By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

When I was grocery shopping for a 10-day camping trip recently, I was struck by the shelves filled with shelf-stable pouches. These squeeze packs offer a variety of foods, are usually quick to prepare, and are relatively lightweight. An additional plus for those of us whose camping stove is temperamental, is that, in a pinch, many of them could be eaten without having to be heated. Of course, these pouches are not just for camping. They offer the same convenience and variety for meals eaten at home or at work.

With the help of VRG volunteer Stephanie Kumar, I examined the nutritional content of pouches of vegan grain and bean/bean entrées from several different companies. These companies included Tasty Bite, Fillo’s, Maya Kaimal, Somos, Beanvivo Organics, A Dozen Cousins, Nature’s Earthly Choice, The Good Bean, Saffron Road, Loma Linda, and Backpacker’s Pantry. We collected information on a total of 51 products.

Many pouches featured Indian foods including Channa Masala; Spinach Dal; Dal with Red Lentils, Butternut Squash, and Coconut; and Bombay Lentils. Others offered beans with a variety of seasonings including Puerto Rican Pink Beans, Cuban Black Beans, Chipotle Refried Black Beans, and Creole Red Beans. There were also several different kinds of chili as well as beans and rice/barley/quinoa dishes.

The labels on most products reported a serving size of half a pouch, although hungry folks may eat the entire pouch. A half-pouch serving provided between 80 and 310 calories while products where the serving size was listed as the entire pouch supplied 280 to 330 calories. I found that I needed to add grains and vegetables to the products that I tried in order to have a filling dinner. For example, I mixed one of the dals with couscous, cauliflower, and broccoli.

The products we looked at had 4 to 15 grams of protein per serving, making them a reasonable source of protein. Adding grains and vegetables and chopped nuts will increase the protein content. Generally speaking, these were not high-fat products with fat ranging from 0 to 11 grams of fat per serving. Most products were very low in saturated fat. Products that contained coconut or coconut milk were often higher in saturated fat having 4.5 to 8  grams of saturated fat in a serving.

The sodium content of products ranged from 65 milligrams per serving to a whopping 980 milligrams per serving. Label reading is important if you are looking for a lower sodium product. Here are the lowest sodium products that we found:

• The Good Bean Santa Fe Green Chili and Mexican Smoky Chipotle, 65 milligrams in a ½ pouch serving
• The Good Bean Low-Carb Classic Chili, 115 milligrams in a ½ pouch serving
• The Good Bean Indian Coconut Curry, 210 milligrams in a ½ pouch serving (despite containing coconut, this product is low in saturated fat)
• Nature’s Earthly Choice Barley & Lentils, 290 milligrams in a 1 cup serving

Most of these pouch meals are super-quick to prepare. Typically, they are ready after 1 to 1.5 minutes in the microwave or 3 to 5 minutes on the stove. Backpacker’s Pantry products call for adding boiling water, sealing, and letting the pouch sit for 15 to 20 minutes.

A drawback of these products is that they may not be recyclable because of their use of multiple materials. In addition, they are relatively expensive compared to preparing dishes from scratch using dried or canned beans. Still, they are convenient and can provide a quick meal.

To see reviews of other vegan products, go to:

A Review of Vegan Frozen Grain-based Entrees

Vegan Butter: Which Should I Choose?

Vegan Cheese for Pizza

Thank you to volunteer Stephanie Kumar for her extensive work on this project.