Some (more) long term food storage results AND some new MRE choices

[Lowdown3]

Wife and I have been sampling new MRE meats during lunch.

So far we have tried the following:

Italian sausage with peppers and onions and tomato sauce (see pic below)

The crackers and cheese, nuts, etc. all came from the MRE also.

Beef Goulash
Cheese Tortallini
Elbow macaroni with red beans and tomato sauce

Sweet and sour chicken and rice (see pic)
Pasta with garden vegetables in tomato sauce (see pic)



Some of these full meals have been in military outer packaging and some have been in "A list" outer packaging (clear bag).

The only one so far from the above that neither of us would seek out again was the Italian sausage with peppers and onions. It's basically a small piece of sausage cut up in "coin" type fashion with a few peppers and onions (couldn't really tell these) in a tomato sauce. Some of the MRE tomato sauce products are o.k. some of them give me heart burn, and I'm that guy that rarely ever gets heartburn.

We will go through a few more and I'll try to remember to post pics, etc.

[Lowdown3]

Did some old and new today at lunch.

New- MRE Chicken stir fry full meal along with




Old- 25 year old JRH Enterprises dehydrated milk. Back from when we had a cannery packing LTS foods.





But the can doesn't match... Yeah. So when we owned the commercial cannery back in the 90s, sometimes the guys would forget to change labels after starting a run of something new. Then they would come to me - "ahhh Rob, someone forget to change the labels when we started this new run and..." Me- "how far did you get?" "Oh not far, just a couple cans.." And I would say- "put them in my pile." And I would end up taking them and putting the mystery cans in my personal stocks cause you didn't want to ship them like that.

So THAT is why the label shows "Lentils" and when I shook the can, it was clearly not lentils.

And yeah, that does happen guys, anywhere that packs food, your naive if you think it doesn't. Hell I can tell you about FOUR full MRE meals that were marked "tuna" that were anything but tuna that we have opened in the last two weeks!

[Lowdown3]

Here's some really old stuff-

Ready Reserve #2 1/2 can of Rolled Oats. I remember buying these in the very early 90's due to the fact they were super cheap and at the time I was eating a lot of oatmeal.



What's interesting to note is that Ready Reserve was one of the last "dinosaurs" in the LTS industry and they were probably the last ones still doing a "nitrogen flush" system. No oxygen absorbers, just the old skewl wand stuck in the can, nitrogen blown in, then can sealed (hopefully very soon after! That was the process as described to me by the old 1990's owner and founder Jim Newman IIRC.

Anyway, they survived well over 30 years in a HIGH HEAT environment

[Lowdown3]

Speaking of oats...

Here is a #10 can of Quick oats as packed by us (JRH Enterprises) back in 1998-1999 when we owned and ran a mid size commercial cannery packing LTS in #10 cans and Super pails.



We packed with Oxygen absorbers and actually oversized the absorbers for the container. All the "experts" at the time said 300CC was "all you needed" on a #10 can. We decided not to chince out like other companies and used 500CC and at times 750CC absorbers and always had good results.




Made up some of these so far, then replaced the plastic lid on the top. Taste was normal for oatmeal. Back in the day, we chose to pack "Quick" oats instead of regular oats under the idea that in a survival situation, fuel for cooking time for most people would be limited. We were told that "quick" oats wouldn't like last as long as "regular" rolled oats. This was one of many food storage MISINFORMATION stories we have shown to be untrue.

26 years on "quick" oats stored in HIGH HEAT is pretty damn good and of course well past what the "experts" said they would store for back then. Yes, even back in the 80's and 90's there were jackarses that didn't know about food storage but made low claims of shelf life- just like all the new "preppers" now with their analytical charts and what not. The common theme was the old "experts" and the new "experts" both lacked EXPERIENCE in storing food long term :)

[Lowdown3]

Here is some more of the new (2022'ish) MRE choices out there-



MRE Spaghetti with meat and sauce at top. On the plate (from two different meal pouches) is Marble pound cake and MRE bread with sunflower butter.

