MREInfo News

I just added the HDR (Humanitarian Daily Ration) page to the website.

I was doing some googling today and ran across this Air Force site with lots of pics and videos from the Humanitarian Relief Mission from Operation Enduring Freedom. The pics are mostly from October - December, 2001, and show how the Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) were loaded onto C-17s and airdropped into Afghanistan.

I’ve included a few sample pics below (click on them for larger versions), but I’d also encourage you to visit the site above for more.

Thanks to Aurélien, an MREInfo visitor from France, we now have better English translations of the French RCIRs.

While updating the French RCIR page, I noticed that one of my Japanese sources for the menu information has also added some more RCIR pics to his site: Page 1 [in English] and Page 2 (detailed photos here) [in English].

A buddy of mine has recently returned from Iraq and brought back a whole case of British rations for me. Woohoo! A few interesting things about the rations…first off…that case is heavy! There are 10 rations per case (one ration = food for one day) and the whole case weighs about 45 lbs.

Another interesting thing I’ve noted so far is that neither the case nor the individual ration packs are marked with the menu letter or a date - that area on the box is just blank (pictures coming later).

And finally, the contents of the rations aren’t matching up with the menu listing. For example, one ration contains “Sausage & Beans” and “Pork Casserole” entrees. But the sausage is supposed to be in menu C and the pork in menu D. It looks like they’re just mixing and matching ration parts.

Maybe this is standard practice for British rations or maybe they were in such a hurry to get new rations into the field that they gave up marking the boxes and making sure all the parts matched up.

It looks like Natick has developed something new called the “Food Packet, Carbohydrate Supplement” or CarboPack for short:

According to the fact sheet, “the CarboPack consists of two eight-ounce carbohydrate electrolyte beverages and one carbohydrate rich bar providing a minimum of 75 grams of carbohydrate and 380 kilocalories.” In other words, two drink mixes and a powerbar.

I’ve been hearing all about Hardee’s new Monster Thickburger on the radio and tv. Mostly, they are reporting about the obscene amount of calories and fat in this fine delicacy….1417 calories and 107 grams of fat. And then today it hit me…wow…that’s more than a whole MRE. I can only image what the total comes up to when you add in the large fries and gallon o’ coke. But wait…I don’t have to image…I’ll just use Hardee’s Online Nutrition Calculator. Cool….around 2300 calories and 135 grams of fat. Now that’s eating!

Compared to the MRE’s paltry 1250 calories and 35 grams of fat…well darn…MREs are starting to look like health food!

Check it out: over at Redsix’s blog, Armor Geddon he has a post and a picture about how tank crews heat up their water:

From the blog:

Mr. Abrams the coffee maker. If you take the lid of a .50cal ammo box and pound the side lips down, you can slip the lid into the back grill of the exhaust. Then set your canteen cup for about 2 minutes. Let the 900 degree exhaust of your jet engine heat that puppy up and BAM - hot water for shaving, Ramen noodles, coffee, washing your face, etc.

I’ve been seeing these things more and more often in the grocery stores - commercial foods in retort pouches. As you probably know, retort pouches are those things the MRE entrees and sides come in. I’ll make another post later about the actual technology behind retort pouchs.

The first retort pouches I saw in the grocery store were for tuna - then salmon - then flavored tuna, etc. It was pretty cool to see retort pouches catching on. But tuna…not too exciting. Later, I started seeing cat food (Friskies) in retort pouches. Again, very cool…but it’s still cat food. Then a number of months back, I saw that Wal-Mart Super Centers were carrying the “Sweet Sue” brand of retort-packaged meals. These things were honest-to-goodness entrees - things like Chicken Marinara and Chili. These things cost about $2.50 each which I considered low enough to try but a little to high to stock up on.

Then this past weekend, I was at a local Big Lots store and saw they had some retort-pouched entrees from Castleberry’s - Lasagna and Chili No Beans. Even better, they were only $0.69 each. Here’s a picture of the lasagna entree:

What’s even better about the Castleberry entrees is that they’re almost the exact same size and shape of the MRE entrees - which means they fit inside an FRH. I gave it a try and it worked just fine. The Castleberry Lasagna entree heated up just fine. The pouch itself is a little bit thinner than the military entrees, material-wise - it didn’t feel as sturdy. Of course, the commercial entrees probably weren’t designed to withstand a 100-foot fall.

Taste-wise, the lasagna tasted fine - not amazing, not wonderful - but what else are you expecting from a retort-pouch meal? Throw in a little salt and some tobasco sauce and I’d put it on par with the military MRE entrees. And for $0.69, you can’t go wrong with these things.

Here’s a comparison picture of four different types of entrees. From left to right, they are: Military MRE entree (Jamaican Pork Chop), Castleberry Lasagna, Castleberry Chili, and Sweet Sue Chicken Marinara. Click on the picture to see a larger version and also to see the front and back shots.

You may have heard how many soldiers in the field cut apart the cardboard boxes that the MRE entrees/sides come in and use the blank side to write postcards home. Here’s an article from USA Today that explains it: Troops use MRE packaging to write home.

Here are a couple of example MRE postcards that I found here (click pictures for larger versions):

Now it looks like they’ve decided to make the postcard writing process easier by including a pre-printed postcard forms on the MRE fruit cartons. These new forms, called “MRE Post Card Labels” are expected to be included in the 2006 MREs. Here’s what it looks like (click for a larger version):

I was just browsing the MRE XXV (2005) PCRs (Performance-based Contract Requirements) over at the DSCP’s web site and noticed a new addition - the “Bag, Hot Beverage”. From reading the PCR, it looks like this is a bag that you fill with 12 oz. of water and then placed in an Flameless Ration Heater. Six minutes later…hot water for your coffee, tea, or cocoa. Here are the instructions from the PCR:

HOT BEVERAGE BAG
WARNING

To avoid a burn, beverage heating time should not exceed 6 minutes.

Use caution when handling HOT beverage bag.

DIRECTIONS
1. Open beverage bag. Fill with water to appropriate fill line. Add beverage powder.
2. Remove air from bag, then secure closure.
3. Place beverage bag in FRH as you would an MRE entrée.
4. Activate FRH.
5. Load FRH/beverage bag into an MRE carton.
6. Heat 4 to 6 minutes. Remove HOT beverage bag. Discard FRH. Save carton.
7. Place beverage bag back in carton. Carton insulates hot beverage and protects hands from heat.
8. Open beverage bag. Drink beverage.

As for the what the bag is made of of, it says “high density polyethylene film (HDPE) of a minimum 0.002 inch thickness…constructed with 1/8 inch wide heat sealed sides and a folded bottom.”

Here’s a picture of it from the PCR (click to see a larger version):