Tedster wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:22 am
Looks like you got an excellent deal. Freeze-dried items generally last just short of "forever" or near enough (unlike canned goods, or "retort" packaging wet pack foods).
Unfortunately the Freeze Dried fruits included in the earliest MRE had some problems. Why, I'm not sure. I've heard some people say the packaging had "pinholes". I'm not persuaded that was the specific or exact problem. I do know that even when "new" or at the time of issue when I was a member of the .mil they would (sometimes) be slightly soft. At the time I kind of thought they were more trouble than they were worth for just a bite or two. The Pork and Beef patties are not known to have any problems.
Tedster,
Good information ...Thank you!
Before I left to visit family about 450 miles away from home, I had moved the individual Freeze Dried items (peaches, strawberries, pork patties & beef patties) from the boxes I had purchased them in to a metal cabinet that I think should be rodent proof.
As mentioned, I have found packing slips for at least some of the stuff I bought and I believe the 3 larger boxes of peaches, beef patties & pork patties had several layers that were still packed like they had been when delivered.
Based on this observation and assuming I'm correct, it appears that the box had a layer of a soft synthetic material - maybe a around a tenth of an inch thick or less - put into the bottom of the cardboard box. A 5 packet by 5 packet layer of food was spread across that synthetic material and then another layer of the synthetic material laid on top of the food. So 25 food items per layer until they got 325 packets of food or 13 layers.
So, even though there was quite a number of individual packages of food, care had been taken to protect them by the vendor.
So far the peaches, beef & pork seem to be in excellent condition.
The strawberries may have some issues. Most seem OK but there are a few unopened packages that don't seem to be the right texture. HA! At least a three of these that I did open looked like the picture I had of the "bad package" of strawberries and a couple others might have been nibbled on by rodents (there were a couple of strawberry packages that had holes - bigger than a pinhole - in them). One of the ancient Mountain House packages also had what appeared to be a small rodent hole in it.
Too be honest, I am surprised that I haven't found more rodent damage. I don't think it is uncommon for mice to find their way into basements and such. With all of these items being in carboard containers in that basement... well, after almost 35 years, it is surprising to me that there aren't more chewed holes in this stuff.
I will say, of the packages that may have had rodent holes, once the hole was nibbled through the outer package the mice didn't seem interested in what they found inside. They didn't seem to eat much, if any, of the contents.
Am I wrong to think that the government probably had some specifications regarding the packaging to discourage rodents or other vermin?
Best regards,
Scott