These new MRE's- we have sampled quite a few of them now. I'm not a very "picky" eater, but I don't like crap food either. So far, we haven't found one we would absolutely not eat again.

[Lowdown3]

Around 2007 we packed some items like coffee packages, spice containers, etc. in #10 cans to augment our storage.

We were working to get completely out of debt at the time and buying "good" coffee like this was a treat. Several of these were packed in a #10 can.



Normally I would say always pull product from it's original packaging when packing for LTS. But this worked out fine, even pulling the coffee package down tight via the oxygen absorber in the #10 can. This baffled me, till the wife explained that often times these coffee packages had/have "sniff holes." WTH? Says I !!! She said that's so people can smell the aroma of the coffee in the store before buying. Might have been why the absorber was able to pull the bag down.



Here is some Mt. House pouches circa 2010'ish, not really that old comparatively, but I was rotating some stuff and figured we would include these. Package was faded but I believe this was "Mexican Rice and chicken."

Interesting side note- I hear people some of whom state they haven't even tried Mt. House, claims that it's "very salty." I do NOT find that to be the case. And let's think of it in context of you know a SURVIVAL SITUATION. Your going to be doing stuff, working, patrolling, building, repairing, etc. Your going to need that sodium. Too often new people get this idea that they are just going to be sitting around playing Yahtzee (you know to "pass the time"). This is ridiculous. You WILL be working, building, repairing stuff, guarding, growing things, raising animals, pulling security, patrolling, helping others, etc. Better get used to WORK cause that's what survival is....

Heck, we added garlic salt to all of the entrees MRE and Mt. House and have a good store of that in our LTS storage as well as our regular rotation.

We rounded out that "rotation lunch" with





You can see the green topped garlic salt container in each of these pics LOL.

[Lowdown3]

MRE Chicken with noodles and vegetables- VERY yummy!



Next one was MRE Pork and rice something...



Not a big fan of pork products, but again this one was very good.


Finished off sharing some MRE bread with "Apple pie spread" and some absolutely awesome almonds in MRE packaging. Not many in the little pouch, but definitely a helluva nice treat.



Yes I still eat off of kid's plates LOL. It's a maturity level thing I think LMAO.

We are rotating a ton of LTS foods and sampling some new MRE options now. Will have more to post shortly.

Feel free to add any you would like also.

[Lowdown3]

Here's a couple older MRE components -


First up a tried and true product- Cocoa powder.



Ironic these are from 1992, the same year we started in business. Like me, they have aged like fine wine LOL.
But seriously, mixed up a couple of these this weekend as it was cooooold here and they tasted just like they did when we first purchased them. We've been rotating these a little at a time over the years. Back then I remember buying cases of 300 of these Cocoa pouches and they were in the $10. range for the case... I honestly don't even remember selling these but probably did offer some of the cases for sale. So if you have MRE Cocoa powder from 1992, it's likely still good.


This next one was borderline-


MRE Fudge brownie. Circa early 2000's



These aren't the same as the ones labeled "chocolate brownies." We have a ton of those from 2005 and they tasted completely different and have seemed to hold up a helluva lot better.
This "fudge brownie" was edible, but not particularly tasty. Showed no signs of mold or the white powdery crap some of the dessert products show over time, but just didn't taste good. Starving or in the field for days, yeah why the hell not, I would have lived with the "taste." But after eating it, I was thinking that they don't hold a candle to the "chocolate brownies" from 2005.

Just a reminder- ALL of these foods where we state a date range means they have been in long term storage since that time. Long term storage for us means high heat, high humidity environments, not the classic perfect storage conditions by ANY stretch of the imagination. We remind you of that because a lot of the new "preppers" feel like if their storage isn't kept at a precise 70.5 degrees year round it will suddenly become inedible after a short period of time. That's straight up BS.

And lack of "proper" storage space should not preclude you from storing enough food for your family for the duration. It only hinders the analytical ones who believe the BS "charts" that other nerdy new preppers worship that say BS like "MRE's aren't good past 2 weeks in high heat" and ridiculous statements like that. Having put up food for my family since 1986, I can tell you that properly packed LTS food lasts a helluva lot longer than you would expect.

