Has anyone gotten seriously ill?

[BillHoo]

I visited my mom this past holiday and went rummaging through the basement. I found a box of vintage brown bag MRE's that I had long ago placed in the basement. These were the oldest in my collection, having squirreled them away after training between 1985 and 1990.

Around 2000, I opened some up but did not eat them for fear they had spoiled. ie. the cheese spread was dark amber-brown.

This board has lots of stories of vintage MREs being consumed without problem.
But...
Has anyone ever gotten a food-bourne illness from eating some vintage MREs?

[housil]

I have eaten a 32 years old (brown bag) cake, a 19 yeas old EPa entree and I´m still fine

Use your 5 senses.
If the pouch is not "swollen", the food does not smells "suspicious", looks "OK", has no "odd" taste and do not glow in the dark, I try it no mater to the age.

[elandil]

Steve1989 has gotten hit by some bad dried milk in a museli mix IIRC. Other than that, can't really recall anyone mentioning it. I follow what Housil says. Give it the sniff test, and "when in doubt, toss it out."

[parafireboy]

Like Housil and Elandil have said, just use your senses and you should be fine. If any of those things are questionable, steer clear of it. I did a review on a 1988 MRE recently on here and ate everything except the beverage powder, which had gone bad from a likely pinhole. I was perfectly fine, and that was a 27 year-old MRE!

[Ruleryak]

I've had some gastric distress as a result of spoiled ration components before - haven't heard of anyone getting hospitalized for it though or anything like that.

Trust your senses first and foremost - a bad smell, texture, color, etc is a good indicator of the item being spoiled. In many cases, spoiled just means poor taste or lowered nutritional value. Truly air tight containers would prevent any bacteria from contaminating the food. When a container is not 100% air tight or is compromised over time then all bets are off and the food shouldn't be trusted even if it looks/smells mostly safe. If it's life or death, you should start with external exposure (eg scratch test), then slight exposure to your tongue, followed by ingestion of an incredibly small portion of the item in question - allowing a substantial amount of time in between each step.

Even though it's more for unknown plants, I like to follow the Universal Edibility Test when something's iffy.

[rattattoo]

Sometimes it ain't all bad to give your body a lil challenge.
I look on my sampling as the same as being a kid and eating a little mud just to see what it was like... "that which doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

I like to give my gut bacteria the occasional stress test just to keep them up to par.

[gundog4314]

Interesting question. I can say I once got sick from some peanutbutter crackers on my first Canadian IMP review. I never eat the whole thing especially for sketchy items where the smell test is inconclusive. I do keep several bottles of water or gatorade on standby to help flush the system and I keep a bottle of activated charcoal in my downstairs bathroom for contingencies.

Cheers
GD

[steve1989]

I ditto the brilliant advice that Housil, elandil, parafireboy, Ruleryak, and ratattoo all say.

I just do the visual/smell/taste. Taste the questionable food on your tongue, if it stings, burns, or feels sharp in any way - spit it out!
If a pack is bulging, or damaged, skip it! I had German EPA II bierwurst that had a damaged outer lid, and ate it. I really shouldn't have, but I was still fine. The gelatin made a seal around the puncture - it would have gone bad within a week-month from then, and I suspect it happened in shipping.

Elandil is right, have had bad dry milk in breakfast muesli - I also got really sick from a 1977 Chicken Stew last year. Bad call and it was a tough one - the vacuum seal hissed too and it all looked fine. I ruled that as a defective product to begin with OR bad dry milk product in it. I will never truly know.
Be careful with the vintage MRE nut cakes - the nuts go rancid most the time. If the nuts look dark in color - and if the thing has a slightly fruity smell. Stay away. Taste a small bite, if it swells your tongue, spit it out and wash up and brush your teeth.
It takes 2-5 minutes for your mucous membrane to pic up rancidity from nuts.

Pinholes, bulging packs, tears. Any of those going on - pass on it.

Smells off in any way (sour, stinky, rancid, foul, metallic, bleachy, sharp) - pass on it.

Tastes bad in any way (tingly, swelling of mouth/tongue, sharp, coating your mouth with an unpleasant grease, burns, bitter, metallic, or chemical-like) - pass on it.


I have eaten food from 1950 and lived to tell the tale. Follow these methods of your perception & senses.. and you shall be legendary with your buddies.


Stay away from old dry milk and cheese too. Not worth it!


Also, do NOT non-nonchalantly eat Ukrainian Rations. I had some with a date of production of September 2014 - the cans were bulging and for some stupid reason, I thought "heck, maybe they were just overfilled cans" and ate 'em anyways. They were spoiled.


Folks, I had been sick for a good time of 2015 and didn't tell anyone - it could have been an exterior issue from Rations, and I ponder the various possibilities of what those possibilities were, but it ALSO could have been this or the 1977 Chicken Stew...I had E. Coli poisoning... sweating all the time.. and among other symptoms. (*Edit*) (and yes Housil, in Key West i was sick.. but I knew it was not contagious. Had bladder issues, and was sweating bullets!)
Beginning of October, i fell very ill and almost died.. kidneys, bladder, everything really.. super infected - I have a massive medical bill from it all too. (someone with no health insurance like me should be careful eating old Rations)

Was it from Rations? From other bad food? Something else? I will never know..!

[Norton]

I agree with the rest of the group. The nose, and taste buds are good guides. I have eaten Civil Defense crackers from 1962 and MRE components from the mid 1980's
With that said some units I have opened up and they went right to woods and even the Opossum left them alone. Other times items tasted somewhat off and I would not eat anymore than one bite. I have eaten items that made me feel 'sightly' queasy one hour later. But I was not in the least bit sick
Milk, some cheese products and nuts seemed to go rancid before highly salted meat entrees such as Corned beef Hash for example seems to hold up very well.
Coffee creamer and powdered milk do not hold up as well

I think it's fair just to open older ration pacts, take photos report what it smells like. If you are brave take a tiny taste. In fact I have U.S. Army FM that has an actual method for testing to see if wild plants are edible, It seems to follow what we do here, look smell, take a tiny taste and spit it out without consuming.

[cavguy]

I like to think I have an iron stomach, as I have traveled all over and eaten local street food (Venezuela, Columbia, Middle East, Europe). From eating MRE's, I have only had one slight tummy ache / bout of gastric distress, that lasted about 1/2 day and that was from a recent dated UK Multi-Climate ration pack museli mix (Dried Milk - Watch out)! When I travel I do sometimes get sick and have stomach problems but only for at max, a day, after that it clears itself up...

Of course when I try vintage ration items I use my senses, if it fails one of those tests, in the trash it goes.