If you were the MRE developer...

[DIRTYDAVE]

what would your case of MREs consist of? We can really fantasize here and have some fun with this one. Pretend that the government just awarded you the contract to develop the new menu for MREs and it is now up to you to overhaul the current menu from entree all the way to accessory pack. What would your Case A and Case B menus consist of? What would your sides be? What would you include or take out of the accessory pack? What kind of desserts would you include? You may get as fanatical about this as you would like or as simple as you would like. I plan on working on this in a seperate Word document and will post it at a later date. Have fun and be creative, but practical. The sky is the limit...YOU ARE THE BOSS WITH ALL THE MONEY!!!

[ranger0770]

I am thinking along the lines of reorganizing the MRE like the Canadian IMP or the old K Ration. Have separate menus for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Have breakfast type foods included such as sausage patty, ham steak, eggs, omelets, pancakes. With the retort packaging, I think its all doable. Then with lunch/dinner MRE's go to the more traditional menus. Probably wouldn't work because of logisitics. Unit A gets a 100 cases of breakfast only while Unit B get cases of dinner w/no breakfast.

[DIRTYDAVE]

Very interesting Ranger.

[DangerousDave]

new meals/items, or the perfect case? I'd like a case with 6 Spagetti's and 6 beefsteak with mushroom sauce. Sides of potatoes with the beef, and sliced peaches with the getti. Cheese pack, vege-cracker pack with all 12. An oatmeal cookie bar in all 12. All ac packs with red pepper, black pepper, salt, salt free seasoning blend and a small bottle of The Best Lousiana hot sauce made by Bruce Foods, Inc., not that cheap tabasco crap. FLIP Tabasco

[DIRTYDAVE]

Good reply DangerousDave, very interesting as well. You sound like you are alot like me in that you can eat the same of one thing if you like it many times in a row. I typically eat at the same restaurant that I like many days in a row. At the moment I am hooked on these Tuna wrap sandwiches at TooJay's restaurant with a side of fresh fruit which includes absolutely sweet and beautiful grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantelope and honeydew...OH MY, if I could package that meal into an MRE, I would be a happy military man or camper.

I have never had the sghetti as my daughter loves that entree and I always give it to her, but if you and her like it DangerousDave than that is good in my mind...

[kturnerga]

I have eaten MRE's off and on for a few years (am civilian puke) and were I at Sustenance I would
1) feature tea WITHOUT lemon in some of the accessory packs
2) Take those goshawful vegetarian/meatless meals and consign them to a special ration. How many soldiers are vegetarians- even females?
3) Make sure there were cold drink mixes- preferably two of some form- in ALL the accessory packages along with coffee.
4) Offer sports drink in some MRE's.
5) Do not EVER do away with beef stew and Tabasco packets
6) Provide a small cartoon or other booklet to bide the troops' time. McIlhenny provided a small brochure in the Sixties with their Tobasco. A more voluminous brochure would be fun.
7) Develop a soft cornbread slice that won't make troops drink extra water to wolf the thing down. Whole wheat bread is needed for more roughage.
Sides: potato salad (undertaker said when someone dies first thing friends do is to make "tater" salad), mixed greens (unseasoned with limited salt), and dried citrus.
9) Breakfast menu MRE's are worth exploring but something tells me eggs from a pouch are hideous. Integrating beef sausage or ham may allay this.
10) Introduce a special ziploc bag to save unused portions or to serve as a drink pouch.
11) Include a broader selection of fruit bar flavors.
12) Introduce more sandwiches.

But look at it this way; we've come a long way with the MRE's.

KAT

[kman]

Hi KAT. Good ideas - and it looks like Natick is already listening to you! I noticed a few items on your list that are being implemented right now:

4 - Sports drinks: the 2005 menus and 2006 menus contain a couple new drink items - "Electrolyte Beverage" and "Beverage, Carbohydrate Fortified".

9 - Breakfast MREs: the new menus also contain #4 - Cheese & Vegetable Omelet (also includes hash browns). I haven't tried one myself but I did receive an email from someone who tried it and said it wasn't bad.

10 - Special ziplock bag to save unused portions - the 2006 MREs will include the "Hot Beverage Bag" which *I think* is resealable and can be used to store uneaten food.

[bejean]

Good thread this is....

My changes :

Entree

1. Increase the size of the entree by perharps 50%. Was a soldier once and trust me a single MRE entree isn't enough for a starving cold and miserable trooper who just marched for hours and conquered an objective.

2. Noticed alot of the entree are tomato sauce based. I wonder how would cream sauce hold up in an retort pouch?

3. Its high time someone took notice how much better to eat from a pouch if we could tear if side-ways. Though K-MAN's method is good but the makers could easily make a tear-cut for greater convenience.

4. Vegetarian meals are shite. In my last company, only one of some 120 troopers is a vegan. All of us enjoy meat and lots of it please.

Side Dish / Snacks

1. Enough of those lemon poppyseed cakes. More cake variety please and yeah ...i am not unrealistic enough to ask for tiramisu or cream puffs.

2. Hooah bar is good but seeing so many types of candy/sports bars in the market i wonder why are there not more variety. Snickers or Mars anyone?

3. I hope in each MRE, there would be a real sidedish included like mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, beans, pasta etc. A cake or candy bar isn't a side dish and its only a snack. Though snacks should be included too.

4. Peaches, apricots, apple sauce are often very popular and please no dried fruits, alot of us are dehydrated enough.

5. Wheat snack bread is great and i hope there are more variety of spreads for it. Pate would be fantastic.

Accessories Pack

1. FFS! Can't they upgrade the MRE spoon into a fork/spoon hybrid found commonly in the shops?

2. I would like a sports drink, fruit drink mix, coffee and tea along with creamer to be included. How much can another option weight? And sports drink are great and more than one packet might even be a good idea too. It really helps with the sore tights from too much walking and salt-lost to prespiration.

3. A soup mix would be nice too, those supermarket cup-a-soup variety would really help loads in a cold night.

4. Chewing gum, i wonder why is it not included anymore. Gum helps a trooper to stay awake and takes his mind off boredom sometimes. Cigarettes. Bad for health but smoking don't kill you in a battlefield, aint it?

5. Besides the standard salt/pepper, is it so hard to include a generously sized tobasco sauce pack with the MRE.

[mike sparks]

We have been making many of the same suggestions to improve MRES that you have to Natick for the past 22 years.

www.combatreform.com/declutter.htm
www.combatreform.com/spork.htm

If you want to help, please contact Natick Labs directly and keep the pressure on since they only change when forced to do so.

Mike

[DIRTYDAVE]

Hello Mike! Welcome to the forums! It is a pleasure to have you share your experience with the MRE in the field and to share you improvements you are trying to make to the MRE. I only skimmed over the ton of info your attached in your post but I plan on reading every word as it looked fascinating.