Matt Springer has been giving presentations around San Francisco about home earthquake preparedness since 2008 (for more information about the presentation, go to his earthquake preparedness website). For those who cannot attend in person, a streaming version of the presentation is available online. This Quaketips blog is devoted to posts ranging from technical "how-to" articles to more philosophical "should-you" topics. New articles will be posted at most about once a month, so people who subscribe won't be subjected to lots of e-mail.

The suggestions contained in this website and in Matt Springer's presentations will substantially reduce the chances of an earthquake causing damage or injury, but cannot guarantee that problems will not still occur due to factors including but not limited to extreme seismic conditions, unexpected structural problems, bracing material flaws, or inadequate installation. This material is based on personal experience, research, and discussion with safety experts; Matt Springer does not have an official emergency management background other than standard community volunteer training. The information contained herein does not necessarily reflect the views of UCSF or the San Francisco Public Library.

Monday, October 7, 2013

MRE shelf-life follow-up: Ever wonder what a 14-year-old MRE tastes like?

Several days ago, I ate an MRE with an "expiration date" of 2005, and lived to tell about it.  Actually, it was pretty decent, Chili and Macaroni “Menu #4” from Mil-Spec packaged in 1999, not any worse in flavor or texture than what one would expect from a typical canned version from the grocery store.  Considering its age, it was practically gourmet!

For those of you who have not been following this blog since May of 2011, I wrote an article about MREs (meals ready to eat; military/emergency rations that are popular in emergency kits) in which I reported that while MREs have long had charts from suppliers showing shelf lives as long as 10 years depending on ambient room storage temperature, the official estimated shelf lives had recently been made considerably shorter.  However, I also reported that this was based not on “going bad” but instead on subjective taster opinions about when the meals were no longer at their best flavor and texture, and that there was every reason to think that they would be edible and not harmful for years to come.  There are reports that most of the components (notably not peanut butter, cheese spread, or applesauce) were just fine at the end of the shelf life, and I myself had tried eating one at the end of the 7-year recommended shelf life period corresponding to the ~70-75 degree F temperature of my closet (in 2005) and had found it perfectly fine, if admittedly not finely perfect.  I therefore kept that batch for back-up (more on this in a future post) and purchased a new batch with a recommended shelf life for my closet temperature of 2005-2012.

Well, here we are at the end of that new cycle, a little late actually in 2013, but I figured it was ok based on the experience with the 2005 expiration meal at the end of its recommended life.  I purchased a new batch (this will be 2013-2020), planning to keep the remaining 2005-2012 MREs as backup, and found again that a new meal that I tried was better than the expired 2005-2012 MRE, but the expired one was not bad.  So naturally, I had to find out what had happened to the ones with 2005 expiration that I had been keeping as a back-up; would they have truly been edible if I had had to resort to eating them in the present?  I opened up each packet and sniffed first without encountering any foul smells.  Then I heated up the entrĂ©e and gingerly touched my tongue to it, so far so good.  Took a small bite, no problems noted at all.  Ate the meal, mmm mmm good.  And there you have it, the 2005 “expired” meal, which was packaged in 1999, was about as good in 2013 as it probably would have been in 2005.

To be exact, the chili and macaroni was fine, not up to restaurant or homemade standards but certainly worthy of canned lunch food.  The crackers were ok, with just the SLIGHTEST hint of “old cracker” taste but really not bad.  The chocolate covered cookie was delicious.  However, the packet of strawberry jam was darker than I imagine it was initially, and had a slight old smell to it; it probably would not have been bad for the health but I opted to not eat it.  Of course, I scoffed at the instant coffee packet.  (Starbucks, bless their hearts, are like cockroaches in a way; they will still be on every corner after the earthquake or nuclear blast.)

A few days later, I tried another one from that old batch, beef stew.  I squeezed it out of its package into a bowl (I didn’t bother using the heater packet and just microwaved it instead) and got a little worried because it did not look very appetizing.  I microwaved it and stirred it up, and it actually looked a lot better, but I was still skeptical at the tiny size of the pieces of beef and potato.  However, when I ate it, I was pleasantly surprised; despite the small size of the meat pieces, they were nice and meaty with good texture, not tough, not mushy; the potatoes held up; a little on the salty side but not a deal breaker—again, as good as I would expect from a can, and this was 14 years old.  A third meal, with an entree of chicken breast strips with chunky salsa, was also quite good despite the chicken being a little dense; although the applesauce was dark as expected, looking and smelling like a cut apple that had been left out too long; I tossed the applesauce.

