MIL was good for canned good 30 years old....
Then would say..."Does smell ok to you?"
Not any more.
Actually.... I will no longer be stashing MRE's.....all in all I think they are expensive, shelf life is OK....but the SHTF keep getting postponed?
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MIL was good for canned good 30 years old....
Then would say..."Does smell ok to you?"
Not any more.
Actually.... I will no longer be stashing MRE's.....all in all I think they are expensive, shelf life is OK....but the SHTF keep getting postponed?
This reminds me of an old George Carlin bit about food found in the refrigerator.
"'Do you want to eat this? If you don't, I'm going to throw it away.' In other words: This is trash, but if you want to eat it, it's okay by me."
"Does anyone want this last pudding? It's only pulled away from the bowl two inches."
"Is this any good?" "What's it smell like?" [sniffs] "It has no smell whatsoever." "Put it back. It's still good."
"What's this? Could be meat. Could be cake."
Back when I was in the force here, we had cans. Now they have the freezedryed stuff like everyone else. I remember one specific that was little white sausages in a bland tomato sauce, pretty much like the sauce from heinz canned beans. It was called "Dead mans fingers" and it looked the part. Awful.
I only buy freezedried stuff if Im going out on a long hike, but I rather just pick items I want myself and dehydrate and vacpac it. I dont shelf it. I don't think it's worth the money with premade mre's.
IDK why but i always found MREs to be rather fun. Probably the nostalgia of it who knows. To me its like having a box of cracker jacks only to find a toy in the box on top of it all.
But MRE's are not cost effective, nor are they particularly healthy, containing empty calories and an abundance of sugar in their side dishes and drink mixes. They also had a much longer shelf life then they do now. Not to mention they are heavy AF.
Mountain House seems to be the "go to" choice for many. They have changed their info on storage life too of their products, many that said 'expired' now are being told by M.H. that they have a 30 year shelf life ( this is from their most current research lab results of their older entrees.) But unless you are purchasing large cans, you are paying an arm and a leg for these meals, and even then it is more costly pound per pound then buying food at the supermarket. I will say though, MH is has truly lightweight meals for backpacking.
So it is not about being cost effective but rather the longevity of what you are buying and what you are buying it for, for the purpose of this website, its for survival preparedness.
Regardless, I still like MRE's and usually have some in my SUV, and nothing from them ever seems to go to waste with me, esp. the tiny tabasco sauces and the moist toilets. lol.
The only cost effective alternative is to make your own premade dehydrated meals. I have a food dehydrator and a vacuum sealer device and throw in that a Oxygen and Moisture absorber packet and your gtg.