It will not be for the faint of heart to read... Beware of Beefsteak MRE
Beware of Beefsteak MRE
I will let you all know more about my still on going battle to recover from this MRE... It will not be for the faint of heart to read...
It will not be for the faint of heart to read... "THEY CALL ME DIRTY...DIRTYDAVE"
It all began this past Friday night. It was around 6:30pm and I was going to grab my guitar and go over to a friends house to do some jammin'...you know play some Zeppelin, Whitesnake, AC/DC, blow the ear drums and the neighbors away...NOW THAT IS JAMMIN'. Crankin' up the amp to 11, Spinal Tap reference there.
At any rate, I decided to grab and have an MRE before I went out. I grabbed the 2004 menu Beefsteak meal. I heated up the entree and the western beans in the micro and chowed down on them while catching up with the news on MRE Info.com and some of the other websites I check daily like Jenna Jameson.com, etc, etc...Ahem! Well, I finished both of those components and so I grabbed some regular crackers, peanut butter and a strawberry jam packet from a leftover MRE and had me a PB and J cracker delight. I then had two tootsie rolls or toffee rolls as they call them for dessert and a leftover spiced pound cake from another left over MRE for my second dessert. The only thing I noticed odd about any of the items I ate was the pound cake. I have eaten about 20-25 pound cakes in my life and I have never seen one like the one I ate Friday night. It was broken up in about 20-30 smaller pieces. I did not smell or look odd and I thought to myself that perhaps I should not eat it. Well, the eyes, gave into temptation and I ate it and it tasted just fine. It had no funny taste or nothing nor did anything else for that matter.
The only thing I had at my friends house was a couple glasses of orange juice, straight with no vodka mind you, and I made sure it was fresh. The expiration date on it was 9-27-05 and he had recently bought it.
Fast forward to Saturday about 11:25am. My brother and I were going to meet at the Florida Fairgrounds gun show at noon. I grabbed a cup of milk and a Balance bar on my way out. The milk was fresh, the bar was fresh, besides I had eaten several of the bars the previous few days with no problem. As my brother and I walked around the gun who ooooing and ahhhing at all the neat guns my stomach started to exhibit a sharp pain. I started to get very weak and felt aches and pains all over my body. I drove myself to Walgreens and bought a 16oz Gatorade and a package of Tylenol Flu meds. I drank the Gatorade in about 10 seconds and downed a couple meds to boot. I came home and launched myself into bed where I remained for the next five hours. I did manage to get a few hours sleep in but after that I tossed and turned and was generally restless. I had a headache now and it was time for more meds. I downed some more Tylenol Flu meds, drank some more gatorade and went back to bed.
I awoke Sunday to my bedsheets soaken wet and started the dreaeded diarhheaa (sic). It was green and smelled like a few dead rats came out of my behind. That was to occur a few more times during the day. The rest of the day was me laying around and being completely useless...not unlike every other weekend...LOL!
Fast forward to Monday morning. I had to take about five liquid green shits before I left the house but felt good overall. I went about my day and ran out of steam around 2:30pm. The body could not take it anymore. I made a beeline for the house, drank a bottle of Gatorade, took some meds and hit the bed. This time I had a hell of a fever. I put an ice pack on my head and cooled off. I slept a wee bit and woke up to watch some TV. Yes, the green shits returned. As of this writing I have gone to the bathroom about 10 times and it feels like I am wiping with sandpaper...we have all been there and I am sure you are all so envious of me....
Well, as of this writing I still feel mighty crappily and am about to head off to bed again. I have already discussed this with kman, or cried on his shoulder about it, so thank kman for listening and being the lovable mre guy that you are, but I thought I would share my woe with all of the rest of my mre buddies here, not to disgust...oh no, I would never try and talk any of you out of eating mres, but I am just hear to tell you, from experience to...
BEWARE OF THE BEEFSTEAK!!!!