This is consistent with an article that came out recently in the San Francisco Chronicle about “expiration” and “best by” dates of food frequently being far earlier than necessary, resulting in the disposal of massive amounts of good food by US consumers.  It’s also in line with what I recently reported in this blog about the FDA stating that expiration dates on bottled water were not really valid and there was not actually a reason to dump out store-bought emergency water jugs every couple of years.

In fact, I’m starting to get a little nervous because here I am telling you about how its ok to drink expired water and eat expired food...let’s just frankly remind everyone that I don’t have a higher truth and can’t make official statements that something is safe; I cannot guarantee your health and would not want to be held legally responsible for telling you do ignore an expiration date.  I can, however, tell you that the FDA has said exactly that for the water, and that the expiration dates for the MREs have best-by estimates that are not based on health, but rather on taste and texture.  You should use your natural senses and good judgment to determine if something in an old MRE is clearly bad (smells odd, green fuzzy things swimming in it, populations of microscopic Whos yelling “we’re HERE,” etc.) as you would with any long-term stored food.

Want to know when your MRE was packaged?  Each MRE component is date coded with a series of numbers.  The numbers include the production year, and the day produced in addition to a lot number extension.  Look for a number stamped on the package that looks like 9077M1 2 1FD2 (in the case of my old MRE that I tried).  The last groups of numbers refer to lot number so you can disregard them, and the packaging date is encoded in the first numbers, 9077M1, just in the first four digits.  The “9” in 9077M1 stands for the last digit of the year, which is presumably 1999 since I purchased it in 2000 (one bought today with a number like that would presumably be from 2009 but you need to have some rough idea of how old it is to be sure).  Next look for the three subsequent numbers.  In mine, 077 represents the 77th day of the year, or March 18th.  So my old MRE that I tried, with a stamped number of 9077M1 2 1FD2, was presumably packaged on the 77th day of 1999, which is March 18, 1999.

[Update, 12/31/18: I have some MREs from a different manufacturer, MRE-STAR, and the number  before the letter has 5 digits rather than 4: "16173B2 07:47"  I purchased this set in 2016, so I'm guessing that rather than the first number denoting the last digit of the packaging year, this company may take a more user-friendly approach and the first two digits are the year, which would be 2016 and would make sense.  Then presumably the 173 would be June 20, 2016; although that isn't really all that important.]

So now I have three different batches of MREs, one current, one recently “expired” as a back-up, and one legacy group of MREs that probably had siblings that fed US troops in Kosovo.  That last group is still ok but I don’t know how much longer it will be that way, so I don’t plan on keeping that whole batch around for another cycle (more on this in a future post).  I will just eat the remaining old MREs occasionally over the next few weeks to not waste the money (although the sodium content of these varies widely, from 10% to 64% of the daily suggested amounts in the ones at which I looked, and some have partially hydrogenated oils; save daily consumption for emergencies).  However, I think I’ll stash one or two of them away to test in 2020, out of morbid curiosity, and I’ll report back...I guess that means I’m committing to this blog for at least 7 more years!

52 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Video no longer exists on youtube

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    3. Thanks for pointing that out; I have removed the original comment with the video link that no longer exists.

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  2. I'm finding that my meals dated 6255 (August 2006) taste ok; but the heater element is not efficient. The bottom of the meal gets warm, at best. But the top end remains unheated, even when the meal is lying flat. I've tossed several meals away while experimenting with the enclosed heater, and have to heat, unbagged and in a separate container.

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    1. Thanks for that comment, which raises an interesting point that I hadn't considered. The food is fine but what about the heater? If the commenter sees this reply, I'm curious to know if you have observed more efficient results with heaters in new MREs. In my own experience, the heaters have been better than twirling a stick trying to make a spark, but not as good as a microwave oven, and I haven't really taken note of how variable they were or if I noticed better results with new heaters than with old ones.

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    2. About the heaters no, I haven't bought any MREs recently. I bought these meals a while ago. After a bit more research today, which I should have done before, I learn that the square heaters in military-issue MREs only last 5 years. A lesson learned. I'll make note to get back to you with results if and when I replenish my supplies and try newer heaters. Thanks!

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    3. Good, thanks; this is a useful addition to the article. Two thoughts about the issue: First, as with the rest of the matter of MRE shelf life, "expiration" dates can be determined in some cases as a date before which optimal quality hasn't deteriorated, even if reasonable quality will remain for years after that. I'm note sure if that applies here, but assuming that the reactive agents in the chemical packet lose potency over time rather than a sudden loss of reactivity, I'd imagine that they would give slowly declining efficiency over time after that date. The second thought is that to be useful for military purposes, which can involve people living on MREs daily for a long time, everything should be good enough to ensure good quality of life for the personnel. For emergency use, which would presumably involve a few days of home use or weeks in extreme post-disaster scenarios, lukewarm meals are probably not going to pose a problem for people, so the degradation of the heaters over time is probably not cause to toss otherwise good MREs.

