Freeze dried food makes sense in applications where weight is critical - typically when backpacking or use in a plane, etc. Other wise, FD is expensive and requires extra time to prepare. Since it lacks moisture, it is probably more resistant to some degree to the high heat of a car interior. I don't really know; I keep my stash of FD stored in ideal, cool conditions. My car has tasty supermarket items that I rotate from time to time. Remember, in a real tight situation, gourmet standards will lower considerably.

I keep a couple Datrex packs and some canned soup in a cooler in the back of my truck. It's under a tonneau cover to keep it all secure, Being under something other than glass or a steel lid attached to the solarium cuts a few degrees and keeps the temps more stable.

I keep plenty of bottled water in my trunk; only some food in my purse.

Jeanette Isabelle

I think Clif bars are the ultimate in temp resistance. some years ago, within a one-week period I had some along for snacks on a snowshoe hike north of Anchorage with some pals. at -25, I could still bite into them, while my buds discovered that their blocks of cheese and pepperoni had converted to concrete. a few days later, I was on a trip in Costa Rica hiking. after 6 hours in the luggage area of a bus, my Clif bars were unchanged, while energy bars and candy bars in other peoples' packs had liquified.
Clif bars even taste almost OK, though some kayaking buddies insist on calling them turd "bars." I do admit that they do look a lot like dog output, but no effect on flavor.

The durable packaging is one of the reasons they are so resilient and hardy. You can drop one into the nether regions of your pack and retrieve it years later when needed. Their "carrot cake" is actually tasty.

I agree. Clif bars are on my list. Have carried the same one in my travel luggage (always travel with small found stash and a few bottles of water) for a couple years until one day I decided I should just eat it and put a new one in the bag. It seemed unaffected for being kicked around all that time and tasted fine. I think in the future I'll find a nice sized plastic container for my snack, instant food & beverage stash.
I bet a small kit packed into a small insulated cooler could weather the trunk nicely for at least a year or so.
--KW

IMO a cooler is the way to go for any trunk food. I keep all my truck food in a cooler, even a couple MRE's and coffee. It's summer in SOCAL and things get HOT everywhere, not just in the desert.

Those cheap styrofoam coolers they sell in supermarkets are just fine for a trunk as long as you take care to not crush them.

Interesting observation. Purina rabbit chow looks a lot like rabbit output, and dog food in genera is indistinguishable from the metabolites thereof. There is a doctoral dissertation topic in this thread...

OTOH, dogs on a raw food (uncooked meat, fish, chicken) have excrement that is not at all like the food they eat -- and much less of it. Maybe the excrement we see/smell from dogs eating purina dog food has more to do with the undigestible fillers...

lets keep it clean here people .