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Hi Guys

So I got My South African Rations yesterday and decided to break the box open and give you a look
My research on the subject is a bit weak but as far as I know these are the main rations for the Entire land based units - to my knowledge there are no "special rations" like the US first Strike etc. But I stand to be corrected.

They apparently come in packs of 6 (according to the information in the ration)

Here is the box the ration comes in as stated on the box this is a 24hr ration to sustain one individual for one day. The box is about 23cm long, 16cm wide and 8cm high

here is the entire contents of the box laid out Looking at each set of items individually

There is one large packet of "instant porridge" Chocolate one packet of "Lactose free Nutritional drink" Cupaccino flavour,
one packet of "instant soup" no flavour indicated and two packets of "Isotonic Sports Drink" Raspberry and Peach Next come the snacks 6 wholewheat crackers - these look like normal off the shelf items. 2 energy bars - Pineapple and Strawberry 2 tubes of "cheese?" The soft processed type and a packet of dried apricots

Main / Entree These are two small cans ( I have put the box of matches next to them for size) one says 'Beef steak and Beans' the other just says 'Glenryck' which is a local manufacturer of fish products so i assume it will be something like sardines ( not my favourite) Next up are the beverages and Accessories Not the large number of 'fuel tablets' in total 8 to warm 2 small cans
also 2 packets of salt - no pepper and a sachet of mustard and chutney. 1 tea packet, 2 coffee packets and 6 packets of creamer
there is also a tin opener although one of the tins has a 'pull ring top'

also a large pack of vitamin C sweets.

There is also an information paper included note the advice to mix the cheese with the entree.

Overall
I am quite impressed - there are no lacking areas of this ration (unless those are sardines/pilchards ) however I am not sure this would be enough food to sustain an active individual?
Also the expiry dates all seem quite short - the longest are the cans till 2014. the rest seem pessimistic at only a few months? Note how on the information sheet it says the cheese will expire first.

I will do a taste test sometime soon

Taste test done! see below

Thx for sharing the pic´s of such a (n exotic to me) ration!

Great pics! Yes this is a very interesting ration - seeing as how they have obviously decided against using longer life products and packaging. The cheese and crackers looks good, I'm not to into the steak and beans thing though! I must agree though, might be a bit lacking for 24 hours if you don't drink coffee, use sugar or sports drinks like me. The packaging appears to be very large and looks to be designed to be easily field stripped, but I cant imagine carrying about tin tans and one wrong move with that cheese and you have cheesed yourself...

Very cool

Thanks for the thorough pics and info

Oh wow! I used to eat these as a kid when my dad went on his camps and brought them back for us. Good memories. They look to have changed a bit with the content. There used to be a breakfast cereal called "Pronutro" with every pack, which was mixed with water, as well as a milkshake powder that had a special plastic bag to mix it in. I wonder if thats what your "lactose free drink" is?

The energy bars came in two flavours if I remember correctly, choc mint and strawberry. Choc mint tasted terrible. The wrappers they came in were a dark green. Tins are still the same and Glenryck is definitely Pilchards Hate pilchards myself.
As kids the cheese was the best part (apart from the milkshake of course .

Hi Guys

Sorry for the long delay - I've managed to eat my way through this ration and thought I would share my impressions with you.

Starting with the 'Meal items' - Porridge is an item i have never seen (in my limited ration experience) I ended up stirring/mixing it for about 10min but never managed to get all the lumps out It would have probably come out smooth on a stove
it was pretty tasty though - supposed to be chocolate but had a more 'malted'? taste, quite rich, especially after adding creamer and sugar. Apart from the lumps - a good breakfast item!

Next up was the cheese + Crackers
The crackers were nothing special - off the shelf items, dry and crunchy, they would have been hard to eat without the cheese. Luckily the cheese was really good - completely processed, it had that normal 'cheese spread' kind of taste. I ended up using the whole 'tube' on three crackers.

Next were the actual 'Main meal' items - i assume these are supposed to make up most of the calories of the ration. Unfortunately (as ToxicCarbon predicted) the first tin contained Pilchards which i gave to the cat who was happy to eat them, however they are very popular over here so no points deducted. The next tin (these are really small tins - about half the size of a standard soup tin) was the steak and beans. I made an attempt to heat it up using the fuel tablets. there is no 'stove' supplied(maybe part of field equipment) so i improvised. The problem was that the tin starts hissing and steaming within a few minutes but its only the food closest to the steel walls that gets boiling hot while the rest hasn't changed temperature! I guess this is an area where experience would help.
The entree was ok - it had real meat pieces and beans which is always good., it wasnt 'spiced' very much so ended up being pretty bland, overall it was pretty average.
There was also a soup item - i forgot to take pictures, it was basically the instant 'cup of soup' type, all stock and flavour, no actual real ingredients

Moving on to the beverages.

The lactose free nutritional drink was actually really good - I thought it would be a 'protein shake' type of thing, it was actually very watery with 'gritty' pieces of something in it. no idea what they were - i would guess a type of grain. it also had a very bland flavor and tasted similar to almond milk. definitely my favourite part of this ration!
The isotonic energy drink was not nearly as good - it was basically just just sugar, salt and artificial flavouring (yes you could taste all three). There was no acidity like in normal drinks so the sweetness was very strong.
finally the 'sweets'

the energy bars and vitamin C sweets seemed to just be off the shelf products repackaged. they were both a bit 'stale' the sweets were rock hard and slightly discoloured, the energy bars were very powdery, not chewy. Overall: the Porridge and the nutritional energy drink were really good - I have never seen anything like them in a ration. The cheese and crackers were good - obviously the cheese is what limits the shelf life of this ration but it makes a good addition. The Entree's were a let down, they just didn't taste really good or really bad (besides the pilchards) and they were really tough and cumbersome to heat up properly.

The biggest issue though is whether this would be enough food to sustain a physically active individual for a day - i would say no. the calories might just be sufficient but a lot of them are coming from energy bars, porridge, sports drinks, soup, nutritional drinks etc. Personally I would prefer to eat more 'real meals' especially if Its going to be a day or three on just rations. My guess is that these rations would supplement some sort of central kitchen or other food distribution.

JeffPlant: Great review! Glad you managed to finish it. Though I would like to ask a question. Did you open the can completely before trying to heat it, or did you pop a couple of holes in the top first?

Thank you for sharing this very rare ration with us

Very good review JeffPlant w/great pics as always! I noticed that from the pics this particular ration is probably not one of the "diabetes rations" that I mentioned in forums once upon a time that I noticed in the SANDF rations thread.