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  3. Ate a 7 year old mre and fell with a fever, and no matter what im throwin em in the can. Itd be cruel to send this to those in need of emergency food.

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    1. I'm sorry to hear about your illness, and of course would not want to belittle that or give advice that could lead people to be ill. However, it's important to note that 7 years is within the normal expected shelf life of MREs; even if you take the most conservative estimates and plan on a 5 year "best by" date, I do not think that disease causing germs will be infectious after 7 years that were not already infectious after 5 years. Therefore, I suspect that you either had a bad MRE that would have made you sick even if eaten before its best-by date, or that you coincidentally got sick for some other reason after you ate the MRE.

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  4. Just had coffee and whitener from 1996 and it was fine. Tasted just as bad as it did back when I was drinking it in the British army. 2008 Berry Combo Fruit Grains were also fine. Dec 2004 Meatballs for lunch. Will.D.

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  5. I have received 4 cases from SoPakCo, and I was able to see one the 4 digit numbers... 9428, which from what I have gathered, Sept 5 2009... today is April 7 2017... what do you think I should do? Keep them or toss them?? Have not opened any of them. Thank you!!!

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    1. Chris, I think you may be looking at the wrong number. 9428 doesn't make sense using the system described above, which would say that it was packaged in 2009 on the four-hundred twenty-eighth day of the year, which is hard to do on planet earth. Either you are dealing with a Martian MRE, or that is not the number to look at, or they were using a different number system but I'll be distressed if that turns out to be the case since then my article is wrong :-) It would also be odd for a company to supply MREs in the 8th year of their shelf life, in any event. Are there any other numbers on the outer package or perhaps one of the inner packages? (I know, not ideal to have to open one of them but you could tape it shut again; it's the inner packages that need to remain sealed.)

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  6. Just ate a 12 year old mre, still kickin.....

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  7. I am about to eat these vegetables crackers with the #1019 I bought them like 4-5 year's ago I think I ate the rest and they tasted like a mre but that was a few years ago I bought a few mres at a flea market so I really don't know how old they are I'll let u know what I think In a few minutes

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  8. Just ate them. They were fresher then the saltines I usually eat. Didn't taste the veg.in it. It just tasted like a cracker but for being at least 7 years old it was def fresh. I usually have 1or2mre in my bug out bag but I wanted to try the rib and something else so I opened the package so I just have the rest of the more minus the meals. I think I am going to eat what I have and get a few fresh one for my bag if it's cool I'll post here as I eat the expired mres stuff I have as I eat it and let you and people know how it is. Thanks
    George

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  9. Mabe u can help me I got a meal but don't have the box and it don't say what it is all it says on it is. APACK VS 1924
    1164A Y3SL EST15893 17:29 1
    I want to eat it but don't know what it is and I can't do spicy cuz of stomach surgery any help will be appreciated.
    P.s. sorry for being a pain in the ass but I just found this page
    George

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    1. Thanks George, by all means, feel free to post your impressions! I'm just seeing these now right before heading to bed so I'll delve into the code numbers tomorrow but wanted to go ahead and put up the comments now.

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    2. Sorry for the delay in getting back about the MRE contents. I'm only aware of date codes in those strings of numbers, other than perhaps batch indication or other things that probably are only useful to the manufacturer. If the MRE component has that string of numbers and letters, then presumably the date is indicated by some string of four numbers. In your code, that would be either 1921 or 1164, both of which ststart with a 1. As in my example in the mail article, the first digit indicates the last digit of the year, which is unfortunate since we are discussing using MREs that are more than 10 years old. The 1 could mean 2011 or 2001 or 1991, etc.! If you purchased this in the last few years, then presumably it's 2011, although I don't know if you got them a long time ago. Regarding whether contents are spicy, the name of the dish isn't on the box? I don't know if the code numbers include the identify of the dish, but they don't mean anything to me; mine all have printed names of foods on the outsides of the individual component packages.

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  10. Mine expired in 2009/2011. I am still eating them on camping and hunting trips. I use the smell/ taste test as i go along. I have 14 cases and plan on using them if ever needed.

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  11. I also am still eating 2008 dated MRE'S and most of the contents are good, with the exception of the chocolate goodies and of course the heaters, and who actually eats the wheat bread.

