HDR Review

Humanitarian Daily Ration Review

By: kman
Date: 19 January 2010

HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Contents HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Meal

The Humanitarian Daily Ration (HDR) is a ready-to-eat meal similar to the Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) used by the US military. HDRs were developed as a means of feeding large populations of displaced persons or refugees under emergency conditions. A single HDR is designed to provide a full day’s sustenance to a moderately malnourished individual (as opposed to MREs, where three are intended to feed a soldier for one day in the field). HDRs also differ from MREs in that they contain no animal products or by-products so as to be acceptable to a wide range of consumers with religious and dietary restrictions. Each HDR contains approximately 2200 calories.

The HDR I’m reviewing here is from early 2003. Most HDRs distributed as aid are less than a year old but in this case, the only HDR I had on hand was 7 years old. But that’s ok – HDRs, like MREs, seem to hold up very well over time as long as they are stored properly and in this case, all the parts of the HDR were still fresh-tasting and as delicious as they could be.

The menu being reviewed is Menu 5 from The Wornick Company. As you can see on the HDR menus page, Menu 5 could be one of three different variations. In my case, I received Menu 5C:

MENU 5
C
 Calories
Lentil Stew
Red Beans & Rice
Biscuit (2 pack MRE crackers)
Vegetable Crackers (2 pack)
Fruit Bar (2 oz. Fig)
Peanut Butter
Strawberry Jam
Fruit Pastry (2 pack)
Shortbread (1 bar)
Accessory Pack		 350
400
180
180
200
250
70
420
110
Total: 2160

 

Here’s the HDR bag along with some pictures of the contents. You wouldn’t believe how much fun it is trying to take flash pictures of shiny, silver, reflective packages!
HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Meal Bag HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Contents HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Contents HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Contents

This is a better picture of the HDR bag along with the included “Instruction Sheet”.
HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration  HDR, Humanitarian Daily Ration Instructions

The two entrees – Red Beans & Rice and Lentil Stew. These are the shots of the front and back of the boxes.
HDR, Red Beans & Rice and Lentil Stew Entrees, front of package HDR, Red Beans & Rice and Lentil Stew Entrees, back HDR, Red Beans & Rice and Lentil Stew Entrees, retort packages

Lentil Stew. This entree probably tastes “ok” when it’s cold, but heated up (and I heated up both entrees for 15 minutes in boiling water), it’s incredibly delicious! The second picture is of the Lentil Stew in the pouch it comes in.
HDR Entree, Lentil Stew HDR Entree, Lentil Stew HDR Entree, Lentil Stew in bowl HDR Entree, Lentil Stew

Red Beans & Rice. Beans and rice aren’t the most palatable when they’re cold. Even though the HDR entrees are fully cooked, they taste much better when they’re warmed up. In this case, the warmed-up Read Beans & Rice had terrific flavor!
HDR Entree, Red Beans & Rice HDR Entree, Red Beans & Rice HDR Entree, Red Beans & Rice in bowl HDR Entree, Red Beans & Rice

Here are both entrees side by side.
HDR Entree, Red Beans & Rice and Lentil Stew

Vegetable crackers and plain MRE crackers. These are your standard MRE vegetable and plain crackers – the vegetable version has a little more flavor than the plain but are a little more crumbly. In the third picture, the veggie crackers are on the left, plain crackers on the right.
.HDR Vegetable crackers and plain MRE crackers Crackers Crackers

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam. The peanut butter and jam goes great on both crackers! I opened the packages this way to display the contents. Usually, you just tear off a corner and squeeze the contents out.
HDR Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam HDR Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam HDR Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam on crackers

Fig Bar. This is your basic “Fig Newton”. It has a special taste that you’ll always associate with an MRE Fig Bar (it’s not a bad taste – just “unique”). The fig bar makes for a nice dessert.
HDR Fig Bar HDR Fig Bar HDR Fig Bar

Fruit Pastry. I was curious as to what an MRE pastry would look like but as soon as I saw the inside packaging, I knew I was in for a treat – Pop Tarts! Yes, “fruit pastry” is slang for “toaster pastry” which is code for “Pop Tarts”. In this case, they were unfrosted Apple Cinnamon Pop Tarts. Very delicious and a great breakfast item.
HDR Fruit Pastry HDR Fruit Pastry HDR Fruit Pastry HDR Fruit Pastry

Shortbread. This was a lone, but very tasty, shortbread cookie.
HDR Shortbread HDR Shortbread HDR Shortbread

Accessory pack containing a spoon, napkin, wet nap, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and matches.
HDR Accessory Pack

Here is everything in the HDR together in a few different pictures.
HDR Meal HDR Meal HDR Meal

After taking all the pictures (and eating all the food), I realized it would have been even better if I had grouped the items into meals – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast could be the Pop Tarts. Lunch could be an entree, crackers, and jam. Then dinner could be the remaining entree, crackers and peanut butter, and then the fig bar or shortbread cookie for dessert.

Overall Review

In an emergency situation, HDRs are a fine food alternative. One HDR bag should be enough food to get you through the day. They definitely don’t contain as much food as you’d get in three MREs but the menu selection is probably more acceptable to non-US consumers. You could do a lot worse than an HDR. I’ve tried a couple of HDR entrees in the past but those were eaten cold (at room temperature) and I didn’t much like them. But I warmed up these entrees and the difference was amazing – they had incredible flavor and could hold their own against any of my favorite MRE entrees.