As of this writing, I had this MRE yesterday and I feel fine, so it must've been okay!
(He said, and then ended up in the emergency room.*) The spaghetti was still edible, but I could tell it definitely on the expired side of things. I've had new MRE spaghetti and while I really like it, they always seem to add a lot of meat and not enough sauce. That's purely my opinion. I also noticed the water had began to separate, I've seen that in the early 90s era spaghetti MREs as well. Overall, it was just okay. If it were to be stored properly for the next 10 years, I'm sure it would still survive.
The wheat snack bread was very similar to current production, I could barely tell the difference in terms of freshness, texture and taste. Really no complaints about that. The cheese spread wasn't terrible but it was just very aged. The color was sort of a darker yellow, so I only had a small bit and passed on it. I'm sure I would have been okay if I ate the rest of it, but it just wasn't very enjoyable to eat.
The Austin crackers were pretty good, but they made me a bit thirsty. I do like these ones over the cheese crackers with peanut butter as they were saltier and had more of a flavor. Even as a kid (around the same time this MRE was produced), I remember liking these ones better. I haven't seen or had any Austin crackers since around that time. It looks like they are still being produced, guess I'll need to pick some up one of these days.
Charms are always a great classic addition, although I can see why they got rid of them thanks to the silly superstitions. These were still good, but were beginning to become chewy rather than hard. Another 10 years, they might have liquefied. On a related note, does anyone know any major grocery stores that carry Charms? With the exception of a stores on the internet that sell them for completely absurd costs, I can't find them anywhere.
In the previous review of another 2001 MRE, I mentioned that I did not like the cocoa from this time period based on a few recent experiences. The instructions said to add cold water for cold cocoa, so I decided to try that this time. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much but that actually made it taste better! The true rich, creamy, sweet and chocolaty MRE cocoa came to life! If you ever get a ration from this era and it has cocoa beverage powder, I recommend giving that a try!
*Purely intended as a joke, I'm healthy and haven't been to the ER in 15 years.