MREInfo News

The Defense Logistics Agency recently awarded new contracts to Wornick, Ameriqual, and Sopakco - looks like $220 million worth of MREs over the next two years:

From: Defenselink.mil:

The Wornick Co., McAllen, Texas, was awarded on Dec. 8, 2004, an $81,117,500 fixed price with economic price adjustment/indefinite quantity contract for meals, ready-to-eat and humanitarian daily rations for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. This contract is exercising the second of two one-year options. Performance completion date is expected to be Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will expire at end of current fiscal year. There were 3 proposals solicited and 3 responded. The contracting activity is the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.

AmeriQual Group, LLC, Evansville, Ind., was awarded on Dec. 8, 2004, a $80,855,000 fixed price with economic price adjustment/indefinite quantity contract for meals, ready-to-eat and humanitarian daily rations for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. This contract is exercising the second of two one-year options. Performance completion date is expected to be Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will expire at end of current fiscal year. There were 3 proposals solicited and 3 responded. The contracting activity is the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.

SOPAKCO Packaging, Mullins, S.C., was awarded on Dec. 8, 2004, a $61,690,625 fixed price with economic price adjustment/indefinite quantity contract for meals, ready-to-eat and humanitarian daily rations for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. This contract is exercising the second of two one-year options. Performance completion date is expected to be Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will expire at end of current fiscal year. There were 3 proposals solicited and 3 responded. The contracting activity is the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.

Excerpt from The Canton Daily Ledger:

A specially trained team from the Texas Forest Service came to the Florida panhandle and set up logistical staging areas, where truckloads of food, water, and ice were brought in, unloaded and reloaded for distribution, and sent out to the distribution sites throughout the county. During the two-week period, the Logistical Staging Area in Santa Rosa County served 74,245 carloads of people, distributing 530,045 gallons of water, 1,393,648 MRE’s (”Meals Ready-to-Eat,” commonly used by the U.S. military), and 3,387,500 pounds of ice.

Wow…that’s just over 116,000 cases of MREs or 2400+ pallets. And judging from some of the ebay auctions I’ve seen lately, they were sending them brand-new stock from 2004.

From The Courier Press:

AmeriQual to supply more meals to troops

November 6, 2004

Vanderburgh County-based AmeriQual Foods Inc., which produces Meals Ready to Eat for the U.S. Department of Defense, was awarded a government contract worth more than $21 million this week.
Under the contract, AmeriQual will produce thousands more MREs to feed U.S. troops and federal civilian agencies.
It comes on the heels of a defense department contract of more than $16.2 million awarded to AmeriQual on Sept. 23.
Both contracts are for MREs for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies, according to the defense department Web site.
The completion date for the latest contract is expected to be March 31, 2005. The completion date on the earlier contract is Jan. 31, 2005. A spokesman for AmeriQual could not be reached for comment.
The company has received a number of other defense contracts in recent years.
AmeriQual produces some two dozen different types of MREs, including mesquite chicken, seafood jambalaya, salmon fillet and sloppy joe, all in a pouch.
The meals are designed to sustain an individual engaged in heavy activity, such as helping to fight the war in Iraq, when normal food-service facilities are unavailable.
The bag is lightweight and fits easily into military field clothing pockets. A flameless ration heating device also is provided.
The shelf life of an MRE is three years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the shelf life can be extended through the use of cold storage facilities prior to distribution.
In addition to its effort to feed American military personnel, AmeriQual has commercial contracts to produce and/or package products for major companies.

From The Herald Standard

Military upgrades eggs for ready-made meals

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The military discontinued using eggs in its “meals-ready-to-eat” (MRE) pouches about 10 years ago after soldiers complained they were rubbery and had a grayish tint.
Now, defense officials want to dish up a tastier, tender egg to America’s soldiers - and it’s enlisted the help of three schools to do just that.
Researchers at Ohio State, Washington State and the Illinois Institute of Technology are experimenting with a way to preserve scrambled-egg patties by combining high temperature with high pressure. By applying pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch, the process takes about six minutes.
The old way to preserve MRE eggs, which came in the form of an egg-and-ham omelet, used to cook eggs at high temperatures for more than 90 minutes, said Patrick Dunne, senior adviser in the Combat Rations Directorate at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center near Boston.
“You’ve got thoroughly cooked eggs to say the least,” said Dunne, a biochemist.
The researchers have been working on the project for the past 16 months with a $250,000 grant.
“We’re kind of going through tryouts,” Ohio State food scientist V.M. Balasubramaniam said of the different recipes.
The scrambled-egg patties being tested contain about 20 percent cheese. The eggs have been taste-tested by a consumer panel at Washington State.
Next, the eggs will be taste-tested by food technologists at the Massachusetts soldier center, who will rate the eggs for flavor and tenderness. The packaging system must still be finished, and the Food and Drug Administration must approve the eggs before they are sent to soldiers for field tests.

And here’s another link to a similar, but longer story: OSU researchers hope their eggs pass muster

Welcome to the new MREInfo news section!

Every day it seems I run across some new interesting article or website on MREs and ration-related stuff. I usually read it, bookmark it, or save it for “later use” - which usually means it gets filed away for that mythical time in the future when I’ll have the free time to integrate the new bit of info into the web site. But I’ve had to admit to myself that this mythical time will never arrive and all this good info I have saved up is just sitting there on my PC. So why not let it sit here on the Internet and at least other people will be able to make use of it.

So I’m giving this a try. I’ll be adding in whatever looks fun. Hope you like it.