7 year old Mre's

[Hymer]

Hi,

Going ut camping this weekend and i found 2 mres that dates back to 2006. Safe to eat or can i get sick from them? one pork rib and a spice penne pasta. Storage has been in a wardrobe in my house.

[RockyRaab]

Welcome to the site.

I wouldn't. Those MREs might be just fine, but they also might not. They're certainly well past their "use by" date.

[housil]

Current I´m eating 2003 MREs our of my basement - I´m OK

[rationtin440]

Welcome indeed Hymer! I have found that MREs can be very unpredictable. RockyRaab makes an excellent point about being on the safe side because unless they were stored at a constant temp. like 60 or below, they can spoil very easily especially if there is dairy stuff or sauces (although many believe that tomato sauce actually reduces the formation of bacteria). Case in point about being the luck of the draw: I became violently ill after consuming a relatively new turkey diced w/gravy brown pouch MRE, while never suffering so much as indigestion after eating many MCIs during my military service and the MCIs were last manufactured in 1980. So as RockyRaab said, those MREs may or may not be good.

[Ruleryak]

If you have the case those meals came from, check the TTI tag:



If you don't have the case, it comes down to how you stored them. If they were cool/dry this whole time I wouldn't be worried about anything except possibly the FRH being bad. I'd eat them going back into the 90s without a second thought and really only worry about storage when I get further back than that. Oldest MRE I've eaten (consumed everything except cheese spread) was 1984 in 2009 so it was 25 years old at that point and I didn't get sick. I've eaten bits and pieces from further back than that, but that was the only full MRE I busted open and ate like normal.

[RockyRaab]

Perhaps I should explain my apparent over-caution.

In this particular question, our new member specifically said he was going camping. While I'd have few qualms about eating a 7-yo MRE at home, the thought of being out in the boonies (and possibly alone; this wasn't stated) away from rapid care would give me pause. Food poisoning is almost totally debilitating; throw in some bad weather and poor cell phone coverage and things could get serious very quickly.

Current, well-kept MREs make great camping food. Out-of-date and possibly dubious ones do not. That's it in a nutshell.

[housil]

Current, well-kept MREs make great camping food. Out-of-date and possibly dubious ones do not. That's it in a nutshell.

That´s right. I agree with Ruleryak. If they are of a case wit a TTI, I (would) take them to anywhere. Lucky us we don´t have *this* far, lonely places and ambulance coverage to ANY place in the whole country within 12min (that´s a law).

[Norton]

Hymer
For what it's worth I ate Desert Storm era 1991 MRE beef stew and corned beef on a canoe trip in 2000.
These 9 year old meals were stored in a dark corner of a climate controlled area (Not frozen).
They tasted and smelled fine.

But after re-think my original post after trying the 2006 era fruit bar on a canoe trip that had been stored in a freezer since 06
Also thinking about Rockyraab's post below
I have changed my opinion

(While I'd have few qualms about eating a 7-yo MRE at home, the thought of being out in the boonies (and possibly alone; this wasn't stated) away from rapid care would give me pause. Food poisoning is almost totally debilitating; throw in some bad weather and poor cell phone coverage and things could get serious very quickly.

Current, well-kept MREs make great camping food. Out-of-date and possibly dubious ones do not. That's it in a nutshell.)

If you are going in the booines get fresh dated MREs, because if you do have a compromised entree.
At best you will end up one item short at worst you will get sick and your trip ruined

[Big_jo]

I'm with Housil on this one, I ate a 2003 MRE just the other day, the contents seemed pretty much fine.

[housil]

I´m done with all my 2003 MREs.

Today I had to open a fresh, rookie, virgin 2005 case...