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After years of taking young people from East Yorkshire on long expeditions all over the world, Ian Williams found that the food available for these trips was not quite as good as it should be.

He told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio York's Adam Tomlinson the only food available was in catering packs, and they weren't really suitable.

"They were often rich in monosodium glutamate as a preservative, when you live on that food, you do suffer, inside and out. So I startedÌý to research products and then when I found myself out of a job in 1995, I took a handshake and I started the business, researching food just for expeditions".

And so Expedition Foods was born. Ian sources and supplies explorers, record breakers and rescuers with good quality freeze-dried food. The meals are very light, around 150 grams each and they each have around 800 calories, which is very important.

Peter Bray Kayaking in South Georgia.

The food is cooked in the normal way, then freeze-dried and packed into plastic and aluminium foil sealed bags. Hot or cold water is added to the bag and then resealed. In around five minutes you have a nourishing, high calorie food easily prepared in even the most extreme conditions.

Ian brought some samples into ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio York for Adam to taste including chicken korma, chilli con carne and spaghetti bolognese. After melting his snow and boiling the water, Adam tucked into a chicken tikka and it nearly blew his top off! It was very spicy, but there is a good reason for that as Ian explained.

"When you’re working at altitude particularly, and in cold conditions you tend to lose your taste buds, so it needs to be lively!"

Adam rounded off his meal with his particular favourite, chocolate chip mousse! Not quite believing that the food could taste so good.

The Marathon des Sables in the Sahara.

Ian has supplied some of the worlds most foremost explorers and adventurers including Ben Fogle and James Cracknell when they rowed the Atlantic. Ray Mears is a fan of Ian's food as is the British Army, Richard Branson and the International Rescue Corps to name but a few.

Expedition Foods also supplies the ´óÏó´«Ã½ when they are filming in remote parts and Ian has a funny story to tell about one project he helped with...

"They were doing a re-enactment of the north-west passage and wanted the genuine product for the actors to use. One of the products they asked for was pemmikan. Used in the early days of sailing boats -Ìý it's fat and ground meat – tremendous energy that would keep a long time in sub zero temperatures. I started to research the market.

"Eventually I found a company in Denmark that sold pemmikan, so I contacted them and asked them if they could supply me. They said yes, we will send you a sample. The sample duly arrived and when I opened the bag it said, pemmikan for your sled dog!"

Ian did eventually source some pemmikan suitable for humans and the ´óÏó´«Ã½, and more importantly, the actors were happy!

So, next time you're watching the news and you see someone has rowed single handed across the Atlantic, crossed the Antarctic pulling a sled or ventured into the depths of the jungle, they're probably carrying a bag full of supplies from Expedition Foods. Based in a sleepy village on the edge of the moors in North Yorkshire!