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While cleaning this weekend I found an MRE that was inside of an old buttpack I had, along with a bunch of other neat stuff, and I was going to set aside the MRE with my others when I found a set of orders in there, from November, 1999! I figured the MRE is probably 1998-99 vintage, so I sat down and did a taste test/examination of the contents.
Now...this is only a taste test and visual inspection. The food itself could very well be fine, but the nutrients in it could break down and not be as beneficial over the years. I do not have the ability to test that.
This is a good "real world" test of MRE taste and condition because I never knew the meal was in there, so it has been subject to all kinds of temperatures and humidity levels.
The menu item was tuna with noodles, the side dish white rice. I broke the seal on the tan outer pouch and pulled out the contents. No packaging appeared damage, and no foil packs were bulging (bulging packaging is the easiest to detect sign of a spoiled MRE). So far so good.
I kneaded the meal and side dish to stir up the contents (as is good practice with any MRE), then opened them and got ready to enjoy. I found that both were "clumpier" than a fresh MRE would be; that is, the food stuck together and I had to work at it with the spoon more than normal. The tuna with noodles had an off-odor, not really smelling like I would expect it to, yet not a spoiled/rotten odor. I double-checked the foil pouch visually, then filled it with water, to check for holes to make sure I wasn't eating something spoiled. It checked out fine, so I kept eating. It tasted a little bland, but not bad. The rice was clumpy but tasted like rice should taste.
Crackers and peanut butter were next. The crackers seemed a slight bit stale, but less stale than even "one month past expiration" grocery store crackers, in other words quite fresh for a 10-year-old pack of crackers. The peanut butter had separated into oil and peanut paste more than I had expected, so more kneading was required, but in the end produced something that resembled peanut butter. It tasted a bit stale as well, and a little less peanutty than expected, but not too bad. I again tested the foil pouch (as I did with the tuna) to make sure I wasn't eating something potentially spoiled, and it checked out fine. 10-year-old MRE peanut butter and crackers, while being somewhat stale, would be a fine treat indeed.
Finally there was a dessert brownie, the vacuum-sealed "brownie, chocolate covered," which I never really liked. These things are always hard and chalky, even when fresh, so I could not judge much. But despite the very obvious perfect vacuum seal, it tasted much more stale than anything else in this MRE. Ugh! No mold or unusual coloring or anything though.
The MRE test was done twelve hours ago. Since then I have had no stomach issues, strange aches and pains, diarrhea, or anything else I would attribute to the MREs.
EDIT TO ADD: Somewhere I still have a couple dark brown-bag MREs, one is from Gulf War I, and one is from the mid 90s. I would be really interested in getting a real lab test done on those, as far as nutrient goes, if anyone has the abilities to arrange it.
Now...this is only a taste test and visual inspection. The food itself could very well be fine, but the nutrients in it could break down and not be as beneficial over the years. I do not have the ability to test that.
This is a good "real world" test of MRE taste and condition because I never knew the meal was in there, so it has been subject to all kinds of temperatures and humidity levels.
The menu item was tuna with noodles, the side dish white rice. I broke the seal on the tan outer pouch and pulled out the contents. No packaging appeared damage, and no foil packs were bulging (bulging packaging is the easiest to detect sign of a spoiled MRE). So far so good.
I kneaded the meal and side dish to stir up the contents (as is good practice with any MRE), then opened them and got ready to enjoy. I found that both were "clumpier" than a fresh MRE would be; that is, the food stuck together and I had to work at it with the spoon more than normal. The tuna with noodles had an off-odor, not really smelling like I would expect it to, yet not a spoiled/rotten odor. I double-checked the foil pouch visually, then filled it with water, to check for holes to make sure I wasn't eating something spoiled. It checked out fine, so I kept eating. It tasted a little bland, but not bad. The rice was clumpy but tasted like rice should taste.
Crackers and peanut butter were next. The crackers seemed a slight bit stale, but less stale than even "one month past expiration" grocery store crackers, in other words quite fresh for a 10-year-old pack of crackers. The peanut butter had separated into oil and peanut paste more than I had expected, so more kneading was required, but in the end produced something that resembled peanut butter. It tasted a bit stale as well, and a little less peanutty than expected, but not too bad. I again tested the foil pouch (as I did with the tuna) to make sure I wasn't eating something potentially spoiled, and it checked out fine. 10-year-old MRE peanut butter and crackers, while being somewhat stale, would be a fine treat indeed.
Finally there was a dessert brownie, the vacuum-sealed "brownie, chocolate covered," which I never really liked. These things are always hard and chalky, even when fresh, so I could not judge much. But despite the very obvious perfect vacuum seal, it tasted much more stale than anything else in this MRE. Ugh! No mold or unusual coloring or anything though.
The MRE test was done twelve hours ago. Since then I have had no stomach issues, strange aches and pains, diarrhea, or anything else I would attribute to the MREs.
EDIT TO ADD: Somewhere I still have a couple dark brown-bag MREs, one is from Gulf War I, and one is from the mid 90s. I would be really interested in getting a real lab test done on those, as far as nutrient goes, if anyone has the abilities to arrange it.
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