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    1. Yeah, I'll be the wheat bread is not super fresh after 10 years. None of my MREs had it so I have not had the experience! Thanks for the comment.

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  12. I have two case's that I'm sure are very expired. I couldn't care less how " Tasty" they are, I'm worried about getting ill.I already found out the heaters​ DON'T​ work after a few years. I have fifty " mountain house" meal's. They are simply the best and I have many different ways to heat water..
    Bottom line is I don't want to toss all those MREs....I think they last alot longer than we are led to believe...I will let you know what the dates are and if I get ill eating some..

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    1. Thanks, all I could really add would be as in previous comments, that I agree with you that they last longer than advertised (as discussed in my series of articles), and that the main expected problems to arise with age are a deterioration of texture and potentially taste, perhaps to the point of being unappetizing, but it's unlikely that something infectious in in there 10 years out that wasn't already apparent at 5 years out. However, I can't guarantee anything, and if you had a gut feeling that something was "bad," no way am I going to try to convince you to eat it! (A gut feeling that you'll be having a gut feeling...) Regarding heaters, it seems many people are reporting that they lose their potency; although as I said in an earlier comment, if your MREs are for the purpose of emergency food, you probably won't be all that unhappy with a few days of room-temperature meals. I haven't tried the Mountain House; meals although they seem to be popular. I do like the idea of not having to use up emergency water to reconstitute emergency food though, one of the reasons I don't have freeze-dried meals in my kits.

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  13. Well, a nieghbor gave me some that he has had for a while. He opend the pork rub #4 for us to try .Past the taste test, little ginger snap crackers were still crisp .So i hauled home a box of 12. Then i stumbled across thus site looking for the date since i saw nothing straight forward on the pack .4 numbers pressed into the pack, 0347. So that rib had set in god knows where for 18 years!and the last few of those were in this guys detached, no ac garage in middle of Florida .

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  14. (I'm really sorry for the delay in posting and answering; I just learned that the e-mail notifications of new comments have not been working since early June and were piling up in my moderation inbox without me knowing it.)

    Well what can we say, those darned things are built to last! My own take on it is that if they taste good, they are probably fine. I wonder if anyone has found MREs in old mummy tombs in Egypt...

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  15. We have 2 cases that have been sitting in the base ment for some years. One says, date packed 12-‘86, and the other is packed 1-‘92. Is there anything in these that are worth salvaging? Thank you!

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    1. Well, that's a good question; they are quite a bit older than anything I have tried so personally so far, so I couldn't give you an authoritative answer. Certainly if in doubt, I would toss it. (On the other hand, it might be interesting to open one and see if anything is ballooning and if anything smells odd; if you do that, please post a reply here and let us know!)

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  16. In case anyone is following comments for this article, I want to point out that I have updated the article to add more information about the code numbers for packaging dates, in yellow highlight in the main article.

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  17. Mine are pre ,09 going keep them until there is nothing else to eat.

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  18. Packing up our house in preparation to move, I found a full unopened case of MRE's by SOPAKO industries. Stamp on the outside of the case says 9090. I remember purchasing the case back around 1999/2000, so that makes sense. I opened up the case; all of the outer brown vinyl bags have no code stamps. Opened up a few of the bags, and the entree's had codes like 9050, 9064, and 9074, as did all the other components,so obviously all the meals were made in 1999 and packed into cases shortly afterwards. I'm a bit hesitant to try the entree's, but I also lean towards being a penny pincher, and tossing them all in the trash seems like a huge waste. I know that some of the other contents like applesauce, etc. are bad, but I may just hang onto the entree's and crackers, powdered drink mix, etc. I have other emergency rations on hand, such as Mountain House food pack buckets, but if the s**t hit the fan and things got desperate, like someone else said, it's not about how good they taste but if they'll keep you alive or not. HOWEVER, Matt: if you don't have any more 1999 production meals and want to try one for the blog, let me know and I'd be happy to send you one...your choice of menu item!

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    1. Loved your note sounds like our MREs are siblings or at least cousins. Thanks for the offer, but I actually do have another of that original batch from this article, tucked away in a special part of my supplies with a note that it's for testing in a few years! I somehow suspect that even I will not want to push it out yet another cycle from that, so I think I am all set.

