"...all belch the same flavor."
That is good! LOL, great way to start my day.
Thanks for that.

I found this information on the TOTM. Looks like it doesn't have the shelf life of an MRE which is up to 6 years depending on storage.

This product is designed to be a "just in time"/Direct Vendor Delivery (DVD) item with a 7-10 day delivery time. The shelf life of the TOTM at the time of delivery to the customer will be no less than 12 months.

http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/meals/totm.htm

Sopakco (also spelled So Pak Co) is a company that make MREs and I've seen a lot of theirs around. One of the Army Surplus stores near me has them on a reqular basis for less that $50 a case (12 meals). I have not "bitten' the bullet" yet and bought any. But I plan to do so in the next few months. They are available through a lot of online outlets too.

Frankly, I think part of their bad reputation is simply the fact that they're designed for soldiers, and it's in the nature of a soldier to [censored] and complain. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

They're designed to cater to the lowest common denominator, so of course they're a compromise. The military also has rules about providing soldiers a balanced diet (it's in their best interests to make sure their soldiers are healthy, obviously) so people who were weaned on Micky Dee's Big Macs and Quarter-pounders with Cheese might find them a trifle bland <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

In short, I always found them edible (even when we could only get the American ones <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) and a huge step up from bugs and tree-bark. (Tbf, I've never eaten bugs or tree-bark, tho <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> )

I remember back in basic training, when we pathetic lily-livered misbegotten excuses for the human race (i.e. recruits) dared to complain, our sergeant riposted "You wait till you've been out on exercise for a couple of weeks, you'll eat the cardboard box they came in." <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I never got that hungry, personally, but I did notice that spending 4 hours in the rain putting up an antenna markedly improved their taste <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Military rations are a little bit of a hobby with me, I've traded for and tried many. Overall the MRE's are pretty good. When they first came out they were nowhere near as good as they are now. There was a problem with both the taste and amount of food. At this point there are 24 or 26 varieties of meals and some are quite good. The "menu" is changed each year it seams, some items deleted and new ones added. Much of the bad reputation came from Gulf War 1, when soldiers ate the older MRE's that had been stock piled over there .for many years . Some troops ate nothing but old MRE's for many months.I like the enchilada and the chocolate covered oatmeal cookie. Fed the MRE rice to my family for dinner (with other regular food) and no one complained. The MRE could use lifeboat matches and water puri tabs like in the British rations.

As with all foods...your mileage may vary.

In the Great White North we have IMP's (Individual Meal Pack); they're the equivalent of the MRE but packed in a way as to generate more garbage than food. Longest I had to subsist on them was on Aircrew Survival for 3 weeks, but when you're busy and *hungry*, they hit the spot without too much griping. Take the time to heat and season the food to your taste, they'll be about a 7. Eat them cold and as they are, the taste drops to 5.

Certain meals will be liked, and others, like the infamous ham omelet, which could be used to patch a tarp, are practically inedible. But when you're hungry...well...even I "enjoyed" a ham omelet once.

But only once.

And drink plenty of water...that will prevent the constipation that some people experience. (It's either the food, or the reluctance to do as bears do in the woods...)