Well, these rations arrived today. I've had a look through both the MCR Menu 18 and the day ration Menu 7, I must say I'm not impressed. Now I know when we normally buy rations there is every chance something will be missing or different, but that's part of the deal when it comes to buying surplus kit from third parties, but when you buy direct from the Manufacturer/packer then I'd expect better.
This is what I should have got:
1 x All Day Breakfast*
1 x Ham Tomato Flavour Noodle*
1 x E Cherry
1 x O Orange Cranberry
1 x Raspberry Water Flavour
1 x Choc Chip Cake
1 x Apple/Peach
1 x Green Chicken Curry
1 x Pilau Rice
1 x Tabasco Red
1 x Fruit & Nut
1 x Strawberry Castus*
1 x Caramel
1 x Jam Sandwich (Sh'bury)*
1 x Mint Hot Chocolate
The item marked by a * I didn't get but got sent something different instead.
The whole reason I picked this menu out of the other 20 is because it was the only one that didn't have fish or paella in it. Guess what I got...a pouch of Western Tuna Pasta in place of the noodles and sausages and beans in place of the all day breakfast. The other thing missing was matches, in the extended list
here it says matches, I didn't get any.
Aside from the above the everything does seem of a high standard, including the spoon!

No more "MOD USE ONLY - NOT FOR RESALE" but instead the "British Army Brand", for civvies only of course, hell know's what the RAF, Royal Navy and Royal Marines think.
I have to be honest here, I think the MoD has made a mistake with these menus. There has been talk of 'menu fatigue' and yeah I think there is too, but I think the MoD should have extended what they have at the moment instead of wasting time and money putting these together. However at the end of the day if they have arrived at these menus by asking serving personnel what they would like in ration packs, and this is it, then that's fine. I hope it's exactly what they wanted.