Freeze Dried & MRE - Survival Food

Back in January I did a price comparison of cases of MRE. Below I have updated that comparison with today’s pricing. I used a Tampa Bay, FL zip code for 3 distributors that charged shipping costs depending on zip codes.

MRE is available now to order at these associated distributors;

• Nitro-Pak

• The ReadyStore

• Amazon.com

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina there was a severe MRE (meals ready to eat) shortage for months and prices went way up during that period.

Hopefully Hurricane Gustav will cause as little damage and loss of life as possible.

But if there is need again for MRE to support disaster relief please be considerate of those who most need it.

If you were planning to order MRE for general preparedness and see that it is in short supply, you may want to delay ordering and making the supply situation worse, at least until MRE that is needed immediately has been made available to those who need it.

I strongly recommend MRE for Hurricane preparedness because it is truly ready to eat and can be heated with a flameless ration heater or “FRH”.

Electricity can be unavailable for weeks in some areas after a hurricane so the ability to have a hot cooked meal with no equipment required is a huge benefit.

Commercial MRE comes in 12 meal cases usually the FRH is included. The meals are usually 1000 - 1300 calories (check this before you buy MRE) so 2 meals per day will be more than enough to get by.

Don’t wait till there is a Hurricane approaching to buy MRE though, as local stores will sell out of MRE quickly.

MRE has a 5-7 year shelf-life if stored in cool place below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so you should plan to stock up every 5 years or so and always have 1-3 weeks supply .

You can buy online at Amazon.com, however with shipping the total cost from Amazon is over $89 per case. This cost is higher than most other online outlets, but you are probably not as familiar with the other small ones, so you may trust ordering from Amazon more. However, when you buy MRE from Amazon, it is not directly from Amazon you are buying but rather their “Amazon Prime” partner, which is in fact a smaller outfit than the 3 retailers listed below.

I have had good experiences with these online MRE retailers to date and have seen only positive reviews on them from others;

Nitro-Pak
The ReadyStore
MREfoods.com

Below is an updated survival food comparison chart.

Freeze dried food, MRE, and canned food are compared in catagories to determine their merit as a survival food.

In my opinion (and scoring of course) freeze dried food is the clear winner. However it is important to note that MRE is very useful as an initial emergency food and a mobile emergency food. So you should have both MRE and freeze dried, but mostly Freeze dried food.

Only the small percentage of us who utilize bulk grains for our cooked food on a regular basis, have reliable heating alternatives for cooking, and ample food and water storage space could rate canned food/bulk grain higher.

The image on the left shows boxes of Mountain House #10 cans. The image on the right shows Mountain House pouches.

Pouches are popular with hikers, rock climbers and back-packers. Mountain house also sells them in cases as a food reserve.

They are a meal in pouch, just add water.

A Mountain House pouch can be used as a survival food reserve and are specifically packaged as such in the “just in case unit” 7 day food supply box pictured above.

This is comparable to MRE with the distinction they taste better, are easier to digest but require more preparation since you need to add water.

When you compare a pouch to a #10 can the main difference is that pouches are an individual meal. Mountain house #10 cans are a bulk, 8-10 serving food reserve unit.

More important however, pouches will store for up to 7 years at 75° F (24° C), while #10 cans will last 25 years under the same conditions.

While it is more convenient to have the pouches and they are a good alternative to MRE if you can’t stand the taste or digest MREs, #10 cans are a much longer lasting and better investment for disaster preparedness.

The exception are those people who find the contents of the pouches comparable enough to fresh food, and will consume pouches periodically for regular meals and continuously re-stock them as a food reserve for disasters. Then the 7 year shelf life is not an issue.

Finally a food reserve of the same duration in #10 cans will store in a smaller space than the pouches due to the cans being a bulk (less packaging) food supply.

In summary;

Mountain House Pouch

• More convenient package as a meal
• taste better than MRE
• Store for up to 7 years

Mountain House #10 Can

• bulk, 8-10 one cup servings of one item
• store for up top 25 years
• store more efficiently than pouches

Buy Mountain House Just In Case Unit

Buy Mountain House #10 can Freeze Dried Food Reserve

MRE is not usually mentioned in the same sentence with words like gourmet or delicious. It is at best compared to food from a can.

It has many derogatory acronyms referred to by soldiers such as “meals refusing to exit” for it’s digestive properties, and mystery meat for taste, etc.

With this in mind before you choose MRE as a survival food, you should make sure you and your family find it tasty enough to survive on and digest.

You may think now that they will be satisfied with “any food” if need be after a disaster if there is “no other choice”.

But there is another choice - not to eat, and that can become a serious problem.

It will be a risk to morale and safety if the food you eat causes more distress on top of the situation you are in.

So it would be best if you can do a trial run eating whatever food you choose for preparedness for a few days. If you and and your family are not thrilled with how the food tastes at least you have an idea what to expect in the event you need to use it. If it is impossible for some of your family to eat, make a decision to look at some other type of food option such as freeze dried food.

While you may not find the taste of MRE as bad as mentioned above, and there are actually some people who really like it, one consolation is that it is easily heated. In 10 minutes you can have a hot meal by adding water to the MRE’s flameless ration heater pouch most MRE comes with.

If you are cold and wet, hot food tends to taste delicious no matter what you would have thought otherwise.

I found a recent blog post on MRE taste and digestive implications here;

Tales from around the world - The MRE

The post pretty much validates my opinion that MRE should only be considered for a 72 hour mobile kit or at most a one week emergency food source for preparedness.