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  19. While sifting through all the crap in the garage, I found another plastic tote full of MRE's from a different manufacturer (the Wornik Co.)that were dated 1997. Opening them all up, a few of the entree's might have leaked, as there were stains on the outer cardboard boxes. I pretty much decided to toss out the majority of the food items, with the exception of the crackers, powdered drink mixes, and the M&M's packets (interesting that Wornik supplied those and Skittles, etc, and others did not). However, I did sample a pound cake from one of the 1997 meals, and it was quite nice; a little crumbly but not stale, and a bit on the sweet side. Ate the whole thing, and it's now the next day and I feel fine. So 20+ year old pound cake survives well.

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    1. You got M&Ms? Wow, almost a reason to switch to that other brand! Although it does sound like their packaging might leave something to be desired; I haven't seen that leaking problem with the brands I have used in the past.

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  20. With memory forgiveness this is a true story. Got a draft notice in Viet Nam era time frame. I wrote on the envelope he moved,(chasing girls) and promptly did. A year later got a second notice, and figured it worked once (still chasing girls). Then the third letter I was bumming around and figured better get it over with. Biggest joke in basic was who I was going to vote for. Sorry, this is about mre's. Got assigned to the 1/4 Cav, tanks and apc's, mostly we cleared and out posted the for convoys. We always had 3 or 4 cases per man, hell we used to take pound cake out of one meal and peaches out of another make cobbler and throw the rest of the junk away. Sometimes to amuse ourselves we would throw something to the ground pounders and watch them scramble. Sorry still side tracked. I have since bought 40 cased of mre's, don't know how old but we bought them in 2007. What to do sell, give away or donate them. Also what are they worth? Thanks, Friend Bob

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    1. Thanks for the memories đŸ™‚. Based on my own experiences in this article, they are probably still good in a pinch although you would certainly want to inspect each item first. As far as what they're worth, probably nothing.

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  21. Awesome info ! wish me luck I just had some side foods and deserts from a 20 year old MRE!
    An old package of Jalapeno cheese spread, veggie crackers, Shortbread cookie and M&Ms. If I die, tell people not to eat them lol

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  22. There is a you tube channel the guy eats military rations from across time . mre1989 or something like that is his channel . 1899 was the oldest one he had . very interesting history of military rations

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    1. Did you really mean 1899, or did you mean to say 1989 like in the name of the channel??

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    2. He really did eat a meal from 1899 - it was a Boer War emergency ration can, with preserved meat in one side and cocoa in the other.

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    3. So i found some in my garage SOPAKCO the only 4 digit code i can find is 8305 i need a little help decipering plerase. Thanks!

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    4. Well let's see, I am not certain about SOPAKCO but if it follows the same system that I described in the article for 4-digit numbers, then the first number (8) would be the last digit of the year, which would be 2018, 2008, or 1998 depending on what decade you think you got those, and the 305 would be the 305th day of that year, which was November 1 in 2018 and 1998, and October 31 in 2008 if I did the math correctly. Unfortunately, it's not clear what decade it was, so you have to have some vague idea of how old they are.

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    5. Oh wait, SOPAKCO is the brand I showed in the article, so my numbering should be accurate. You still have to figure out what decade though!

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  23. Steve1989mreinfo is the guy on YouTube. I watched him eat c rations from the 1940s this morning and a whole bunch of mre’s from other countries. Really interesting. Seems from watching him and then reading some of the article here that storage is really key. He’s eating c rations and says they taste fine, even smoked a lucky strike out of one of them, but then saw him eat some mre’s from 2000 and everything was basically inedible to him.

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    1. Sounds like he's even more daring than I am! That's interesting about the MRE from 2000, since I didn't have that experience with mine, but notably, upon opening the package, it looks like it might not be good. Heating it up makes all the difference. The things that were no longer edible were pretty obvious, like the jam that was really darkened.

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  24. I just opened a 13 year old box and ate a few MREs. Everything was edible, albeit a little bland.

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    1. Sounds similar to my experience. I actually found some of the MREs to be rather salty; and I would not want to make a regular diet of them if I was watching my sodium. So blandness might actually be a welcome feature.

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  25. Thank you very very much for all of this information! It is very helpful to me. I am a prepper (my girlfriend swears that I am just wasting money on MREs) I just purchased some fresh ones (civilian ones) and got a good price, I think. $45.00 each case, and I drove an hour to pick them up in person to not have to pay for the expensive shipping. I like eating MREs and think it's fun because you can do it, without looking at the contents first, and be surprised and excited about what all I keep pulling out! Thanks again!!!

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    1. Thanks for the comment. Prepping is always a good thing and having these around for emergencies is clearly worthwhile. I should mention though that when it comes to actually making them part of your normal diet, they are pretty high in sodium so just be aware of that! (Gotta love those chocolate covered cookies though...)

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