At any rate, I decided to grab and have an MRE before I went out. I grabbed the 2004 menu Beefsteak meal. I heated up the entree and the western beans in the micro and chowed down on them while catching up with the news on MRE Info.com and some of the other websites I check daily like Jenna Jameson.com, etc, etc...Ahem! Well, I finished both of those components and so I grabbed some regular crackers, peanut butter and a strawberry jam packet from a leftover MRE and had me a PB and J cracker delight. I then had two tootsie rolls or toffee rolls as they call them for dessert and a leftover spiced pound cake from another left over MRE for my second dessert. The only thing I noticed odd about any of the items I ate was the pound cake. I have eaten about 20-25 pound cakes in my life and I have never seen one like the one I ate Friday night. It was broken up in about 20-30 smaller pieces. I did not smell or look odd and I thought to myself that perhaps I should not eat it. Well, the eyes, gave into temptation and I ate it and it tasted just fine. It had no funny taste or nothing nor did anything else for that matter.
The only thing I had at my friends house was a couple glasses of orange juice, straight with no vodka mind you, and I made sure it was fresh. The expiration date on it was 9-27-05 and he had recently bought it.
Fast forward to Saturday about 11:25am. My brother and I were going to meet at the Florida Fairgrounds gun show at noon. I grabbed a cup of milk and a Balance bar on my way out. The milk was fresh, the bar was fresh, besides I had eaten several of the bars the previous few days with no problem. As my brother and I walked around the gun who ooooing and ahhhing at all the neat guns my stomach started to exhibit a sharp pain. I started to get very weak and felt aches and pains all over my body. I drove myself to Walgreens and bought a 16oz Gatorade and a package of Tylenol Flu meds. I drank the Gatorade in about 10 seconds and downed a couple meds to boot. I came home and launched myself into bed where I remained for the next five hours. I did manage to get a few hours sleep in but after that I tossed and turned and was generally restless. I had a headache now and it was time for more meds. I downed some more Tylenol Flu meds, drank some more gatorade and went back to bed.
I awoke Sunday to my bedsheets soaken wet and started the dreaeded diarhheaa (sic). It was green and smelled like a few dead rats came out of my behind. That was to occur a few more times during the day. The rest of the day was me laying around and being completely useless...not unlike every other weekend...LOL!
Fast forward to Monday morning. I had to take about five liquid green shits before I left the house but felt good overall. I went about my day and ran out of steam around 2:30pm. The body could not take it anymore. I made a beeline for the house, drank a bottle of Gatorade, took some meds and hit the bed. This time I had a hell of a fever. I put an ice pack on my head and cooled off. I slept a wee bit and woke up to watch some TV. Yes, the green shits returned. As of this writing I have gone to the bathroom about 10 times and it feels like I am wiping with sandpaper...we have all been there and I am sure you are all so envious of me....
Well, as of this writing I still feel mighty crappily and am about to head off to bed again. I have already discussed this with kman, or cried on his shoulder about it, so thank kman for listening and being the lovable mre guy that you are, but I thought I would share my woe with all of the rest of my mre buddies here, not to disgust...oh no, I would never try and talk any of you out of eating mres, but I am just hear to tell you, from experience to...
BEWARE OF THE BEEFSTEAK!!!!
"THEY CALL ME DIRTY...DIRTYDAVE"
Dave,
Very sorry to hear your troubles with the beefsteak. Sounds like you have some severe food poisoning that you generally don't get with MREs.
Your best bet would be to visit a doctor if it isn't clearing up, or to stock up on pepto bismol and drink lots of water to flush out your system.
Did you notice if the packaging for the beefsteak was broken or if there was an air leak? I did some research online and this came to be the closest thing I could find.
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CLOSTRIDIUM BOTULINUM
Disease: Botulism
Source: Most common in low acid foods canned improperly at home. The presence of these bacteria or their poisons is sometimes signaled by clear liquids turned milky, cracked jars, loose or dented lids, swollen or dented cans, or an "off" odor. Recently, botulism has also been associated with low oxygen cooked foods (i.e. foil wrapped; vacuum packaged) which have been held at room temperatures for long periods of time.
Symptoms (after eating): Onset: 4-72 hours; nervous system disturbances such as double vision, droopy eyelids, trouble speaking, swallowing, breathing. Untreated botulism can be fatal. If you or a family member have botulism symptoms, get medical help immediately. Then call health authorities.
Prevention: Carefully examine canned goods (particularly those canned at home), and don't use any canned goods showing danger signs. Also, cook and reheat foods thoroughly, keep cooked foods hot (above 140 degrees F) or cold (below 40 degrees F) and divide large portions of cooked food into smaller portions for serving and cooling.
