mre

[TLman]

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a civilian produced mre manufacturer, and how good they turned out to be? I have found several sites that sell them and advertise a 5 to 10 year shelf life, but i'm a little hesitant to throw all my spending money in one direction. here is a site for example.

http://www.thereadystore.com/mre/mre...eal-case-of-12

[methusaleh]

I was wondering how good the civilian ones were myself. I used to live in MA and knew people who worked at Natick Labs, where MREs are developed, I will call one of the guys and see what he can tell me, he knows a lot about this topic.

EDIT:

OK he called me back on his lunch break. He said the major military MRE contractors (Wornick Products, Sopacko, etc.) each have their own version of the military-issue MREs that are re-branded for civilians. He has never heard of Ameriqual A Packs but said that he does not think Ameriqual has a contract right now, so those could very well be re-packed, old MREs that failed military inspection and were taken back by the manufacturer. He said the best you can get are MREs that look like they are GI, but the little illustration shows a soldier with a HK rifle and not an M16. Otherwise that variety is exactly the same as issued ones. I tried a quick online search but could not figure out what the brand is or where to get them, however.

[TLman]

Thanks for the info, I may just try a case from several brands and see which ones pan out. i'll keep you posted :)

[methusaleh]

Let me tell you, I should have said this above. I have tried two of the government contractors' civilian versions of the MREs.

One of them I think was the Wornick version, in a brown bag but it looked and felt nothing like and MRE bag, had red, blue, and black ink. The bag looked shinier and felt thinner compared to a real MRE bag. The contents tasted good but there was about 1/2 the food you would find in a real MRE. I paid about $5 for it, making it a total ripoff in my opinion, especially when you can find military MREs for just a little more money.

The other one was called Eversafe, I am not sure who makes it. Tasted fine but packaging was not durable and the food packs inside had the edges all brittle and felt like they had been in a box that was under a heavy stack. The edges were all almost ripped open with damage. I would hate to see what those look like after years in storage or being moved around; my guess would be the packages would come open. More food than the other civilian one, but still nowhere near as much a real MRE.