Sailswish wrote: ↑Fri Sep 20, 2024 4:53 pm
I lost track of when ORPs went from boxes to bags. My newer OPRs in the tan bags are sealed, but do not reseal.
Regular ORPs went from boxes to bags in 07/18 but the boxes were made until 09/18 to use up stock. From there the regular ORP stayed in the tan bags, the reseal strip as far as I can tell is new for 12/2023 packed rations - 2022 rations don't have it nor do early 2023 rations from 03/23. 12/2023 also has a bunch of new components which I'm excited for, for example the vanilla biscuits, protein shakes, brekkie burrito filling, they sound tasty
The last production of boxed ORPs was 03/19 in the halal rations where they used up the last boxes. The CCR (Cold Climate) was always in bags after 2011/12, clear ones usually, like a big zip loc, but it swapped to the tan bag in the 08/18 production.
The first ORPs to use the tan bags were Sikh/Hindu ones in 02/2016, I assume as a trial for the concept, they had a few issues so they weren't immediately adopted. One side of the bag was clear and the other was tan, but there was a lot of issues with bags splitting / the clear part just falling off. These had a ziploc reclosure strip so they were never fully 'sealed'.
The single meal ration, or SMR, swapped to the tan bags in 2018 (I believe 04/18, as a BUNCH of 04/18 SMR's were dated 04/20 so had to be sold off as surplus, so this could've been teething problems with the new line). Before this the SMR just came in a huge ziploc much like the brew kit.
The 24hr ORP Enhanced (previously jungle ration) has been in bags basically its entire run, apart from in 2010.
At this point the bags aren't that new, but sadly they seem to have marked a large decrease in the quality of ORPs over the years - first reducing menus from 20, to 14, now it's only 10. A lot of the meals and components of those 10 meals tend to repeat themselves too unfortunately, though the ORP mains are still delicious as they always have been
