Thank you to all for your great replies. I have sent emails to 3 different sellers asking them how long they have had them and how they were stored. One persons feedback to one of the sellers said that the carton had mold on it.

I have had good results from the seller "Cajunclara" who I think goes by "Cajunangel" now. She is more expensive than the others but the quality of her MRE's are always firstrate.

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, many thousands of cases of MRE's were distributed in the Gulf Coast states, and some of those have made their way on to the market. As far as I know, there was no accounting for these, and I doubt the Feds are terribly concerned about who has them.

True. Post Katrina, you couldn't go to an aid station without getting a case per car. My bother had 20 plus cases by the time it was all over. He gave most away (Scouts, church groups, I think), kept a few for emergencies, and gave me 4 cases which I still have as my emergency stash.

Best,

.....CLIFF
(like, who else?)

You know when I was in the army, MREs came in one hell of a tough bag ready to go, not broken up into pieces like http://beprepared.com sales. I wonder what the deal is.

Dave

They are selling the parts.

Most people buy a computer; some people buy parts and build their own. Same thing. Personally, I think USGI TP would have to improve to suck, and I only need so many spoons, so why should I (if I can find USGI MREs that I know are mostly legal) buy umpty accessory packs? I'll buy components and build what I need.

Not to discount that method Ironraven, but that also leaves your kit without the main MRE shell. The broken down / stripped down versions are meant to be consumed soon or when your pack simply doesn't have the space for a mission. But once you break the outer seal on the overall pack, you lose some containment/protection. I'm not saying that the entree or other items are going to break down immediately or anything, but I'd be willing to bet money that they break down faster than the MREs which are left intact.

So I think that tactic depends on your goals. If it's long term storage for emergencies, keep them cool and intact. If you are going camping with them or know they'll be rotated out in a year or less, it's probably not an issue. I'm just throwing out a number on that... I have no earthly idea what the degradation is without it's outer shell. If nothing else, I know that the internal packs would develop fewer failures due to rough handling. Maybe one could vacuum seal custom packs after buying the parts? Probably not quite as good, but would certainly offer benefits.

That has got to be the longest way to say " I don't have a clue what proven benefits the outer MRE bag offers, but I imagine it has some".

I'm not going to disagree with you, but I think the packaging of the MRE is over engineered to the point of insanity. I'll point out a few things I'm not expecting:

-Being run over by an armoured vehicle. The packaging of the MRE was designed so your lunch would survive being under an APC, thus the lack of forks. I'm afraid there are other things in my pack that I'd be more worked up over if they were run over.

-Being decontaminated. The outer bag was there so that the NBC troops could spray down and reissue MREs that had been exposed, and the outer bag would keep everything safe. I'm sorry, but if lunch comes with mustard gas, anthrax, or glows in the dark, I'm not THAT hungry.

-Being salvaged from a botched airdrop. One of the requirements was that the MRE packaging had to be able to survive a fall from some height when the parachute holding the pallet didn't work so well. I'm not expecting resupply by air in the first place.

The list of stuff like that goes on. Basically, it is a list of "he's dead, but his food is still good". I've known people who've packed the same stripped down MRE in their hunting packs since Desert Storm, and those inner bags have held up well. I feel pretty safe- I don't eat anything other than maybe some cheeses (wow, that will be sharp) or alcohol that is old enough to learn to drive.