German Rations

doggar · Post by **doggar** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:00 pm

Does anyone have a good source of German mres? I know a guy who is in the german military who sent me some , but they were all about 3-4 years old and I'm looking for some newer ones.
Thanks-- and speaking of german mres, I have to say for nutrition, nothing beats that black bread they have.

Zeiti · Post by **Zeiti** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 5:16 am

No, I am sorry, I used to be in the military and we always got the oldest ones. The newest ones I have seen on Ebay were dated 1999 - 2000.
The black braed was recently introduced in the EPA and replaced one pack of so called "Keks" as we called them "Amour plates"

doggar · Post by **doggar** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:36 pm

Thanks.. how many years are those mres good for? The canned meats looked ok at about 4 years old, but something bad happened to the fruit desert. A german friend of mine said the bread lasts for years.
thx

Zeiti · Post by **Zeiti** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:12 am

I think, when stored in the right condition, the EPAS should be good for 10 years. The fruit salad always looks kinda weird (in my opinion).
The german ration program ( only 4 different rations) was not designed like the US program( 1000+ rations

), since from the NATO/ European theatre doctrine, Germany was supposed to be the first line of defence, so very short resupply routes. Its much easier for the Bundeswehr to get a good Bratwurst in the "Fulda gap"

But now with the changed objectives of the Bundeswehr i.e
Bosnia (SFOR,KFOR) Afganistan ( ISAF ) Trining of officers and personnel
in Kuweit, Sudan and so on, the german gouverment schould come up with something new fast. BUT as fast as the gouverment works, they`ll come up with it 2015 ...

Mirage · Post by **Mirage** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:52 pm

Actually there are only 3 different German EPA rations now (unless they've made recent changes I am not aware of?) - see the International Rations page on here for the listings I made.

They phased out the older 4 EPA ration selection in the early 1990's

Where are the production dates stamped on the boxes, the ones I have do not have any dates on the box, unless it is on the main case which holds 6 EPAs?

Zeiti · Post by **Zeiti** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:54 am

Hi Mirage,
I was in the military from 1989 -1993/4 so we even got the cold war stuff, might be that they phased out menue number 4, but you´ll still be able to find ´em on Ebay (YUCK!!!)
Usually, you have the production date stamped on each product (entre,cookies, chocolate)separate. I am not aware of it is on the outsidebox to. (Have to go to the basement and dust off some of my old stuff to check)

Greetings from Germany !

Me, back then ...
http://us.f3.yahoofs.com/users/41c1fd12 ... CBMw.b7nNC

Mirage · Post by **Mirage** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:57 am

Hi Zeiti, when you were in they still had the 4 Menus. These were phased out in favor of a completely new 3 Menu system, which was introduced later in the 1990's. They changed almost all of the ingredients from the old menus.

I will be adding a listing of the 4 older EPA menus to the German Rations page on here shortly - maybe it will bring back fond memories!

Ah, yes I have seen dates on individual components, I thought perhaps there was a date stamp somewhere that I had missed.

Thanks for the info.

Zeiti · Post by **Zeiti** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:49 am

Hi Mirage,
I checked around a bit and found a guy who has the german rations 1-4 on ebay auction. See ? i KNEW we had 4 types. I am old but not THAT old

Date of pack : 1987

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... otohosting
If you need help in translation, contact me.
zeiti

Mirage · Post by **Mirage** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 4:35 pm

Hi Zeiti, thanks for the info. Yes, these are the OLD 4 EPA Menus, they have been replaced with the 3 NEW EPA Menus, as I indicate on the German Internation Page on the site here.

It's been a while since I've seen a complete set of them for sale - so that's kind of neat. 17 year-old blood sausage doesn't really make you want to crack these open in any hurry, however.

These 4 Menus were discontinued in the early 1990s. This decision was due to the end of the Cold War.

aquarius · Post by **aquarius** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:30 am

Does anyone know something about the new generation of German rations??
They seem to be MRE like, with plastic packaging instead of tin foil cans.
One of the entrees is Sauerkraut with Frankfurters.

German Rations

German Rations

german mres

German EPAs