And probably another miss...
New options are coming to troops’ rations, and some less popular items will disappear from the menu.
The next iteration of Meals Ready-to-Eat is MRE 46, set to release in 2026.
Among the options — all of which are required to have shelf lives of six months in 100 degrees Fahrenheit and three years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit — troops will no longer see beef taco filling, a pork sausage patty and jalapeno pepper jack beef patty.
Instead, those items will be replaced with buffalo chicken, Cuban-style beef picadillo with vegetables and a Thai-style red curry with chicken and rice.
“Buffalo chicken is something that [soldiers] have requested. It’s a popular item … so we’re hoping that this item will be longstanding,” Julie Edwards, a Combat Feeding Division senior technologist and registered dietitian, said in a U.S. Army release.
Full article, HERE from Army Times.
Gah, hard to believe MREs have been around 1975 and in the field since 1983. And they’ve sucked the entire time, IMHO. Also, us aviators weren’t allowed to get them, since they were clearly labeled ‘Not for preflight/inflight use’.
Honestly, I was happy with the C-rats they replaced. At least with C-rats, you ‘knew’ which ones to stay away from! And some of them were actually pretty good!!!
The ‘names’ for them by the troops are legendary, and I’m sure most of the vets have ‘some’ names for them...
Apparently there is now a pizza option... I do have some freeze dried foods I keep for emergency use, but I bought mine from Mountain House.
I’ve always put MREs in the same class as I do the ‘freeze dried’ astronaut food (freeze dried ice cream? Really?) I tried it once, and no, just no...
What were/are your experiences with MREs? Any that you actually like?
The omelet (one of the breakfasts offered by the MRE line) is quite good. If you're going back to the old C-Rats, I thought that the corned beef hash was edible. Ham and Lima beans were not.
1986: dehydrated beef patty. Should only be fed to prisoners at Gitmo, IMHO. Frankly, the designer(s) should be forced to eat it once a week.