PITTSBURGH—Will Tippins was getting ready for a pre-pandemic trek on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail in southwestern Pennsylvania when he had his “ah-ha” moment.
Known for its rugged landscape and challenging climbs along Laurel Mountain, the 70-mile trail that stretches from the Youghiogheny River at Ohiopyle to the Conemaugh Gorge near Johnstown is one of the region’s most popular sites for hiking and backpacking—two activities the 29-year-old Fox Chapel native has enjoyed since his freshman year at Allegheny College in Meadville.
Preparing his gear for the multi-day trip, “I realized how hard it was to pack food for five days,” he recalls.
That’s especially the case when considering how many daily calories a strenuous day of hiking with a heavy backpack requires—anywhere from 2,500-4,500 per person per day, depending on the terrain, time on the trail and hiker’s body weight.
The freeze-dried meal pouches you find at outdoors stores like REI can make for happy trail bellies, “but there are a lot of steps in between,” says Tippins. And don’t forget about the many snacks active hikers needs to help them get up the mountain before mealtime, and the valuable real estate they claim in a backpack.
“You have to jam everything into your bag and hope it works,” he says.
As he pondered the supplies spread out before him, he thought: “We can do better.”
Tippins Foods, the Fox Chapel-based company he launched last year, makes good on that notion by selling freeze-dried meal kits for backpackers.
In addition to tackling the hassle of meal planning—each kit contains a complete, nutritious meal—its grab-and-go Out-Paks optimize caloric intake while minimizing pack weight.
Brought to market this summer, each of the five kits includes a freeze-dried main course, a side dish, a half-dozen snacks, various drink mixes and a 12-by-12-inch body wipe for easy cleanup.
Packed in biodegradable cardboard tubes and sealed in natural beeswax, they weigh around 18 ounces and pack anywhere from 1,300-1,500 calories. They rehydrate in about 10 minutes after adding hot or boiling water.
“They’re essentially a commercial MRE,” he says, referring to them as a much tastier version of the self-contained, shelf-stable meals used as food rations for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Because meal fatigue can quickly set in when you eat the same granola or protein bar over and over, the Out-Paks come in five flavors. They include: Fruit Medley or Breakfast Scramble with Corned Beef for breakfast, and Yellow Curry with Lamb, Spanish Rice with Chicken and Chorizo and a vegetarian Creamy Garlic Mushroom Pasta for dinner. Prices range from $20.99-$24.99.
(Lucy Schaly/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)
If that sounds a little pricey, consider this: It’s more than enough to feed you for half a day and it’s all in one container, conserving space in your pack.
“There’s a lot in there,” Tippins says.
In addition to its main freeze-dried lamb with kheer, the 1,300-calorie curry dinner includes medjool dates, salted edamame, a chocolate-sea salt protein bar, mango bar, a peanut brittle square, two mango bites, a cherry Gatorade Zero with Protein and a masala tea packet.
The muesli breakfast pak contained freeze-dried oats, freeze-dried yogurt, dried pineapple rings, ranch chickpeas, two bars, a fruit punch Gatorade Zero with Protein and instant coffee with creamer and sugar. It counts 1,420 calories and 57 grams of protein.
Also looking for a little levity on the trail? Each nutrition sheet comes printed with a fun story about something in nature or related to conservation—like the detailed lifecycle of the immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii).
For shorter outdoor adventures where you only need a quick nosh, the company also offers smaller, single-meal Camp Cups in all the same flavors ($6.99-$14.99).
Running a high-tech food business is a far cry from the medical career Tippins dreamed of as a teenager.
Certain he wanted to be a doctor, he joined the Parkview Volunteer Fire Department at age 16, earned EMT credentials at 17 and started running EMS shifts on weekends in high school. It was only after going on medical missions as an International Medical Relief volunteer while at Allegheny College that he realized he wasn’t cut out for being a paramedic.
“It was a big reality,” he says of his trips to the Philippines, Nepal and China, where he was the youngest member on the team at age 20. “I saw the harm you can do when you’re in the wrong place. So I decided to do something else” after graduating in 2017 with a degree in biochemistry.
Following a brief stint in the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School (he was honorably discharged after being injured), he was hired as the first assistant brewer at Cinderlands Beer Co. A year later, after taking a few entrepreneurial classes, he entered the MBA program at Duquesne University. While there he worked as a project engineer with W. K. Merriman Inc.—and came up with the idea and business plan for Tippins Foods.
After finishing the program in 2021, “I went into business full time,” he says. He fine-tuned his recipes with help from a professional chef, searched the world for the best mix of cultivated snacks and got the technology down pat with food scientist Soujanya Palapoodi.
A recent grad of Cornell University, the 23-year-old is in charge of identifying the right combination of ingredients for each variety and ensuring the freeze-dried food is safe and of good quality for consumers.
All of the food is prepared and packaged in the 17,000-square-foot former railroad depot on Chapel Drive that Tippins moved into last August. There, he built a kitchen and also a freeze-dry room. “It’s been a lot of trial and error,” he says.
The products start out like any other food, with some slight variations.
First, the cooked food is portioned onto trays and then rapidly cooled. Then, it’s placed in a deep freeze at minus 25 degrees. Once completely frozen, it’s transferred into a stainless freeze dry machine, where it is subjected to a high vacuum. In the freeze dryer, the ice in the food undergoes sublimation, changing from a solid to water vapor, says Tippins. This vapor is then transferred from the food to a collection plate that is kept at a very cold minus 50 degrees, where it reverts to ice.
“To expedite this process, we use heating plates beneath the food trays,” Tippins explains. These plates activate at roughly the halfway point of the cycle, facilitating the removal of water vapor from the food. Smart sensors determine when the food is completely dry.
The entire cycle typically takes about 24-30 hours, resulting in exceptionally dry food that is 3 to 4 times lighter while retaining nearly the same taste and ensuring a much longer shelf life.
Fifteen sheet trays containing 80 pounds of food will be reduced to around 20 pounds, he notes. Each individual portion is then hand-packaged so it can be rolled up with the snacks and drinks inside the nutritional information in the compostable kit, labeled and dipped in bees wax to make it waterproof. Each has a shelf life of about six months.
Most in the industry freeze-dry their components separately and then mix them; Tippins is unusual in that he freeze-dries the entire recipe from the get-go, “because it tastes much better that way,” he says. What makes it tricky is that nothing can be more than 1 centimeter in size or it won’t freeze properly.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Tippins says of the venture. “Every day is a new challenge.” Even so, he loves the technology of freeze-drying and that Pittsburgh’s outdoors community is both strong and dedicated.
Once they taste the product, “they love it,” he says. The Spanish Rice with Chicken and Chorizo has been especially popular.
Tippins says the 4,000 paks they’re selling each month is just a starting point for the business; the ultimate goal is to get it into as many backpackers’ packs as possible with help from a major retailer like REI or Public Lands.
You can already find them at hiking and backpacking shows across the nation. The company has also partnered with Venture Outdoors on a few projects. The new year, he adds, should bring even more recipes, including vegan options.
