Real Meals: The Freeze-Dried Food of World Champions

Real Meals was founded and is co-owned by seven times World Adventure Racing Champion and ONZM recipient Nathan Fa’avae. Nathan started making his own freeze-dried meals because he was dissatisfied with the quality and flavour of what was currently available.  Other people started asking him where he was getting his meals from, and before he knew it, Nathan had a new business on his hands. Real Meals are made in New Zealand in Nelson. 

What is Freeze-Drying?

It is a process known as cryodesiccation that involves freezing food, lowering the pressure, then removing the ice crystals by a process called sublimination. Sublimation is the conversion of a substance from a solid to a vapour without becoming liquid in between. Conventional methods of dehydration involve evaporation using heat, which breaks down food’s vitamins and minerals, which spoils its nutritional value. 

What’s the Real Meals Difference? 

When Real Meals makes a curry or a stew, they cook about 400 kilograms of it at a time. There are others in the industry that pre-freeze-dry separate ingredients and bag them together at the end by weight. That’s not how real chefs do it! 

All Real Meals’ ingredients are fresh, sourced locally, of the highest quality and prepared by qualified chefs and kitchen hands.  

Real Meals are 100% Freeze-Dried

Freeze-dried foods weigh a lot less than dehydrated food making them ideal for all your adventures where you want to minimise the weight you’re carrying while maximising nutrition. 

The Real Meals Range

Real Meals has a full range of 23 flavours for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus desserts, sides and smoothies. 

Real Meals made a line of meals so that kids will be more encouraged to get into the outdoors. The children’s meals are in the same weight range as the adult dinners, which means all ages can enjoy them. 

Favourite Real Meals

Real Meals Mexi Nachos served with a side of Real Meals Basmati Rice is an all-time winner. Their most popular dessert is the Chocolate Cake Pudding - feedback from customers says that it is so good that they have it for breakfast too! 

For a treat the Choco-Shake is a delicious hot chocolate! Add hot water to enjoy before bed or to warm up around a campfire. Or on a hot day add 200mls of cold water to make a thick shake. 

Real Meals are available at all Outside Sports stores and online.