How do I know when these things need to be tossed out? I don’t see any dates written on them and I’ve had them a while.
The arctic ones I’ve had since at least 2013, and the TOTEM one’s I’ve had since at least 2015. But I don’t know when they were packaged
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Eat them.
If you get sick, they're bad.
If you don't get sick, they're good.
Using this logic, one can deduce that all MREs are in some sense bad.
They can be stored for a very long time. Recently ate a carton of 2006 MREs that had sat in a cabinet in my house. All of them were fine. Spoilage can occur if they're kept too warm. Keep them cool and out of the sun and they'll likely be edible for decades.
How where they stored?
Did you leave them in an outdoor shed In Arizona? if so they're probably bad after less than a year.
Did you have them in a freezer? if so they'll expire around the time the sun expands and consumes the earth.
If they're just on a shelf inside you're looking at least 5 years of them being good. After that you'll have to do the smell test: if it smells off, dont eat it. But some components will last decades even at room temperature.
I ate some bacon that had been in bottom of my freezer since 2011, still alive
Where is a good source to buy 24 hour rations? Like the kind where there’s 3 meals all packaged together
mre mountain usually have some weird one.
the MRE forums will be the better way to get the REALLY weird ones
black dog bob has a good selection
But for 99% of situations you're better off putting them together yourself
I got one for my bug out bag on eBay for $20 shipped.
This. It all depends on storage conditions / temperature.
$20 for a mre is robbery. You should be paying $10 or less. Even that is expensive for what you get though.
it's 20 bucks for 3 meals though.
So $6.66 a meal.
Ah. Fine job user
Honestly its hard to tell when an MRE has gone bad. I've eaten a new one and a 5 year old one and they both taste terrible.
How much should an MRE cost on over, not including shipping? I'm pretty new at prepping
I have a case of 1998 manufacture MREs. I have eaten 4 of them this year. Almost everything was still edible and nothing made me sick.
The cheese spread and the orange drink mix were the only things so far that have spoiled.
The expiration/temperature red dot thing on the case is showing that they’ve been exposed to enough temperatures to be considered expired. They were in an outdoor storage shed in Seattle for about 7 years, then I got them and have kept them inside my house for the last 15 years.
How much longer they’ll last us hard to say. Could be another decade, or more, or less.
I don’t know when they were packaged though
In cardboard boxes in my insulated garage
How do you know when they were manufactured??
If Steve is any indication, about 5 years before they taste off, and 25 before they might kill you. YMMV and they can be frozen with good results.
You can look up what year each menu entered/left service for a ballpark guess.
The actual military ones like that on the right in OP picture should have a stamped number somewhere on the package that indicates month and year.
But iirc the year is a single digit, so you have to guess what decade.
The code is often hard to find and or partially damaged and hard to read.
The dates are going to be on the individual items, not the outside package, the individual items come from different manufacturers and are then all packed together, so you'll see different manufacture dates on each piece. Generally they'll all be relatively close to each other. If your MREs have been stored in a dark cool place then it'll likely be fine for a decade (though sometimes things will taste a little funky). If you're still worried there is a calculator online here: thereadystore.com
What about the numbers on the case?
That's packing and shipping information.
MREs get better with age like wine or women.
But they hit a point where the wine turns into vinegar and waifus have fragile hips.
The case may have one of these stickers, which starts as a uniform red, and with temperature and time the center becomes darker, indicating expiration. But mine are still fine.
FFS watch a few Steve videos and learn what a date code is. The expiration date is three years from the date code - though the truth is they’ll be fine out to five as long as they were stored in reasonable conditions.
Underrated.
Stop buying fucking MREs. The only point of MREs is they are light weight. So if you're carrying your food on your back all day go buy them, I guess, if you really want to. But if you're going to store your food at your house, or as emergency food in your car, just buy fucking canned food. Modern canned food literally will last forever, unlike MREs. It also tastes good, and is cheap, and not stolen government property. Jesus fucking christ, people.
Why buy MREs when modern civilian camping food supplies are cheaper, more nutritious, AND taste better?
Modern camping food is MREs. The Gen III MCW/LRP rations are literal Mountain House COTS products.
but marked up 200% because muh gubment package
MREs are not light weight. The point of them is that they last a very long time and are a self contained meal, they do not require a separately packed heating element or additional food packs. This greatly simplified logistics for troops in the field.
Anyone who's used MREs for backpacking knows you strip the MRE for just the items that you need and leave about 40% of the shit from the package behind.
Ultimately Mountain House type freeze dried meals are way better in both taste and storage life, the only down side being they require 12-16oz of water per meal. Thats water you could be drinking, and water weighs 8lbs per gallon so its one of the heaviest most limiting items for remaining in the bush without resupply.
In most areas though you can acquire water in the field, so purification tabs and filters would be all you need to carry.
Plus any water you put into the freeze dried food you still consume.
>MREs are not light weight
nigger what? yes they are!
