Need a hand determining the age of a few MRE dishes.

[cat]

Hey Guys,

I'm trying to determine the age of a few dark green bagged meals\side dishes. I had thought they where 1999-2001 but if the bag color change was in 1996, then they are 1989-1991. They have the following date codes:

WHITE RICE: 9091
CHEESE TORT IN TOM SAUCE: 9089
CHICKEN W/CAV..: 1226

They are still editable, the white rice is really good, and only have 7 bags left.

[housil]

WHITE RICE: 9091
CHEESE TORT IN TOM SAUCE: 9089
CHICKEN W/CAV..: 1226

WHITE RICE: 9091
1999 March 24th

CHEESE TORT IN TOM SAUCE: 9089
1999 March 22th

CHICKEN W/CAV 1226
2001 August 13th

See next time:

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-date-codes.html

[cat]

See next time:

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-date-codes.html

Well thanks, but I think you missed the part of the question. What I’m wondering is: Where the dark green retort pouches in use after the outer bag color change possibly even as late as 1999-2001 or did the retort pouches changed to the tan color that same year. This would affect how I read the date code.

I had thought they where 1999-2001 but if the bag color change was in 1996, then they are 1989-1991.

[German_EPA]

i guess the color of the pouch is different from time to time.

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-menus.html

here you can see all the menus. housil is right. in 1989-1991 there is no chicken with cavatelli and cheese tortelini

if you are not sure with the date and the menu look the menu page

See next time:

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-date-codes.html

Well thanks, but I think you missed the part of the question. What I’m wondering is: Where the dark green retort pouches in use after the outer bag color change possibly even as late as 1999-2001 or did the retort pouches changed to the tan color that same year. This would affect how I read the date code.

I had thought they where 1999-2001 but if the bag color change was in 1996, then they are 1989-1991.

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-menus.html

[cat]

i guess the color of the pouch is different from time to time.

housil is right. in 1989-1991 there is no chicken with cavatelli and cheese tortelini

Ah, clever detective work guys. I did not think to check the menu, even after reading kman’s note about checking the menu.

[housil]

Ah, clever detective work guys. I did not think to check the menu, even after reading kman’s note about checking the menu.

I did before

I guess, the pounch color may also depends to the manufacturer more than to the age, but I never check that to make sure. Just a sugestion.

I had thought they where 1999-2001 but if the bag color change was in 1996, then they are 1989-1991

The date code 9XXX is 1999 or 1989 or will be 2009
The date code 1XXX is 2001 or 1991 or 1981...
doesn´t mater to the color of the bags

Maybe it depends to availbility to their own pounch supplier? Like Japanes cars. When black wires have been cheap, all wiring have been done in black, when suddenly red cables became cheaper, they took red one´s
Very diffucult to sort out an electrical mistake...

[mreheater72]

Here are some photos from very early (1984 -1985) MRE main meal pouches in comparison to a newer one (2005):

From left to right and top to bottom:

BEEF STEW 4348 (1984)
BEANS WITH TOMATO SAUCE 5137 (1985)
TURKEY DICED WITH GRAVY 4104 (1984)
CHICKEN WITH SALSA 5137 (2005)
CHICKEN A LA KING 4278 (1984)

The main difference is the weight of contents and consequently the measures of the pouch: The early main meals contain only 5 OZ (142 g) unlike the newer ones with 8 OZ (227 g):


Here the printing differs from the printing of “newer” MREs:


Additional the early pouches were glued to the inside of the cardbox as you can see from the glue and cardboard leftovers on the following three pictures:






So long mreheater72