Any idea what would be acceptable here? I had C rations while in the Army back in '72 that were canned in the late '40's; some showed the expanding signs of botulisim.
I have a tough time parting with the MREs, but I have no idea what the realistic shelf life is.
MRE = Meals Rejected by Etheopians, but under the right conditions....
Scott O'Grady, after being shot down in Bosnia In June 1995, and being without food for 6 days, subsisting on grass and ants, took a few spoonfulls from his Marine rescuers and passed on the rest.

Here's some stuff from the makers of MRE themselves (and by the way, the stuff they have now compared to 1995 is actually not too bad, I'm fond of the beef ravioli and the Chili, myself. We eat MRE's about once every three months (my son and I) just to keep the stock fresh.

Here's what i could learn from a maker of MRE's:
http://www.wornick.com/military/mre.htm

and here's what the military has to say:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/meals/mres.htm
"The shelf life of the MRE is three (3) years at 80 degrees F. However, the shelf life can be extended through the use of cold storage facilities prior to distribution. "

I'd toss 'em if they were from the days of sideburns and Janis Joplin.

LOL - Great feedback!!
Thanks very much for the links, I appreciate it.
I am not far from Major Surplus here in So Cal, so I can pick up the entrees without having to buy the entire meal. Most of what I have found there is edible.
I may order some from the link you attached.

Again, thanks very much.

A good rule of thumb - if it crawls out of the can/pouch/container under its own power, it is time to toss that particular ration.
Seriously, though, the Vietnam-era C-rations are now purely historical in value, unless you want to try a really nasty, prolonged way of killing yourself by eating them. I know a guy who still has some WW II C- and K-rations, just for curiosity’s sake.

As we used to say in the SEABEES,MRE=Meal Rarely Edible <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.Seriously tough,three to five years is a good rule of thumb.And by all means avoid any one labled"Omelet with Ham".No matter how new they were this one was the worst one.

Yep! My dog even passed on that one.

The only good thing that came with "Omelet w/Ham" was the highly compressed oatmeal bar: add water, instant glue....