I did a lot of research on MREs in the past few years, and have some articles stored- probably more than most people here want to know about them, and maybe more than you want to.<br><br>The advantages of MREs in general are longish shelf life, convenience, portabllity, taste (say what you want, they’re a LOT better than the old C-rats), and fairly balanced nutrition- with emphasis on convenience. Disadvantages are expense, and they tend to be high in calories, fat, and sodium.<br><br>The useful shelf life is a slippery subject. As Chris points out, the useful life is measured from manufacture date, not purchase date, so it’s important to know how old they are when you buy them. After that, the temperature that they’re stored at, and the consistency of the temperature, are the important keys. The lower and more consistent the better. At 70 degrees F, you can probably figure on at least 5 years- at 60 degrees, maybe twice that, but it diminishes pretty rapidly as the temperature goes up.<br><br>It’s hard to get real data on the shelf life, because, as far as I’ve been able to determine, the military only tested them to the point where they felt that there was a noticeable deterioration in taste. At that point, there was no real evidence of loss of nutritional value, and none at all of “spoilage”. Chances are that they have survival value long beyond their rated shelf life.<br><br>They’re probably not going to last as long as nitrogen-packed canned grains, dried beans, and that sort of thing, and they are certainly more expensive. On the other hand, living on grains and dried legumes, you can spend half of your life in the preparation of food, there’s not much variety, and you may have trouble maintaining a nutritional balance. You may not have that much time to spend. MREs will certainly last a lot longer than some canned foods- possibly canned meats, certainly fruits and tomatoes, acidic foods like that.<br><br>Keep in mind that MREs are apt to be a whole lot more useful than stored grains and such if you have to bug out. I can't imagine trying to grind wheat and make bread on the move.<br><br>Chris is right again in saying that you can’t legally get “real” MREs anymore, and I wouldn’t trust them anymore if you could. Sorry to say, every year the “civilian” versions seem to deviate more and more from the real military versions, but at least the entrees are the same, and the desserts are “real”, though they tend to not have the variety in a case of civilian MREs that they do in a case of military MREs.. often an entire production run seems to have just one dessert. Generally, the most common highly regarded “civilian” make is SOPAKCO, and the top model is the “Sure-Pak II”. The “M-Packed II” model is the same, but with only half the desserts and side dishes (6 per case of 12), so know what you’re paying for. There have been more manufacturers showing up lately, they may be better or worse, haven't looked into it.<br><br>You’re looking at paying way too much for these, though- even just before the Y2k fizzle I was paying between $36-38 a case, in lots of 5 or 6 cases. <br><br>Let me know if you have specific questions. I'd store a mix of things.. I do store a mix of things.<br>