Some people are actual survivalists, some are food preppers, some are anxious about the pandemic, economy and empty shelves; but all are looking at longer-term food pantry solutions. Military combat rations (MRE), are food packets that can last up to 5 years, if properly stored. So I went to Amazon and bought 4 single, one-day serving packs.
Last week I wrote about Preppers + Food for Thought, this is a followup to that post.
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What are MREs
MRE = “Meal Ready to Eat” aka military combat rations.
Specifically, according to Wikipedia, these Meal, Ready-to-Eat packets are self-contained, individual field rations in lightweight packaging bought by the United States Department of Defense for its service members for use in combat or other field conditions where other food is not available. This means that while MREs should be kept cool, they do not need to be refrigerated, and you can expect them to last 5 years (1).
I bought 4 single servings on Amazon. Each ration bag contains ~1250 calories and comes with a main entree, side-dish, crackers or bread, one spread (like cheese or peanut butter), candy, beverage mix, dessert, condiments (salt, mayo, hot sauce, etc.), an accessory-packet (napkin, gum, matches, etc), and a spoon. Some also include a flameless ration heater or other means of heating the food.
While the bag itself does not contain much information, other than the type of main entree included, the interior bags do have nutrition labels. The most important piece of information to locate is the date the product was made, so you can identify when to use it by.
What Did I Buy
I bought a group of four MRE bags:
- Chili with Beans
- Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
- Tuna, Chunk, Light Water Packed Lemon Pepper
- Creamy Spinach Fettuccine
After reading lots of materials, it seems that most of these MRE bags are meat based, so vegetarians will find some, but vegans would be hard pressed to find items that fit their diet. Perhaps the military makes special supplies for people with specific diets.
Chili with Beans
Overall grade A (vegetarian)
A vegetarian meal that contains:
- A green unnamed pouch which was the chili
- Pepperoni Pizza Cheese Crackers 1.69oz
- Vegetable Crackers 1.33 oz
- Beverage Base Powder, Lemon Lime
- Cheese spread 1oz
- Cornbread 2.5oz
The pizza crackers were tasty enough kids would like these, and in fact they did have a pepperoni after taste. Now here is where I am a bit strange, I actually like the taste of American Cheese and Cheez whiz on some things. The veggie crackers were like a drier and less creamy club cracker. Together it was tasty as a carby snack.
The kidney bean chili was flavorful and tasted like Chili you can get in a can, but without the meat. Strong taste and a lingering heat. The cornbread was a perfect side with it being sweet enough to offset the chili. A very good combination that was filling and turned into a great lunch on the day I cooked it.
The heating instructions were not really easy to follow or understand. I knew basics, like the heating element goes into the cooking bag with the pouch of food, add water to a given level, fold over the bag, and let sit, preferably outdoors as it produces warmth via chemical reactions that produce harmful off-gas. The food did not get as hot as I wanted so I used my microwave and made a mess everywhere.
Hopefully training how to heat your food is part of Basic Training. But after this mess, and after lunch, I went on-line to see if there were instructions. Sure enough I had heated it incorrectly. So let me save you some time by showing the instructions here.
For grading I considered that both my spouse and I liked the flavor and texture of the chili and cornbread. The crackers survived the packaging. The packet was overall very good tasting and the food, flavor-wise, mixed together well as a meal. I would buy this food for camping or backpacking.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Overall grade B (meat)
This meal managed to almost feed both of us. What was included was a mix of things.
- Spaghetti sauce and meatballs (no pasta) so I added rice since we were eating this for dinner.
- Garlic mashed potatoes
- A beef snack strip 8oz
- Cheese + Jalapeño spread 1oz
- Italian breadsticks 2oz
- Oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie
- Hawaiian punch powdered drink
- A plastic heating bag for making coffee, and an instant coffee for 1
- A plastic spoon
- Heating pack
- Moist towelette, napkins, Salt, 2 chiclets gum, non-dairy creamer, chemical sweetner.
The mashed potatoes tasted good and garlicky but they turned runny after heating up. The spaghetti sauce tasted okay but was mainly a thick tomatoey sauce without any herby flavor. Both were good, but I needed to change up my expectations. My adding rice did not help, but I missed having pasta in there.
Since I learned how to use the heating package I figured out how to heat both main dishes at the same time, and they did get nice and hot this time.
This shows the cookie, which tasted a bit too sweet but was thick and chewy. I put the cheese spread on the bread and took a bit of jerky with each bit of the cheese-bread. It tasted good. But the Italian bread sticks were very soft and mushy bread dough with herbs.
For grading I am removing points for no pasta in the sauce which would have made it taste better, runny mashed potatoes, and the punch that would not dissolve in water. If I were to buy this for having on my shelf I would definitely make pasta beforehand, and there was enough sauce to make two servings. In a pinch this could be easily split into two.
Chunky Light Water-Packed Tuna with Lemon Pepper
Overall grade D (pescatarian)
This bag contained a meal for one, and each item came in their own heavy plastic bag. I did have to use scissors to open the large bag while the interior packets were slotted for easier opening.
