1996 DOM 1997 INSP MRE #10 cans

[johndoe007]

Hello all.

Thanks in advance for your comments on these. I have had these for about 10 years stored in a basement at 65 degrees and was wondering if you all thoughts were more like MRE's in their use by dates or if they were more like the Mountain House #10 cans at a much longer usage.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

[cavguy]

Cool stuff! Seeing as these items are dehydrated, I think you are looking at a minimum -- 20-30 year life span on everything. So everything will still probably be good to eat today, though there may be a slight taste difference between a newly manufactured reconstituted item vs. the taste of your dated items.

So to answer your question; the life span of a Mountain House #10 can for sure.

Also by the way Oregon Freeze Dry is the parent company of MH.

I would be like to pop open a can of that bacon and give it a try!

[johndoe007]

Thanks so much for your thoughts. There is little to no information about these. I guess they
were the original ugr rations before tray packs.

[cavguy]

You are correct, in that there is little info available on these rations. I believe that they were manufactured for use in bunkers during survival type situations.

One indicator could be the color of the cans, if they are silver or "bright colored" they were probably not meant for field use. If they are green or "dark colored" they were used for field use more than likely.

Some of the #10 cans were def. used as early UGR type rations, I specifically remember a green colored can of Chili Con Carne off the top of my head. But for your cans I lean more towards sustenance for federally stocked and maintained survival shelters.

[johndoe007]

I suspect you are correct about the bunker. I have never seen a listing of the different types of these. When I google the nsn#'s I can see about a dozen associated NSN that were #10 can items. Does anyone have any other flavors?

[Ruleryak]

I have a few OD Green #10s of Beef Patties, Dehydrated, Raw - pretty sure a few other folks on here have some of the same ones too. They're 1971 DOM, probably still totally edible today.

I also have a silver #10 of Coffee, Roasted, Ground, Universal Grind. I'm not sure about the date on that one - stamped 2460.

The last #10 I have is a can of Corn Meal, Degermed, Type II - kept as a memento by a former prisoner of a Japanese-American internment camp in California during WW2.

If you're ever breaking up the cases or looking to sell full cases or empty boxes feel free to send me a PM

[johndoe007]

No current plans to sell. Once they transition to a collectors item I'll be happy to contact you.

I just wanted to share these with the members as there really are no resources or data about recent production units like these that I could find.

[Tedster]

Hm, guys the tray packs were around before '97 all of that stuff as far as I know was procurable at the unit level and used for field exercises and deployments, at least in the Army. They always tried to provide at least one meal that was field kitchen produced, and issue two (2) rations.

The mess hall folks were always stingy with Bacon "2 slices!" - until Army cooks sort of went away, or weren't really deployable. With foreigners and contract laborers on deployments, "portion control" was unknown. They'd fill the plate! But I suspect it was the canned, precooked stuff. In garrison they used to bake it, not so good there either.