MREInfo.com

Thanks guys!

Thanks for the clarification

So it seems they were dual purpose tablets as the only instructions were on the main sheet, and there was only 1 set of pills.

Mix with 1.25L for washing stuffs, and 15L for drinking

Which does make sense as bleach is useful for both in different concentrations.

MILNEWS_ca wrote:A bit late, but better late than never ....

Re: the "water purification tabs" shown as attached, according to the company's page on what appears to be the product (Italian), they appear to be more like "disinfecting tabs". You apparently put a tablet in 1.25 litres of water to make a disinfecting/cleaning liquid - even the little envelope in the photo says "Fizzing dissolving tablets for the antiseptic washing of fruits and vegetables". Even the online instructions call for rinsing with clean water before eating the fruit/veg you washed.

No WONDER it didn't taste so good - you may have made the equivalent of bleach!

No instructions on the reverse side of the packet, either? Odd, indeed.

Belated thanks for sharing!

rationtin440 wrote:Awesome review and pics, Nnf! A couple questions occured to me (one is more an observation): Do you know if the Italians have an equivalent to the British 10-man Ration system or the U.S. Unitized Group Ration/Tray Packs? I have not seen any references to either system being adopted by Italy in the Italian Rations page here , but I'm just curious. The observation I made is that the Italian Rations don't appear to contain any "diet" or "sugar-free" items like what is occasionally found in U.S. MREs. Since this seems to me to be limited to American MREs, perhaps the designers of other countries' rations got hit with a heavy dose of common sense, and realized that troops eating rations would likely be engaged in strenuous/heavily physical activity, so any sugar and carbs would not likely stay in their bodies long enough to cause any issues. I'm sure we all recall the revelation a couple years back that U.S. troops were losing weight even while consuming 3 complete MREs per day.

Anecdotal information rather than definitive, but I spent most of a year on a FOB that was mostly Italian Army in RC-West in Afghanistan within the last few years, and worked with the Italians a good deal. I never saw anything like an Italian T-Rat, and never saw them use their rations inside the wire for guys on work details or other activities where they might miss a meal the way we might issue out MREs. Unlike the contracted cook staff we had in our dining facility, the Italians on my FOB (FOB Farah) and Herat, which I flew through occasionally, had military cooks (and much, much better food than we did -- both better cooked, and they always seemed to have access to fresh vegetables and such, whereas our deliveries of the same were spottier as far out in the sticks as we were). For troops on any kind of detail that kept them from getting to their dining facility, part of the SOP seemed to be that a senior NCO was in charge of bringing meals from the DFAC to them and used that visit to check up on how things were going, etc.

Horsesoldier

Welcome to the Forum!!!

Introduce yourself, If you would!

Hi. Long time lurker (signed up a couple years ago, was an unregistered lurker prior to that), first time poster. Just retired from the .mil this year with a total of a little over 20 years full time and reserve time, and have been interested in military rations since my dad (career army) would bring home C ration components and LRRP rations. (Though not really in love with recent MREs -- I swear they tasted better in the early 90s than they do these days.)

Welcome to forums Horsesoldier

Yes indeed welcome Horsesoldier! Thanks for the info and thank you for your service!

Been trying to snag one of these for a long time. Nice review! Cheers