- Tortillas, Plain 2
- Baked Snack Crackers 1.7oz
- Beverage Base Powder, Lemon Lime
- Reeses Pieces Candy 1.53oz
- Cheese spread 1oz
- Trans Fat Free Vanilla Pound Cake 2.5oz
- Starkist Tuna Creations, Lemon Pepper 4.5oz
- Fat free mayonnaise 1oz
- A plastic spoon
- Moist towelette, Beverage Base Cranberry Grape, Napkin, Salt, and 2 chiclets gum.
My evaluation of the food includes that when it all arrived the Cheez-It type crackers were totally smashed. The cheese spread was as expected, it was the American Cheese spread that tasted like CheezWhiz. There was not enough cheese to use on all the crackers so it ran out quickly.
The fat-free mayo was runny (and I do not know why they used fat-free) in an oily way, but did not add any flavor, and the tortilla felt like smooth plastic but was edible. If I was in combat, and there was no bowl to mix the tuna with the mayo, I would layer the mayo first and added tuna with a sprinkle of salt; so I did that. I certainly would eat this if I had to, for the tuna was okay. Honestly, I ate half of one tortilla, fed the rest to the dogs as they liked it more than me.
The cake was about 1” thick and tasted okay as a pre-packaged dessert with a sweet vanilla and soft texture. Candy was fine, given it was something you could buy in a store. So then I tried the drinks. They were okay, for what they were; powder that flavored water with an artificial green look and chemical taste. Much like many powdered sweet drinks from Kool-aid to Tang.
One clear plastic bag held all the little bits. The napkins were a pack of tiny 3”x3” smelly paper napkins, similar to 10 single toilet paper sheets all folded and packed together. I did not like using them because of the smell, and they were too thin to blow my nose, had to use half the pack to wipe my mouth. There was a packet of salt, 2 chiclets, and a moist towelette.
- OMG, I just realized, since the ”napkin” pack looked like TP maybe they are intended to also be used that way while out in the field?
For grading I wish they had not had the tortillas, but had veggie crackers like what came with the chili bag. These tortillas had a weird texture and feel. The tuna was okay, but would have liked to have real mayo and mustard. The crackers were almost useless, good idea but terrible packaging. This meal had a bit of this and a bit of that and overall did not mix well as a meal.
Creamy Spinach Fettuccine
Overall grade C (vegetarian)
This was definitely a meal for one. It contained less than any of the other bags, probably because the energy bar provided most of the calories.
- Creamy spinach with pasta
- Crackers
- Pretzels
- Peanut butter
- Chocolate energy bar
- Large container of chocolate drink
- A plastic heating bag for making coffee, and an instant coffee for 1
- A plastic spoon
- Heating pack
- Moist towelette, napkins, salt, 2 chiclets gum, book of matches, non-dairy creamer, hot sauce, and sugar.
The pasta smelled metallic and had a non-descript flavor, although the texture was good. The crackers crumbled and the peanut butter tasted like peanuts, no salt or sugar added. The chocolate power bar had a good texture and feel, but did not taste chocolatey. The chocolate drink did not mix well into the water and I wound up spitting it out. Did not taste good.
My Conclusion
My ratings show an amazing hit-or-miss aspect to these meals. I would have to taste each of these bags to know if I would want to actually store or use any of these as emergency or trip rations. While I do not mind if the MREs are not as tasty as my cooking, that is to be expected. But I really thought the tuna pack was a downright awful collection of foods that did not work.
Reasons for not using MREs for pantry storage or camping fall into these categories.
- Short shelf life: Listed at 5 years (as little as 9 months in hot conditions) from date of packaging, but you cannot guarantee the dates of what you are buying (unless you buy direct from a vendor). One of these packs was at its life expectancy when I received it.
- Bulky packaging: This is true it is bulky, but not too bad if in a car, RV, or on a bike.
- High in sodium: Yes, especially when compared to what I usually cook.
- Heavy: Can be, as the main food items are wet packed, not dried, so they are a bit heavier to lug around if you are backpacking.
- Low in dietary fiber: Yes this was a problem in the food we ate, very little to no fiber. Living on this food would make you feel full, but also constipated.
- Expensive per meal: Yes when compared to home cooked food. From Amazon these cost me about $20 per MRE bag.
- Not intended as a long term food solution: These are made for quick meals for military service people, and could be considered for campers, but not long term storage.
- Require frequent rotation and replacement: Need to keep eating them, they are not meant for long term storage.
- Some report gastrointestinal problems: but I cannot verify and we did okay. I could imagine constipation might be the long term problem, as the food is low on fiber.
This is not a prepper’s meal, but if you were someone who definitely cannot cook and want to car camp, this may in fact be a nice way to have a variety of foods for a short term of boon-docking. So long as you choose carefully which bag to take.
I certainly will not buy these for my camping, RVing, or any other reason. They are not that great when you are not in a combat or emergency survival situation. But if you needed emergency rations this would work perfectly well provided you had clean water nearby.
Well, at least I have now tried an MRE and can move on. I have no plans to eat one of these packages again.
—Patty
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