Here is a interesting video on some Utah chefs who tasted MRE for a review.

This statement, in an American Red Cross press press release from August 2007 (below), tells you that there is a need to make things easier.

Otherwise, if it is not made easy as another statistic in the same press release indicates, 93% will continue to not be prepared.

You can order online an 72 hour emergency kit, with all the supplies the Red Cross recommends, in minutes.

You can order kits and long shelf life survival food from trusted online stores that existed for decades as real brick and mortar stores, not some fly-by-night “eBay store”.

The two main survival foods (after food bars in 72 hour kits) are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze dried food. You can order various food reserves that will be enough food for one week, one month, or even one year. It can be delivered to your house and then stored in less than an hour.

How easy is that?

MRE can last up to 5-7 years if stored in a cool place. Freeze dried food will last up to 30 years. You won’t need to replace these items every 6 months or every year. This is a key point if you want your food reserve to be ready when you need it, without having to replace parts of it often.

The challenge with completing the 72-hour kits will be the things that are custom to you and your family; maps, medications, etc that can’t be included in a general 72 hour kit. Other than these custom items, everything else is only few mouse clicks to your door.

Where can I buy kits and survival food?

American Family Safety - Great Selection of 72 hour kits

Nitro-Pak - 72-hour kits MRE Freeze Dried Food

Below is the August 30, 2007 press release from the American Red Cross

*****************************************

Media Advisory:

September is National Preparedness Month: Only 7% of Americans Have Taken the Necessary Steps to Prepare for Disasters

Red Cross Survey Indicates 82% of Americans Would Get Prepared if it Was Easier to Do

WASHINGTON, Thursday, August 30, 2007

VIDEO FEEDS: Thursday, August 30, from 2:30 – 2:45 PM ET

September is National Preparedness Month yet only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared, according to the American Red Cross ¹ . Why? Many people just don’t have the time. In fact, an American Red Cross survey indicates that 82% of Americans say they would get prepared if it were easier to do ². Additionally, among Americans who had not put together a disaster kit, 65% agreed that they would be more likely to have a kit if one were available for sale and contained basic items to get them started ³.

The Red Cross is using National Preparedness Month to urge every family to “Be Red Cross Ready”: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. One way the American Red Cross has made it easier for families to get prepared is by offering a variety of first aid, health, safety, and emergency preparedness items.

“We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for everyone to get prepared,” said Laura Howe, spokes-person for the Red Cross. “In purchasing these items, the public can feel good about not only preparing their families but also supporting the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross.”

Red Cross items available to the public include first aid kits, disposable and heavy-duty work gloves, hand sanitizer, emergency preparedness kits, hand-crank radios, auto safety kits, and a variety of essential education guides. Additionally, the Red Cross has a line of infant health and wellness products that help par-ents get prepared, encouraging them to take Red Cross courses in infant first aid and CPR. These items are available online, at many Red Cross chapters, and at a variety of retail locations nationwide.

Proceeds from the sale of these items go directly back into supporting the mission of the organization. Over the last few months, the Red Cross has responded to meet the needs of thousands of disaster victims affected by severe summer floods in nine different states; every dollar helps.

The public is also invited to take a free online education module available at www.redcross.org/BeRedCrossReady, which walks visitors through the three simple preparedness actions: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

This story is provided by the American Red Cross.

The US army has shown new MRE and new “first strike rations” today, the associated press and ArmyTimes reports.

The demonstration featured new menu items for “Meal, Ready-to-Eat” and “First Strike Rations”.

The new items won’t be available anytime soon, with buffalo wings slated for release in 2009, and southwest beef and blackbeans coming out in 2010.

The first strike ration for more mobile forces are less bulky and lighter. They are scheduled to be released this summer. The meals are packed with high-protein, high-carbohydrate foods upto 3000 calories to provide energy for fast moving forces.

I thought it would be a good time review some MRE Brands.

The first Brand I will review is MRE Star.

Located in Hollywood, Florida MRE Star’s maker is International Meals Supply has been in the food industry for over 30 years.

All of their MREs are US made and their plants are USDA/FSIS, as well as FDA approved. They are a certified supplier of emergency rations for the DoD/DLA, Defense Supply Center Philadelphia.

They use fully automated equipment to produce a wide variety meal recipes. They operate 24/7 in emergency situations.

Their “M-018 12-MRE Full Case” has 12 complete MRE meals with an entree, side dish and more. There are is six different MRE entree varieties, 2 of each in each case. The six varieties are;

1. Beef Stroganoff with Egg Noodles
2. Beef Stew with Potatoes and Vegetables
3. BBQ Chicken with Black Beans and Potatoes
4. Chicken Noodle Stew with Vegetables
5. Cheese Tortellini with Marinara Sauce
6. Vegetarian Chili with Beans

In addition to the Entree, each MRE meal comes with;

• 4.5 oz Side Dish (Apple sauce or fruit cocktail)
• 2 oz Raisins & Mix Nuts
• 2 oz Oatmeal Cookie
• Drink Mix (orange flavor)
• Accessory Pack (spoon, coffee, sugar, creamer, salt, pepper, napkin, moist towel
• Optional: 12 flameless heaters individually packed

According to MRE Star’s website, “Each MRE has an average of 1,100-1,300 calories, which replicates the calorie count of a complete meal. There is no need to add water to an MRE.”

You can purchase MRE Star 12 meal MRE cases at Nitro-Pak. You can also get bulk order discounts there.