Mre

[xs11jack]

I acquired a military MRE and opened the outer pouch. On all the items inside was a four digit number beginning with 92. Is that the year it was made?? And if so, how long are these things good for?
Jack

[Love Life]

They are good until they smell bad when you open them.

I believe the official shelf life is 5 years.

[Boerrancher]

The military keeps them for 5 years as Love Life stated, but they will last forever if the packets are undamaged. The best way to tell is if the individual food packet is all swollen then it is no good, or if you open it and it smells like something dead. I can't say smells bad because after eating as many of them as I have over the years even a new one smells bad to me. I have some stored that date back to the 80's and they are still as good as they were when they were produced.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Combat Diver]

What color was the outer plastic bag? Early 80s- late 90s had a dark brown color. Later generation is tan colored.


CD

[dbosman]

Shelf life of government packaged food can be interesting. When the civil defense shelters around here were emptied in the 1970's the sealed water cans were half empty. The cracker tins were just fine and dandy though. They tasted like flavorful matzo - if you can wrap your mind around the idea of matzo with flavor. The hard candy was given to kids all over town for Halloween. Thousands of pounds of hard candy. Some of the heavy lifting equipment stayed in place until two years ago.

[edler7]

Lots of MRE info here

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-date-codes.html

[xs11jack]

The outside pouch is light tan, nearly all the printing on outside is gone. The meal is a porkchop in Jamica sauce, apple sauce, vegtable cracker, pound cake, tiny packets of coffee, powdered creamer, book of matches, a tiny little bottle of tabasco sauce, cheese spread, two little chicolets of gum a napkin, wetwipe, a pouch to heat the main course in and a plastic spoon. Yum!!! None of the pouches inside have been opened. Between the wife and and me, we are saying I'll try it if you try it-first, No, You try it first, No...
Jack

[Edubya]

Man up Jack! You have to show that when it gets down to surviving that you are "the man". You are going to use those for a a survival kit, aren't you? You will not die from eating those things, I've eaten them from WWII and that was back in the '60's.

EW

[Superfly]

i will take the pound cake and the cheese spread and the vegitable cracker UMM UMM good stuff

[Boz330]

Man up Jack! You have to show that when it gets down to surviving that you are "the man". You are going to use those for a a survival kit, aren't you? You will not die from eating those things, I've eaten them from WWII and that was back in the '60's.

EW

I ate some from the same year I was born when I was in in 66 to 68. I believe they were K-rations not even C-rations. LRPR were the best. Freeze dried and actually tasted pretty good and very light to carry. I didn't think the MREs were too bad but then I never had to live on them. They sure as hell beat C-rations.

Bob

Bob

[Edubya]

I ate some from the same year I was born when I was in in 66 to 68. I believe they were K-rations not even C-rations. LRPR were the best. Freeze dried and actually tasted pretty good and very light to carry. I didn't think the MREs were too bad but then I never had to live on them. They sure as hell beat C-rations.
Bob

I don't remember whether ours were C or K rations. I was a young airman deployed to maintain our recon aircraft flying over the Mid-East during the six day war (what was that '67 or '68). I don't even remember what base we were at. I think that it was Insurlik, Turkey. We were in tents and not associated with the Turks or anybody else. I remember that it was very flat and the wind was kicking butt. I thought that it was going to be just a practice alert and did not properly prepare for deployment. I had to wash and dry clothes every day when off duty. A lot of surprises then taught me a lot about being prepared!

EW

[Combat Diver]

Hint on how to eat the main meal. Do not tear were the cuts are or you'll get your hands messy. Cut along the top horizontal instead and you'll have a larger wider opening. The are also better heated before eating. Use the heater where there is good ventilation.

Grow up on C rats, few LRPS and 3 decades of MREs in my gut...................
one from Astan last year

Meatloaf with gravy



CD

[Love Life]

If you can find the cold weather (white wrapper) MRE those are the best for long life. It is all dry foods for extreme cold weather so they don't freeze. If they are not puffed up then you should be good to go. As Joe said though I tend to think they all stink.

Rule of thumb:
Smells like catfood=good
Smells like a fermented skunk=not good.

[horsesoldier]

Wow I finally found somebody with the same knife I have!

[bakrzdzn]

I have a few left from the 90 s but none of mine came with a knife like that. Lol. Only had one that could not be eaten in the cases I bought. Since I don't eat them every day, I found them to be mostly good to eat. Plus if a service member can eat it, so can I.

[shooter2]

The only food that does not spoil is honey.

I ate WWII rations on Guam in 1957 and '58. Some were OK, some not so good. That said, in the Philippines they eat Baludts which are rotten duck eggs. To each his own.

[Ed Barrett]

In the 1960's I used to like the job of changing the ration packets on the life rafts and life boats. The water wasn't useful but the all metal knives and hard candy we always kept. They also had fishing line hooks, the hooks were awfully big, if a fish could get it in his mouth I would be wary about getting it in the boat with me. I came across some of the candy packets 20 years later and they tasted as good as new. The dye marker packets and and shark repellent we could never find a use for. The food was dark green cans packed during WW II, we ate too well on the ship to try any more than once, but the cigarettes were still good.

[41 mag fan]

Ate those nasty MRE's back in the '80's. About 3 days of them and you was guaranteed not to sh*t for a week.
Back then chicken ala king and the ham was the best.

[Para82]

Ate plenty of C- Rations and LRRP rations the first time I was in the Army. Re enlisted in 87 and ate the MREs. I liked some of the C rations like the pound cake,fruit cocktail,pears and the cheese and peanut butter. If you were hungry enough it all would do.
Para82

[xs11jack]

I sure wish mine came with that nifty knife, I have wanted one of those for ages. Tomorrow we are going to get real aventurous and try the pound cake. Maybe then we will nibble on the porkchop with the Jamica sauce, whatever that is, her first! But she says I am the Vet here and I should, as edubya says "Manup". Or is that Throwup??? If ya'll get my next post from the emergency room, it's all YOUR fault!!
Jack