Took a while to find this information, but here's what I learned.
India developed its own modern rations, produced in-country and comparable to modern combat rations used by other nations.
Army MRE
This uses pre-cooked thermostabilized entrees in a plastic-foil laminate retort pouch. The ration does not requre cooking and the contents may be eaten cold, though warming is preferred. It contains dishes that cater to Indian tastes, namely: chapaties (preserved), sooji halwa (300g), vegetable pulav (300g), Potato & Peas curry (300g), a chocolate bar, and 3 servings of tea (3 servings). Accessory items such as a plastic spoon, tissue paper, box of matches, a folding stove, and fuel tablets for warming the food are also included. 6 types of ration entrees were later fielded to replace the original single menu described above. There are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian products. These are: Sooji halwa, Chapaties, tea mix, Chicken biryani, Chicken curry, Mutton biryani, Mutton curry, Vegetable biryani, Rajma curry, Dal fry, Jeera rice, Dal makhani, Vegetable pulav and mixed Vegetable curry. Pickled hot seasoning inside small plastic pouches were introduced into every menu. An entire days worth of food, plus accessory items, is packed inside a heavy-duty olive green plastic bag with pasted on label.
One-man Compo Ration (Dehydrated)
A one-man ration pack featuring freeze-dried or dehydrated products has also been developed. It consists of early morning tea, breakfast, mid morning tea, lunch, evening tea, and dinner. The menus feature both dehydrated and ready-to-eat products, and include a folding stove & hexamine fuel tablets. The ration weighs 880 grams and provides 4100 kilocalories. Food items are packaged inside flexible plastic-foil laminate pouches, easy to open and dispose of, which fit easily inside the haversack or uniform cargo pockets. Intended for short duration patrol duties, the ration caters to Indian tastes.
Mini Compo Pack
This is a simplified version of the One-man Compo Ration pack, but provides only 1520 calories of energy from two entrees, namely Sooji Halwa mix (100g) and pre-cooked dehydrated Vegetable Pulav (125g). Weighing 400 g, the ration also includes: 3 packets of tea, a folding stove, fuel tablets (100g), matches, and a plastic spoon. Like other Indian rations, the food items are packed inside plastic-foil trilaminate retort pouches, which are then sealed inside a heavy-duty plastic bag.
Survival Ration
The survival ration consists of a soft bar and chikki. The daily survival ration per man consists of : Soft bar 100 g x 2, Chikki (sugar base) 50 g x 3, Chikki (Jaggery base) 50 g x 3. This provides around 2400 Kcal, more than the normal survival ration used by most nations.
Main Battle Tank (MBT) Ration
Uniquely, India also developed an operational ration pack specifically for Main Battle Tank (MBT) and other Armored vehicle crews. Designed to sustain 4 soldiers for 72 hrs in closed-in battle conditions, the MBT ration is based on instant/ready to eat foods and ration/survival bars. First and second day ration packs weigh 2 kg each and provide 4000 calories per man, while the third day ration pack weighs 1.5 kg and supplies 3000 Calories.
The Indians have also developed a special ration for the Marine Commandos, but I haven't been able to find any information on them yet.
Indian Army combat rations
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donaldjcheek
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Indian Army combat rations
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"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."
Frontier India had an article on Indian combat rations a couple of weeks ago, that might also be of interest to some of the participants here.
I suspect that many of the MRE entree items may be commercial items much like the Indian retort items that we see in stores here. Retort packaging of foods seems to be a growing industry in India. I did find it interesting that the ones for the military only had a one year shelf life, while the commercially exported retorts have an 18 month to 2 year shelf life. I'd suspect that the reason that the only Indian retorts that are imported into the U.S. are the vegetarian ones is probably related to the added expense of USDA screening for meat products. Looking at Tasty Bite's site, it would appear that they do export chicken and lamb based menu items to Australia, but not to the U.S.
UPDATE Holy Cow! I just looked at Tasty Bite's page on their packaging, http://www.tastybite.com/Articles.asp?ID=114 and noticed that they use a 4 layer pouch rather than the trilaminate packaging that we normally associate with retort food processing. ... and I apologize to anyone offended ... "Holy Cow!" may not be an appropriate term to use in the discussion of Indian cuisineBigMark wrote:I'd love to get my hands on those. I just got done eating Indian food as a matter of fact. Mmmmm... I'll have to meet someone in India..
While this might be more closely related to the viewtopic.php?t=627 thread, but those of you who have an adequately sized Indian community in your area may want to explore an Indian grocery store. I went to one the other day and was rather amazed at the number of retort Indian entree items that were available from various manufacturers. The one that I went to had the retort Ready-to-eat items priced from $1.49-$1.99 each, and many of them had manufacturer's promotional pricing on the packaging as either "Buy Two, Get One Free", or "Buy One, Get One Free" which actualized their pricing to $1 each. I've seen these very same items in the major supermarket chains (Safeway, Albertsons, Raley's) for as much as $5.28 each without the promotional printing on the packaging.
When I lived in Kalifornistan (California, USA) I used to go to a really good Indian restaurant in the Bay Area that had a wonderful lunch buffet (it was a great way to taste test a little of everything). I fell in love with their Chicken Curry and Flat Bread (made fresh per order). What was surprisingly good as well was the side dish of Potatoes & Peas Curry. YUM! My taste buds are dancing right now just thinking about it.....
Getting back to the above pictures though, they sure include a lot of hexamine tablets with that stove in each ration!
Getting back to the above pictures though, they sure include a lot of hexamine tablets with that stove in each ration!
Everything tastes better with Tabasco