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Does any know why mountain house only give a 3 year shelf life on the current MCW meals..... all the other MH products get a 30 year shelf life and the MCW bag seems better made and more protective them the normal pouch. Is it just the oxygen absorber that makes the difference? If it is then this doesn't make sense either as the pack is vacuum sealed.

Anyone got an idea?

Have you tried contacting Mountain House and asking directly?

There is/was an explanation on that but it is escaping me.
Something with required packaging maybe??? I forget exactly.

According to the Epicenter:

https://theepicenter.com/food-storage/m ... -spec.html

Mountain House LRP Long Range Patrol Rations (also known as MCW Meals, or Meal Cold Weather Rations) and Dehydrated MRE Military Pouches have a stated 3-year shelf life, but shelf life can be extended to 10+ years when stored in cool, dry conditions (above freezing).

That said, In my opinion, the 3 year age is probably some sort of minimum specification to fulfill a USG contract... In actuality, self life if probably closer very similar to, if not the same as the regular commercial pouches (30 years).

FWIW, in 2017 I purchased two cases of 2004 date of production MCWs and all the mains (manufactured by Mountain House aka Oregon Freeze Dry) were still good and tasted as such. Around that same time, I purchased a few 1989 RCWs (the precursor to the MCWs) and those were also perfectly edible. I'd hazard a guess that the 3 year shelf life is just a baseline for most if not all US military rations and even they will accept that the rations will last longer than that, provided they are stored well.

Thanks for the replys people. - I'm a big fan of the oriental spicy chicken and rice, Thinking of stocking up in case they totally stop production, They only make it for MCW's at the moment

I saw on Epicenter sight that they were selling overstock cases of individual menu mains. Like a case of 20.

[url]https://theepicenter.com/long-range-pat ... -case.html[\url]

Sorry to ressurect an old thread....


I've also been looking at the stated shelf life of these freezedried meals,

Again according to epicenter, the propak meals 'military spec' have a 30 year shelf life but some have a 5 year printed date which was because the OFD required them to have a date.

AFAIK the propak meals are as near to the MCW versions as you can get, they are vacuumed sealed and don't have an oxygen absorber in the pack.

Mountain House give a 30 year shelf life to those pouch meals so I don't know why the MCW ones wouldn't be the same.