Now official information about the new 19 German EPas

[housil]

At Ebay.de have been for a certain time some new "allegedly" German EPas, made from commercial supermarket items.

Now here is the official Bundeswehr page how the ->new 19 EPas<- look like and what´s in there.

(All pic´s from Ebay.de)

Note the English text at the lable


now it´s German




Not a clear, but brown packing.

They aren´t really new. They are now a mixture of known "old" EPa items mixed with civil, commercial items to increase varity. The entrees are the same as we can buy at every supermarket

The only, real new thing is the freezedried made by http://www.trekneat.de

[German_EPA]

very good find olli

[Treesuit]

Which ration is the new version? I see a clear on and a brown one.

[housil]

Which ration is the new version? I see a clear on and a brown one.

All from 4 (IV) to 19 (XIX) are new and yes, they are comming now in the known cardboard box (I-V), clear plastic bags and brown plastic bags.

[ak70g2]

I've tried the TrekNEat brand. Very good, very filling, but somewhat bland taste. They have an very interesting (and very good) bannock (fried bread) pouch. It was funny to make it on the forest.

TrekNEat brand belongs to Swiss Katadyn group, maker of water filters and the quality of this foods are very high.

[housil]

I've tried the TrekNEat brand. Very good, very filling, but somewhat bland taste. They have an very interesting (and very good) bannock (fried bread) pouch. It was funny to make it on the forest.

TrekNEat brand belongs to Swiss Katadyn group, maker of water filters and the quality of this foods are very high.

See, I didn´t know that. Thx for it!!
This "new" rations aren´t available over here, as much as I know they are intend just to increase the varity for the troops so they don´t have to eat every third day the same dish

I guess they made them for a certain purpose also as they now provide a single person ration with freezedried dishes too.

I´m just a liitle bit "disappointed" they are using now commerial supermarket dishes but I hope "our guys over there" like em

[biscuits brown]

It is a huge increase in variety for sure

But do you think the quality has suffered? So now they are phasing out the boxed Epa?

[housil]

But do you think the quality has suffered?

Don´t think so. They just mixed up regular EPa with (rare) EPa leicht components, but also use the manufacturer whole commercial varity.
The only drawback to me is now the shelf life of only two years (commercial) vs. military 3.5years but as the shelf life from "cold war" EPas was 20 years - not a this big thing. This "new" EPas are made to be eaten not to be stored and I munch our guys "over there" everything they can get.

[hOMEr_jAy]

As Housil said, these new EPAs were specifically designed for consumption, not for storage. After more and more Bundeswehr soldiers had to rely on EPAs during their deployment in Afghanistan because there were no field kitchens available (i.e. when occupying FOBs) it was decided to increase the number of menus.
I´ve spoken to comrades who spent a long amount of time eating only the three different EPA menus and even though our "classical EPAs" are good, the lacking variety of meals was a real morale killer to them. Fortunately this issue seems to be solved now and our soldiers can enjoy a wider variety of meals.

[alcockell]

As Housil said, these new EPAs were specifically designed for consumption, not for storage. After more and more Bundeswehr soldiers had to rely on EPAs during their deployment in Afghanistan because there were no field kitchens available (i.e. when occupying FOBs) it was decided to increase the number of menus.
I´ve spoken to comrades who spent a long amount of time eating only the three different EPA menus and even though our "classical EPAs" are good, the lacking variety of meals was a real morale killer to them. Fortunately this issue seems to be solved now and our soldiers can enjoy a wider variety of meals.

SOunds like the reason the British MCRs were rolled out as well.