Keeping your food cold while traveling can be a little tricky, particularly if you’re traveling long distances in remote areas or camping in the wilderness. Luckily, there are several solutions to cover your cooling needs. In this article we’ll cover tips to keep your food cold while traveling. We’ll also discuss products available that range from inexpensive to high-end.
No matter what your specific need, or what kind of food you need to keep cold, you’re sure to find something that will work for you.
Tips and Tricks to Keep Your Food Cold While Traveling
Here are some tips and tricks you can use to keep your food cold while traveling or camping. Most of these require only some preparation or a few cheap items, depending on what you already have at your disposal.
Tip #1 – Freeze Your Food First
One easy way to keep your food as cold as possible on a long trip is to freeze what you can before setting out. Items like raw meat, bagged vegetables, water bottles, sports drinks, and some kinds of fruit (like grapes or sliced watermelon) will freeze well.
To keep the food frozen as long as possible you’ll want a cooler to put it all in. The frozen foods help keep other perishable items cold in the cooler by acting much like ice packs or cubes. Although it’s usually a good idea to put some ice into the cooler with your food, if you use enough frozen items, your food will stay cold for a long time.
Tip #2 – Pack it Tight
The tighter you pack your cooler, the longer it will stay cold. A few items and a bag of ice in the bottom of a large cooler won’t stay cold as long as the same cooler packed full. The longer the trip, the more important it is to fill up the cooler. You’ll also want to put ice or ice packs in the bottom, situated around the food in the middle, and the bulk of your ice on top. Cold air moves downward, so don’t forget to load up the ice on top!
Remember to put any raw meat that may leak on the bottom of the cooler, so it doesn’t contaminate other food. Plus, it’s a good idea to pack items you’ll want to access closer to the top, like drinks and snacks. Digging around in the bottom of a cooler can make a mess and cause the ice to melt and the cooler to get warm quickly.
Tip #3 – Make Your Own Ice Packs
People often stop at the local convenience store and buy bags of ice cubes to put in their cooler. While this is better than nothing, there is another way to keep your food cold for longer. Ice cubes melt faster than large ice blocks, even if you leave them in the bag. You can easily make your own ice packs with some large freezer bags, an ice maker, and some water.
Just fill your closable bag ¾ full with ice cubes and then fill it the rest of the way with water. After that, you can put it in your freezer until the water turns to ice and you have a nice big chunk of ice. Of course, if you don’t have an ice dispenser you can always fill your sealable bag with cold water and freeze that. It just takes a little bit longer.
Tip #4 – Avoid Putting Your Cooler in the Trunk
The warmer the ambient temperature, the faster your cooler’s items will grow warm. To keep your food as cold as possible while traveling, keep your cooler in the passenger compartment. Although coolers are designed to resist the outside temperature, there’s only so much they can do. Which is why keeping it in your air-conditioned car will help your food stay cold.
Tip #5 – Insulate Your Cooler
It’s easy to give your cooler a little help. All you need are a few towels or a blanket to wrap around your cooler. This helps to further insulate the cooler and keep the cold air from dissipating, thus keeping the cooler cold longer. If you don’t have a working air-conditioner in your car, wrapping your cooler up can help keep your food cold.
How to Travel with Ice Cream and Frozen Foods
While some people suggest using dry ice to transport food, it’s not the best idea as dry ice can be dangerous and can “burn” the skin. However, if that’s your only choice, we suggest doing some research on how to properly handle dry ice.
The best thing you can do to keep ice cream and frozen food from thawing out is to use lots of ice in a cooler. Put the ice cream in a reusable cooler bag. Then put that bag in the middle of a cooler. Put ice all around and on top of the ice cream or frozen food, and then wrap the outside of the cooler in blankets for further insulation. If you’re traveling a very long distance, you’ll simply have to stop and buy more ice to keep the ice cream as cold as possible.
Products to Help You Keep Your Food Cold While Traveling
We’ve done extensive research to find you the best items for keeping your food cold on the road. Even one or two of these items can decrease the money you spend on ice or ruined food. When used in combination with the tips above, you can keep your food cold for longer than ever.
Ice Sheets
Perfect for those without an ice maker in their home, these FlexiFreeze Ice Sheets are essentially reusable ice cubes. They’re flexible even when frozen, and are made with water and not chemicals, so you don’t have to worry if one of them happens to break open. Plus you can cut them down to fit into any size cooler, or leave them as-is for large coolers. They’re easy to clean and designed to take up minimal space in your freezer and cooler.
Cooler Freeze Packs
Probably the most popular and highly-rated cooler pack available, these Cooler Shock Cooler Freeze Packs are great for keeping your food cold while traveling.
All you do is fill them with water once and freeze them. The foil and nylon pack makes long-lasting cooling capabilities for up to 48 hours. Plus, they come with a 100% money-back guarantee.
Electric Cooler and Warmer
If you’re tired of dealing with ice or freezer packs then the K-Box Electric Cooler and Warmer is perfect for you.
Made with 2 built-in cords for either your vehicle or a wall outlet, you can keep your food as cold as 40° F without ice or ice packs. It also comes with wheels and handles for easy transport. This cooler is perfect for those long road trips, boating adventures, or extra space for food in your RV. It’s essentially a miniature fridge you can take with you!
Coolers and Cooler Bags
Since most of the tips and options in this article require a cooler, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention a couple of the best coolers out there. Maybe you don’t have a cooler yet, or maybe your cheap styrofoam cooler is falling apart. Either way, we’ve got some great options for you.
The CleverMade Collapsible Cooler Bag is great for trips to the grocery store on a hot day, road trips, and camping trips. It’s not too big and not too small, plus it is collapsible and stylish.
For those people who are looking for the Cadillac of coolers, the best choice is this YETI Roadie Cooler. YETI is known for its durable and efficient drink tumblers, but they also have a great line of ‘bear-resistant’ coolers for those more adventurous travelers. Also perfect for those road trips with rowdy kids, the YETI coolers keep food cold longer and can last a lifetime.
In Conclusion
As you can see, keeping food cold while traveling can be done quite easily and inexpensively. I hope this article has been helpful and be sure to check out the rest of the site for more awesome content like this. Thanks for reading!