Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated August 2026.

Quick answer: Greenbelly Meals is an American backpacking food brand with no UK stockist at the time of writing. Orders ship from the United States, which means paying international delivery, possible import charges, and waiting on a transatlantic parcel. UK buyers have two realistic options: import it and accept the cost and the wait, or use high-calorie bars made in the UK that do the same job and arrive in a day or two.

What Greenbelly Meals Is

Greenbelly was started by the American thru-hiker Chris Cage and has a strong reputation on the big US trails. Its main product, Meal2Go, is a pack of two bars positioned as a complete backpacking meal, carrying around 650 calories per pack according to its published figures. The appeal is obvious and I respect the product for it: meal-level calories with no stove, no rehydrating and no washing up.

Can You Buy Greenbelly in the UK?

Not from a UK shelf. There is no UK retailer or distributor that I'm aware of at the time of writing, so the only route is ordering from the US site and shipping internationally. That means courier costs on a food parcel, potential import charges when it lands, and a delivery window measured in weeks rather than days.

I first looked into this because customers made me. In the two weeks before writing this page, two separate customers ordered Phoenix Bars specifically because they had priced up getting Greenbelly delivered to the UK and found the total hard to justify once shipping and import fees were added. They wanted the same thing Greenbelly is built for, a lot of calories in very little weight, without importing it.

What UK Buyers Use Instead

There are three honest routes, and the right one depends on whether you can boil water on your trip.

If you can, freeze-dried pouches remain the classic evening meal, and I've ranked the best freeze-dried meals for backpacking in the UK on calories per gram and per pound. If you can't, or don't want to, you're in no-cook territory, and my guides to no-cook backpacking meals and the lightest high-calorie food for backpacking cover how to build a food bag that averages 4.5 calories per gram.

The third route is the one Greenbelly itself proved: bars dense enough to be a meal. That is exactly what I make. Phoenix Bars are high-calorie bars for expeditions and long trails, carrying up to 557 calories in a single 120g bar, made in the UK and shipped from Surrey the day you order.

Greenbelly vs Phoenix Bars, on the Numbers

The two products share a philosophy and differ in format. A Greenbelly Meal2Go is two bars sold as one roughly 650-calorie meal, positioned as a broad slice of a full day's nutrition. A Phoenix Bar is a single 120g bar delivering up to 557 calories at 4.64 calories per gram, so two bars carry over 1,050 calories, and you portion them however the day demands. Every flavour is vegan and gluten free, the recipe won't freeze at minus 45 or melt in desert heat, the best-before date runs up to two years, and each bar can be eaten as a flapjack or stirred into hot water or milk as a porridge, a method I cover in how to use Phoenix Bars. A bar costs £5.25, which works out under £1 per 100 calories, with UK delivery in one to four days and no import charges.