Sopakco Sure-Pak 12 MREs

Sure-Pak 12 MREs

Sopakco is one of the three companies that produce MREs for the U.S. military. Their "Sure-Pak 12" product has been the longest-available civilian MRE on the market.

Contents

The Sure-Pak MREs contain many of the same components of the military MREs - the entrees, sides, crackers, and desserts are usually exactly the same (packaging and all) that you'll find in a real MRE. However, the cheese spread, peanut butter, and accessory packet may be different (see pictures below). Probably the best thing about the Sure-Paks is that they still include the standard military spoon. See the spoons section on the Civilian MRE Comparison page for more information.

Heaters

Ever since 2005, Sopakco has been offering the option of buying Sure-Paks with or without heaters. And when they say "with heaters", they really do mean the heaters are included in the meal bag. The heaters that are included are the same as the military Flameless Ration Heaters that are activated with plain water. The Sure-Paks with heaters cost about $9 more than without heaters.

Menus

A case of Sure-Paks comes with 12 individual meals. There are usually six different menus in each case so you get two of each menu. The menus from Sopakco change often so you don't have to worry about getting the same menus over and over. Even better, some online ordering sites (such as The Epicenter) let you pick exactly which menus you want - other companies just sell you a case and you get whichever menus show up.

Here's a menu listing from a case of Sure-Paks that were packed in September, 2006:

You'll notice that above I said there were six menus per case and each meal repeats. But as you can see from the above listings, that's not always so. In this case, it looks like they must have run out of the Pork Rib menu and substituted the Beef Patty. The official menu sticker on the outside of the box looked like this:

Here are some other examples of menus from different cases. These were taken from The Epicenter's website:

Case 1	Case 2	Case 3
Jambalaya with shrimp and ham Chili With Beans Spaghetti Cajun style rice/beans with beef sausage Chicken Strips in Salsa Cheese Omelet	Cheese Tortellini Pork Ribs Beef Ravioli Chili With Beans Spaghetti Cajun style rice/beans with beef sausage	Chicken Fajita Pork Ribs (boneless) Beef Enchilada (or might be Chicken Cavatelli) Chicken Strips in Salsa Beef in BBQ Sauce (Sloppy Joe) Vegetable Manicotti
Case 4	Case 5	Case 6
Penne Pasta with Spicy Vegetable Sausage Beef Patty, grilled Chicken Cavatelli Chicken Strips in Salsa Beef in BBQ Sauce (Sloppy Joe) Cajun style rice / beans with beef sausage	Cajun style rice/beans with beef sausage Vegetable Manicotti (or Beef Ravioli) Beef Roast with Vegetable (Pot Roast) Chili with Beans Beef Enchilada Cheese Omelet	Cajun style rice/beans with beef sausage Vegetable Manicotti Beef Roast with Vegetable (Pot Roast) Chili with Beans Beef Enchilada (or Grilled Chicken Breast) Chicken Strips in Salsa
Case 7
Chicken Fajita Beef Patty, grilled Chicken Cavatelli Chicken Strips in Salsa Beef in BBQ Sauce (Sloppy Joe) Cajun style rice/beans with beef sausage

Official Website for Sure-Pak 12s

While you can find Sopakco at http://www.sopakco.com, the Sure-Pak 12 civilian MREs are handled by their sister company, Crown Point, Ltd. at this address:

http://www.crownpt.com/MREs.htm

Where To Buy

Crown Point lists a number of distributors on this page:

http://www.crownpt.com/OrderInformation.htm

Of these vendors, The Epicenter and Meyers Custom Supply appear to the offer the best pricing and menu variety. Current web prices range from $65/case to $85/case so shop around to find the best price. Don't forget to factor in shipping cost.