>The point of them is that they last a very long time
no. they only last 3-5 years. Good prep food lasts 20-30
Theyre lighter than canned rations, but anyone who uses them for backpacking strips most of the packaging and extra shit away. A full MRE pack is needlessly bulky and heavy.
They last 20 years when stored properly. Many people have eaten MRE's that old and been fine, myself included.
They are a masterpiece of logistics.
Frozen MREs will last 20 years no problem. Freeze dried food will last 40 years on the shelf no problem.
MREs are great for what they are designed for. But long term food storage is not what they were designed for,
I'll give you that. you seem to know what you're talkin about
fuck black dog bob
unless they're chinese and new production then they're bad and will kill you
You dumb nigger, they last much longer than that. They are literally DESIGNED FOR LONG TERM STORAGE. Regardless, is 3-5 years not a long time for an entire meal to last unrefrigerated?
5 years is the official max life, but the truth is they last more than 10 years if stored properly.
except they are not designed for "long term" storage.
They are designed for 3-5 years. They are designed to be manufactured, shipped to locations where the military is operating, delivered to soldiers, and then be eaten. They are not expected to be stored for a decade in a government warehouse. they are expected to be shelf stable for a few years at most until a soldier can eat it in the field without other infrastructure to support him.
If you want long term storage look at what the Mormons are doing. They go freeze dried and buckets.
The more fat content they have, the more easier and likely they’ll spoil.
>mountainhouse breakfast skillet or blueberry granola
They are the best, fight me.
Heard an old Sergeant who served since the first gulf war say not to eat them if the hot sauce packet is hard
I got the CD remaster of Disraeli Gears shipped.
>Heard an old Sergeant who served since the first gulf war say not to eat them if the hot sauce packet is hard
He's full of shit.
>Not making your own mres out of pemmican and hardtack
Pathetic.
>arrive at pantry to find a fucking can of green beans or some bullsht vs a meal already put together
>He's full of shit
Because he ate MREs. Dude probably hasn't pooped in weeks.
TL;DR for this whole thread:
MREs:
+Self-contained full meals
+Easy
+High calories for innawoods needs
+Aesthetic
-Heavy
-Bulky for packing
-Digestive Issues
~Medium Longevity
~Medium price
Civilian freeze-dried food (Mountain House, etc.):
+Easy
+Taste good
+Light and compact for backpacking
+High longevity
-Fuck expensive
-Not as calorie dense
Home-prepared survival food (pasta, rice, beans, etc)
+Dirt cheap
+High longevity if done right
+Compact
-Not as tasty
-Heavy
-Pain in the ass to prepare
You aint wrong for most of that. Although I do argue with the civilian freeze dried being "fuck expensive"
Sure the mountain house pro-packs are, but the bulk stuff designed for mormons are very reasonably priced. You just need to buy it by the five gallon bucket full which would make it really bulky for bugging out but its good for bugging in place.
>Home prepared food
>Not as tasty as fucking MREs and freeze dried food
Learn how to cook.
Home prepared long term storage foods. Like rice and beans.
And beans and rice.
Menu fatigue is a real thing.
As if rice and beans are the only long term storage foods. You even mentioned pasta yourself. There's a ton of other canned goods. That's not to mention spices and powdered sauces, which last forever as well. Again, learn how to cook.
Would anyone actually be interested here in buying a case of MREs, I have a few I'm getting rid of when I go back to the States
Literally the first thing any Infantry drill worth his salt teaches you in regards to MREs is how to field strip them because they're unnecessarily heavy and bulky.
you'll bankrupt yourself before you have a halfway decent food stock consisting of MREs
MREs are generally for multi-billion dollar armies to feed their soldiers away from cafeterias and civilization as logistically reasonable as possible
if you're legitimately invested in prepping, a sustainable food source is far more important than a pre-stocked long shelf life food stock, but it's a smart idea to still stock some food
however, homemade MREs or other sources of food are going to be a much better choice than any MRE on the market
Canned food, which includes stuff sealed in those plastic/mylar bags, has an indefinite shelf life for safe consumption. The canning process, when done properly, heat treats the food, killing all microbes in it. As long as the seal remains intact, the food cannot go bad.
That does not mean it will always have the same consistency or taste, though.
If the packaging appears swollen or bulging oddly, that means it wasn't sterilized properly, and is full of botulism toxin. You can absorb botulism toxin through the skin and be fatally poisoned, so don't open the package to investigate further. If you're absolutely about to starve to death, botulism contaminated food can be rendered safe to eat via boiling. Boiling only destroys the toxin, not the bacteria, so you'll want to eat the food right away before more toxin is created, not that that should be much of a concern, because you'd need to be starving to take the risk.
If the food smells rancid, don't eat it.
>The arctic ones I’ve had since at least 2013, and the TOTEM one’s I’ve had since at least 2015. But I don’t know when they were packaged
lol
Why is that funny?
xd