom of the pouch, and closing the bag traps the heat while the oats soften.

In a power cut, or on a day when you have no way to boil a kettle, the same pouch still works. The maker states that all of its meals can be prepared with room temperature or cold water, and that you should expect the hydration time to increase². The product page repeats this for this breakfast specifically: cold water will suffice, but the rehydration time is longer¹. So the method is unchanged, only the waiting. Give it well beyond 5 minutes, stir again partway through, and expect a cooler, slightly firmer bowl.

This is exactly the kind of food official advice points to when the power goes off. Lancashire Preparedness advises households to have a supply of food items that do not require electricity to prepare³, and National Grid's power cut tips say to make sure there is something available to eat that does not require electricity or heat preparation⁴. The Food Standards Scotland guidance on power cuts sets out an order for using food up: chilled fridge foods first, then defrosted frozen food that does not need cooking, then room-temperature perishable food such as bread, and finally room-temperature tinned, bottled and dried food⁵. A dried breakfast pouch sits in that last group, which means it is the food you fall back on once the fridge and freezer have been dealt with. Emergency guidance is also clear that you should not rely on the fridge or freezer for food, and suggests food and bottled water for 3 days⁶.

Remove the oxygen absorber, and never eat it

Every pouch contains a small sachet, and the maker's instruction is blunt: the oxygen absorber helps maintain product freshness and is non toxic, but do not eat it¹. It is there to scavenge oxygen from the sealed pouch so the dried food keeps its quality for years, and it has done its job by the time you open the bag. Take it out first, before the water goes in, and put it straight in the bin so it cannot be mistaken for food, particularly by a child helping with breakfast.

The same care applies to the pouch once opened. A part-used pouch is no longer protected by the absorber, so make up what you need rather than leaving dry mix sitting open. If you are storing pouches long term, keep them sealed until the morning you need them; the guide to how long freeze-dried emergency meals keep explains why the seal matters more than the date alone.

Storing it as an emergency ration

The maker gives the product a shelf life of up to 5 years, and states that its meals generally have a shelf life of up to 5 years in the unopened pouch¹. That is the figure to plan around: buy a pouch, write the date on it, and it will still be there for a winter power cut several years later.

How much to keep is a household decision, but official guidance gives a frame. One council booklet advises enough emergency reserves at home for up to ten days, including essential medications, food and water⁶. Another advises food and bottled water for 3 days, and warns not to rely on the fridge or freezer for food⁷. A breakfast pouch is one item in that store, not the whole of it. The guide to what to keep in an emergency store cupboard sets out the rest.

A few practical points for keeping pouches ready:

• Store them cool and dry, in the same place as the rest of your emergency food, so you are not hunting for them in the dark.
• Keep them out of the fridge and freezer: emergency guidance is to have food and bottled water for 3 days and not to rely on the fridge or freezer for food⁷.
• Note the water each pouch needs, because your stored water has to cover both drinking and making up dried food.
• Rotate them: eat the oldest and replace it, so the store never drifts past its date. The guide to rotating your store explains first in, first out.

Water is the part people underestimate. Official guidance recommends a minimum of 2.5 to 3 litres of drinking water per person per day, a figure attributed to the World Health Organization⁸. A 1000kcal pouch takes 450ml of that, so a household making up several pouches for breakfast is drawing on the same store it drinks from. Keep the two sums together when you plan, and see Water in an Emergency: A Household Guide for the wider picture.

Ingredients, allergens and who it suits

The ingredients are rolled oats at 65%, granulated sugar, coconut milk powder at 9%, freeze-dried blackcurrants at 4% and freeze-dried diced apple at 3%¹. The maker describes it as a simple breakfast of rolled oats, diced apples and blackcurrants made with coconut milk¹, and lists it as vegan, dairy-free, palm oil-free and preservative-free¹⁰. The product page states it is suitable for vegans¹, and the maker's wider range includes gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan meals².

The allergen line is the one to read before you buy. The maker declares oats as the allergen¹. Oats are not one of the cereals the maker names in its gluten-free range, so this pouch should not be assumed gluten-free. If someone in the household has coeliac disease or a wheat allergy, treat it as an oat product and check the label. The guide to emergency food for medical, religious and allergy diets covers building a store around a restricted diet.

Allergies are worth taking seriously in an emergency store, because the usual alternatives may not be to hand. The NHS lists foods such as nuts, cows' milk, eggs, fish or sesame seeds among the common causes of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction¹¹, and NHS advice for parents names nuts, shellfish, eggs and dairy among common triggers¹². If you are buying for someone with a food allergy, the Food Standards Agency's alerts include information about the risk and advice on what to do if you have bought the product¹³. A recent example shows why the alerts matter: in October 2026 a recall of flapjack products was issued because they contained almonds, soya and wheat, making them a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to almonds, an allergy to soya, or an allergy or intolerance to wheat containing gluten, or with coeliac disease¹⁴. Check the recalls and alerts page before relying on any stored product, and read the pouch you actually have rather than the one you remember buying¹³.

Where it fits in a household plan

This is a breakfast, and it earns its place in a store for three reasons: it needs no fridge, no cooking and no electricity, it keeps for up to 5 years, and it can be made with cold water if the kettle cannot be used¹. Those are the properties official power cut advice asks for when it tells households to keep food that does not need electricity to prepare³.

It is not a complete plan on its own. A household store needs drinking water at 2.5 to 3 litres per person per day⁸, food for several days⁶, and a way to make hot drinks and hot food if the gas and electricity are both off. For the wider kit, see Emergency Kit: What a UK Household Should Keep Ready and Meals Without Power: No-Cook and Low-Fuel Ideas. If you are comparing types of emergency meal, Freeze-Dried Meals: What They Are and How to Choose and Tinned or Freeze-Dried Meals set the options side by side.

In hot weather, the same pouch is useful for a different reason. Official heat advice is to plan ahead and make sure you have enough supplies, such as food, water and any medications you need¹⁵, and to drink fluids regularly, drinking enough that your pee is a pale straw colour¹⁶. NHS heat exhaustion advice includes drinking cool water or a rehydration drink, or eating cold and water-rich foods¹⁷. A cold-water breakfast fits that advice when you do not want to heat a kitchen.

The maker is Expedition Foods, and the pouch is sold as an emergency ration as well as food for outdoor activities¹. For a household building a store, the sensible approach is to buy a few, date them, eat one to check you like it, and keep the rest for the morning you need them.