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Fancy! Any new menu types?

That's pretty awesome customer service as far as making it up to you, but it's unfortunate (and kind of strange) that no one bothered to actually contact you with any reasoning about the date code ranges (or even to say, "Hey, sorry about that. We're going to send you a handful of super-brand-new meals to make up for it!"

I've never bought any cases of Sopakco's civvie MREs, but I did have a similar experience with some 24-hour rations from XMRE. The company sent me a case of four of them to review which had extremely recent date codes on the bags and the case (within a month or two). Most of the components inside were very fresh as well...except for the entrees. For some strange reason all the entrees I checked were between a year or two older than the packing date codes of the bags/case. I actually chalked it up to the fact that XMRE (like Meal Kit Supply) isn't one of the "Big Three" MRE manufacturers (Sopakco, Ameriqual, Wornick) who make their own civvie product in addition to supplying the genuine MREs. I figured that maybe companies like XMRE had to get whatever product the government contractors were willing to send, and (since they would be seen as competitors) maybe they only give them older stuff. But I recently got a fresh case of Meal Kit Supply MREs and the entrees I've been seeing so far have been quite fresh. And, strangest of all, why would Sopakco's civvie MREs have old entrees when they're produced by Sopakco itself?!? Best guess would be what others have been saying about the quality controls of the civilian ones vs the rigid regulations of the military ones.