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

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Re-read this thread and its nice to know, that even in sub-optimal storage conditions and 20+ years later, these products held up. Maybe some of the nutrients would have been depleted?, not sure, but they were edible and not life threatening and in a SHTF world would be nice to have on the table.

[1Admin]

I definitely feel like some of these have been "changed" a bit over time, either slightly in color or taste. Certainly some quality multivitamins in your pantry would be a good choice in the PAW.

[Lowdown3]

For the "I'm never going to open any till the pockey'lips" type folks that don't try and rotate some of their foods, here is one of the newer menus.

Can't remember if I posted this one before or not.





Chicken and noodles with vegetables in sauce.

Absolutely delicious. Had one of these before, I "believe" we have sampled at least one of all of the new flavors, or close to.

Notice the calorie count however. This being a main entree is a bit low. When I have these for lunch (pretty regularly) I don't bust out all of the other components, usually a snack later and then pack the other components in with MRE I'm putting up in totes.

Good to notice the calorie content in case you had the mistaken idea that you could "get by" with a meal a day or something similar. Some of the big boys might need more than two....

[Lowdown3]

Or how about Beef Goulash?





Always add garlic salt because we are sivilised folk!!



And cookies. The best part.

[Lowdown3]

Back to some older stuff-

One that did not fair well over time, was these early 1990's MRE chocolate brownies.




So these are NOT the post 2000'ish moist style brownies. These are the old skewl hard chocolate brownies. These used to be a helluva nice treat. They are however past prime.
Bit into each one and tried them separately. Definitely edible, but left an outrageous aftertaste. Like brush your teeth twice after taste.

Definitely in the toss category.

[Lowdown3]

A much better dessert option- and newer.

Fudge Brownie, circa 2010'ish?




Very tasty still. A slightly different taste/formulation from the other MRE "chocolate brownies" of the latter varieties.

[Lowdown3]

Several good chicken dishes in the new menus.

Chicken Stir Fry Inspection date 8/2027







Delicious.

[prc-104]

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mre+case+c&crid=1WCWOHLZWIZNV&sprefix=mre+case +c%2Caps%2C203&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Interesting that Amazon and others have price cuts on Mre's.
2 cases, one of menu A and one of menu B.
about $69 without heaters, $79 with heaters.

Seems odd but best price I've seen on MRE's in quiet awhile
FYI

Oh, BTW, AimSurplus has Glock barrels for $29 and Sig P320 barrels for $20.00

[Lowdown3]

King Surplus in Texas seems to be the best priced right now on full meal cases.

[Lowdown3]

Some 20 year old coffee.

Actually, it could be slightly less, or slightly more, it wasn't marked. However it has the newer foil type top versus the really old skewl can opener top. I "believe" we have a 1990's era can like that of Folgers around- back when I didn't even drink coffee but thought to put it up for my Dad.





Passed the smell test.

I have been mixing the old coffee in with some newer stuff in the coffee container, shaking it up as I mix it altogether. Some of the newer and better stuff tends to mask the older stuff. But have not found any ground coffee that needed to be tossed yet.

So much for the "you HAVE to buy the green beans, spend six years drying them, grinding them blah blah blah" idea that ground coffee won't store. Kinda knew that was BS but good to see real world results. And keep in mind ALL of this old storage was stored in high heat/high humidity situation in the Southeast. In other words, definitely not ideal storage conditions.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I guess I'll pop open a 3-year-old can of coffee that was stored in the motorhome for 3 years and see how it tastes!

[prc-104]

Meant to mention what one of my coffee backup's is besides the metal cans.
Folgers in the ?1 pound? vacuum packed metal foil packs of coffee.
Storage, I use cardboard boxes, stack them in using white plastic stuff to keep them separated.
So far so good. BTW they are away from any vibration.
Nice thing is as long as they don't balloon up, you know the seal is good.
last tried one from 2003 and it was great. I did use a french press to test it.
Hope this provides somebody with another backup for coffee.
2 is 1, 1 is none.

BTW, I wrote a scathing letter to Cracker Barrel and told them their stupidity was just like Bud Light regarding them woking their logo. F em.

[Lowdown3]

Going through some deep storage again. I always leave a "few" items from various time periods for research, rebuke of new internet non sense like "rice will only store six months" and related drivel we heard a lot of in the 2006 and onward new "prepper" fade.

Here is a sampling of some various stuff of various ages, types of packaging, etc. I'll add to this as more of this is opened up and eaten- or tossed to the chickens if it's bad.



So in the back we have a Provident Pantry 2 1/2 can of Freeze dried Strawberries, circa 2008'ish, some "Yoders canned Bacon" from the similar time frame, a 2 1/2 can of Rolled Oats from Ready Reserve (oldest item, 1990-92), two cans of "Bega" cheese from approximately 2010, 4 MRE entrees of "Cheese Curls" (generic cheetos) (2007-2010) and one MRE entree of Cookie with pan coated chocolate disks (2009-2011)

ALL of these items were stored in NON climate controlled environment- read high heat high humidity in South Georgia. That means temperature swings from 110 (measured) for a month or so in the summer to as little as 19 (measured) in the winter. Not ideal conditions, but ones that will often show the true REAL WORLD longevity of some of these products. So the MRE chart commandos and the overly analytical types will be greatly surprised by these real world conditions and how some of this has fared.

First up is the Provident Pantry 2 1/2 can Freeze dried Strawberries. Once I took the lid off I remembered about the BS foil lids... Not a fan of them. I don't believe they offer the same longevity and perhaps even barrier that a standard can does.



To a degree, my thoughts were validated in that when I started to open the can, no "rush" or "PFFFT" of air like when you pierce a standard #10 can. However the product clearly has an o2 absorber in it and the product is fine. Tasted normal like they originally did 17-18'ish years ago. These are good to eat dry and we rehydrate them with a couple options-



Tried the water option so far and it was fine, will let them set longer but don't expect any issues. The others will be used over the next couple nights ;)

Next MRE cookie with "pan coated chocolate disks". These are always broken up so don't let that bother you, if your an OCD type and that bothers you, don't ever buy, never found one fully intact, it just is what it is.

No foul smell, taste is fairly normal. Can tell it's past it's prime but 110% edible and tasty.



This probably is a good time to bring up that these are survival foods. Too often you see folks hyper critical of long term storage foods. This isn't Gordon Ramsey or whoever TF's cooking. Every meal doesn't have to be a party in your mouth. Again, we are talking survival and foods that can, have and will last decades, not some OCD food critique's TV show..

MRE Cheese curls- these can be hit and miss. I'd say with this old of stuff, seeing about 70% or so that is like it was originally (taste) and the rest are kinda like WTH??? ALL have been edible, some have tasted better than others with the "others" being tossed mid pouch.



This one I'm nibbling on right now and it's on the higher end of OK but not exactly how I remembered them way back. I'll open the rest over the next couple days/week and report on them but pushing 20 years in high heat, this is about the best I expect from this product.

Will open the other items the next few days as I have time and post up about them.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I have kept my long-term storage food indoors in a climate controlled environment away from UV light. Some of it I've kept past the expected expiration date, hoping good storage conditions might work in my favor. Maybe it won't, but I won't know until I crack open a few of them.