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I sure hope it isn't botulism, though. That's just the only thing I saw that traced back to vacuum packed foods; everything else is undercooked meat, human contamination, or shellfish.
Get well!
Very sorry to hear your troubles with the beefsteak. Sounds like you have some severe food poisoning that you generally don't get with MREs.
Your best bet would be to visit a doctor if it isn't clearing up, or to stock up on pepto bismol and drink lots of water to flush out your system.
Did you notice if the packaging for the beefsteak was broken or if there was an air leak? I did some research online and this came to be the closest thing I could find.
------------------------------------------
CLOSTRIDIUM BOTULINUM
Disease: Botulism
Source: Most common in low acid foods canned improperly at home. The presence of these bacteria or their poisons is sometimes signaled by clear liquids turned milky, cracked jars, loose or dented lids, swollen or dented cans, or an "off" odor. Recently, botulism has also been associated with low oxygen cooked foods (i.e. foil wrapped; vacuum packaged) which have been held at room temperatures for long periods of time.
Symptoms (after eating): Onset: 4-72 hours; nervous system disturbances such as double vision, droopy eyelids, trouble speaking, swallowing, breathing. Untreated botulism can be fatal. If you or a family member have botulism symptoms, get medical help immediately. Then call health authorities.
Prevention: Carefully examine canned goods (particularly those canned at home), and don't use any canned goods showing danger signs. Also, cook and reheat foods thoroughly, keep cooked foods hot (above 140 degrees F) or cold (below 40 degrees F) and divide large portions of cooked food into smaller portions for serving and cooling.
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I sure hope it isn't botulism, though. That's just the only thing I saw that traced back to vacuum packed foods; everything else is undercooked meat, human contamination, or shellfish.
Get well!
I did not notice any tears in the packaging, no odd smell or odor and no funny taste. The entree and everything in the MRE seemed fine to me and looked no different than normal. As stated the only difference I noticed in anything was the spiced poundcake being all broken up. Could it be possible that something could have gotten into the poundcake and broken it up? I know that is quite a reach but perhaps some bacteria could have gotten in there? I noticed no tears in that either. My stool always turns green in color after I eat any MRE but I never get these kind of symptoms, perhaps my body is just allergic to the chemicals or preservatives in the food? I know that kman and I have discussed this in the past. I have eaten this particular MRE meal before and have not had this reaction so it leads me to believe that perhaps something really was wrong with one of the components. Who knows?
Thank for the info truzoom, but I don't have any of the botulism symptoms, thank God! I had another friend tell me to get some pepto bismol as well so I will take his and yours advice and go get me some when I leave the house today and attempt to work again. Thanks for your well wishes, advice, concern and information!
I guess from now on I am going to nuke the hell out of any of the meat items that I eat, just as a saftey precaution.
Thank for the info truzoom, but I don't have any of the botulism symptoms, thank God! I had another friend tell me to get some pepto bismol as well so I will take his and yours advice and go get me some when I leave the house today and attempt to work again. Thanks for your well wishes, advice, concern and information!
I guess from now on I am going to nuke the hell out of any of the meat items that I eat, just as a saftey precaution.
"THEY CALL ME DIRTY...DIRTYDAVE"
Hey DirtyDave - check out these updated pages on the DSCP website:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... empmre.htm
and
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... photos.htm
On that second link, they have a picture of a good and bad pound cake:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... photo8.jpg
The bad pound cake didn't look like it was broken up but it was definitely an off-color.
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... empmre.htm
and
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... photos.htm
On that second link, they have a picture of a good and bad pound cake:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/qa ... photo8.jpg
The bad pound cake didn't look like it was broken up but it was definitely an off-color.
I guess it all depends on what sort of "bad" poundcake you have. Some of those picures from the DSCP website look like they were more heat stressed than spoiled. So a bad (via heat) poundcake might just be crumbly and tasteless. But who knows what a bad (via bacteria) pound cake looks like? Oh wait...maybe DirtyDave knows what one looks like! 
I guess this just reinforces the rule - if it doesn't look or smell good, don't eat it.
I guess this just reinforces the rule - if it doesn't look or smell good, don't eat it.