Put some (or more) food back for your family now.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Thank you for the reviews! I don't test my storage food, going on faith that I can make something palatable from the ingredients. I've always liked MREs and just bought a case a while ago. I still have lots of canned ham and chicken (store bought) and a ton of FD everything including just-add-water meals in pouches. In a SHTF scenario, I would likely be the only one eating most of this. I keep extra cases of enteral feeding liquid for my husband.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Did some old and new today at lunch.

New- MRE Chicken stir fry full meal along with




Old- 25 year old JRH Enterprises dehydrated milk. Back from when we had a cannery packing LTS foods.





But the can doesn't match... Yeah. So when we owned the commercial cannery back in the 90s, sometimes the guys would forget to change labels after starting a run of something new. Then they would come to me - "ahhh Rob, someone forget to change the labels when we started this new run and..." Me- "how far did you get?" "Oh not far, just a couple cans.." And I would say- "put them in my pile." And I would end up taking them and putting the mystery cans in my personal stocks cause you didn't want to ship them like that.

So THAT is why the label shows "Lentils" and when I shook the can, it was clearly not lentils.

And yeah, that does happen guys, anywhere that packs food, your naive if you think it doesn't. Hell I can tell you about FOUR full MRE meals that were marked "tuna" that were anything but tuna that we have opened in the last two weeks!

so, is there a reason the dosimeter was present during this meal???? LOL

[Lowdown3]

LMAO

The survey meter was in the area (porch is a mess from the hurricane) and I just placed it there for "creative license" as they say LOL.

[prc-104]

My dosimeter runs 24/7 and has for years. Interesting what you see from day to day.

BTW,https://mountainhouse.com/ has a special
Chicken Noodle Cassarole #10 can .
For 6ea, $192 with free shipping. $80 dollars cheaper than Amazon
:-)

[1Admin]

For the folks "concerned" their 3 year old MREs are going to be a problem-


24 year old MRE Chicken and shells.





Currently at home we are rotating-

20 year old MRE Chocolate brownies- 300+ purchased back in 2006'ish, 1 off tasting but definitely edible, hundreds more eaten since 2006

25 year old MRE Cocoa powder from 2000- several hundred packages over this time period, one knicked with something sharp and package compromised, all others fine. BETTER tasting than current Walmart cocoa mix!

24 year old Chicken with shells- just "found" some of these that needed rotating, have only opened about 6 of them so far. Taste, smell all normal as I remember back when we first got these they were my favorite MRE entree.

30 year MRE crackers- exactly the same as pulling them out of new pouches.

NOTE- These have ALL been stored in NON CLIMATE CONTROLLED environment in the Southeast with huge temperature swings. The very opposite of good storage for these . Note that all the analytical read about but never have done $hit types say that in this type of environment these "won't last six months" as they geek over charts...

[1Admin]

Anyone want to look up the age of this old MRE oatmeal bar? From the packaging and best remembering it's about 1993. Date code is visible in pic.



I honestly don't totally remember how these tasted back in the day, but this is the second one I've sampled and they do leave a bit of an aftertaste. No signs of spoilage, no mold or the white powdery look you can see on old bakery items that have went to hell. Definitely edible but the aftertaste stuck around a bit. For easily 30 year old food, once again STORED IN A SEALAND CONTAINER in hot arse S. GA, it's pretty good and well beyond the Nattick chart BS that preppers often geek out about.

Here is Cheese Churls from the early 2000's. Someone can probably find that date code a little easier. Best guess of mine is around 2003-2005.



Still yum yum



Also stored in sealand containers (non climate controlled) in hot arse S. GA for 20 or so years.

Good to know you can still be have cheeto dust over your keyboard in the apocalypse....

[surviort_wwdnet]

The only MREs I have are from 2024 and are stored in my ice cold storage closet in my ice cold bedroom. I do have some powdered milk in #10 cans that may need to go, as they're about 20 years old. One of these days when I finish up 73 other things I need to do, I'll pull that can out and see if it's spoiled.