Who, and how many people are involved? The humanitarian, culturally sensitve emergency rations dropped in Afghanistan were unpalatable to the recipients. If your in a stressfull 72 hour situation gastric upset is the last additional worry. Spring a chicken enchilada MRE on grandmother and you may have problems. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> For 72 hours you won't be worrying about spoilage, it's the 72 days before use we have to be concerned with. 72 Hours= 9 tradition meals in western tradition. I figure the first day as a 'buggie' I'll be lucky to snack on something cold. A hot meal is probably most important at night to keep our internal furnace fueled while sleeping and our caffeine addictions mean tea or coffee in the morning . Water may or may not be palatable even after treatment. So I pack Coffe,tea or Cocoa and powdered Gatorade, Honey packs ( thankyou Starbucks and Randy <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) and condensed milk for fluids. The milk can be used in many scratch cooking recipes and MOST IMPORTANT We may encounter other folks with infants. Oatmeal is easily carried and prepared with dehydrated fruits to provide variety and nutrition. The infamous PSK bulion cube is flavoured salt, but in a community effort makes a good stock to work from. Canned foods are heavy and much is water, but, once opened you have another coffee cup or cooking utensil. Toss in a can of beef and watch the legendary 'stone soup' come together.