Dating HDR individual meals

Discussions about US MREs and other US rations
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Teddydogno1
Posts: 166
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:11 pm
Location: Tacoma, WA

Dating HDR individual meals

Post by Teddydogno1 » Sat Sep 24, 2022 9:13 pm

Without the benefit of the case packaging, is there a a way to narrow down the decade of an HDR? I understand that they changed to the "salmon" color bag in Nov 2002, but that still leaves quite a few ambiguous year codes. I have had 2 for a couple of years and they are coded "0142" and "0146". Being salmon color, I think that means they can be either 2010 or 2020. Based on when I bought them, I don't think they can be 2020, so these should be 2010 production.

But are there any other hints that can be used to narrow these down where there are more options? Like changes in packaging (other than yellow to salmon), menu numbers or other things like with standard MREs? In the one of mine that I have opened, the mains are in the full cardboard boxes like older MRS. With so many of these on the market now, I would think there would be more questions like this. Thanks!

The one I opened today to inspect was a Menu 4 and the contents mostly match the meal option "B": Rice & vegetables w/ Sauce; Peas in Tomato Sauce; Vegetable Biscuits, Peanut Butter, Jam, Fruit Bar, Breakfast pastry brown sugar, shortbread cookies, accessory pack.

Rob

SurRatPack
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 9:51 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Dating HDR individual meals

Post by SurRatPack » Thu Oct 13, 2022 9:28 pm

It seems like this is a 2010, as you stated the main meals are in their own cardboard box, the newer ones seem to have the main meal loose with a separate cardboard printout for the nutrition facts. It could be possible that 2020 HDR exists as is still procured to this day, and the latest batches I see on ebay appear to be from 2019 with inspection dates of 2022. Also, what size is the peanut butter packet, is it 1oz or 1.5oz? If it is 1oz then most likely it is a 2020 as they only had 1.5oz peanut butter packets back in 2010 and vice versa (they currently only make 1oz peanut butter packets for rations).

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