Help needed with rations packs

[BushTucker]

Hi all

I wonder if anyone can help me here?, I was in my local kit shop and saw the ration packs like I use to use years ago, the date on the box said c/06/03.

I take it this is a date but an expirary? or manufacture/packing date?

I have read that the shelf life for these things is about 3 years, so if it was a packing date then its surely expired.

Im confused please help

Thanks

Don

[scanker]

I think it's a packing date, but thought the shelf life was longer than 3 years. I think it depends greatly on storage conditions. I'll try and find out.

[Thorfinn]

When i was in the cadets as an instructor, i had been issued rations very similar to your ones in date. I've eatin them the kids ate them and we were fine. I think it is the packing date.

[PJMCBear]

It's the packing date and they are fine for 5 years. Well, I've always eaten them up to that time.

[BushTucker]

Thanks guys

[BushTucker]

Yes you are right i have just rung the shop, packing date, Thanks guys.

Anyone know of a good supplier for these packs?

[scanker]

http://www.genuinearmysurplus.co.uk/pages/products/detail/rowid=419

Cheapest I know of. I've had excellent service on several occasions, but I know that a few people have had problems.

[addyb]

Probobably a packing date. June 2003 if I'm correct.

Adam

[BushTucker]

Yes i think you are right, i think the c means the menu?

[jayuk]

This site has a load of information about rations - theres a British section and a forum:

http://www.mreinfo.com/

[Agile]

http://www.genuinearmysurplus.co.uk/pages/products/detail/rowid=419

Cheapest I know of. I've had excellent service on several occasions, but I know that a few people have had problems.

Just got five packs from there and there wasn't a problem with any of them - but like you said, they were all dated a while back, so I hope it's packing date.

Agile

[addyb]

I'm quite that the rations will last a lot longer than the military says their shelf life is. I can remember reading a vietnam war memoir once where the author describribed eating a ration that dated back from the second world war. Was he sick? No? Dead? Obviously not as he wrote the book. Can't for the life of me remember the title of it though.

I still have CF aircrew survival rations dated 1997. That's ten years ago. If I ate them, will they kill me? Probably not!

Cheers,

Adam

[SunDog]

Agile mate don't worry, you've eaten 15 year old MOD rations before and you're still around.
:) Only joking.

Reminds me of a true story a few years back, when the "Foot and Mouth" Scare was on in Britain. There was a big military exercise involving us Brits over in the USA, and obviously we were taking our coveted UK rations with us.
A directive came down from somewhere (no-one knows where) that the Americans were throwing a wobbler that we were going to bring these rations in, because they contained "Beef Stock Drink". Rumour had it that if the dreaded Beef Stock invaded USA, Mad Cow Disease would spread like wildfire.
The order was to get rid of this part of the rations, or the rations weren't going to be allowed into the USA and we were therefore going hungry.
Thereafter a logistical nightmare ensued, involving the collection and sifting through of thousands of individual UK ration packs to remove one small satchet of Beef Stock from each.
This involved several hundred troops, whose weekend leave was cancelled, and was their sole purpose for 3 days.

Anyway, it turned out that the whole thing was a wind-up.
Someone, somewhere was having a good chuckle to himself.
What a T :p SS :morpheus: R.

[Agile]

Agile mate don't worry, you've eaten 15 year old MOD rations before and you're still around.
:)

So that explains the strange twitch I have developed! :)

Honestly though, last time I went camping was kindly offered some of Sundog's UK Military rations; personally I thought they were better than the Wayfarer stuff, which isn't too bad anyway. Besides, at the price that website holds them for, they are well worth it!

Agile

[Brendan]

I've eaten 10 year old rations and I'm still talking about it.
The chocolate goes pretty bad but everything else seemed ok.
It has a lot to do with the temperature they have been stored at, the lower the better.

[John Fenna]

If the packaging is intact and you cook them up to a good boil the food should still be good to eat when God retires.
I have used these rat packs forever and they are great (and made on the same production line as W**f***r) and the only thing that I have ever had go bad is the cheese - now removed - and chicken and pasta and a rice pud - all of which had damaged packaging.
Cheap tasty and nutr - blast cant spell it! too early in morn! - good for you.
Choc is a bit basic tho unless you get the Yorkie version.
John

[British Red]

I'm quite depressed.

When asked for "help with ration packs", I was going to offer to help with the puddings :(

:D

Red

[themac]

"Continuous consumption up to 15 days, ideally no longer than 30 days due to nutritional qualities."

So says http://www.mreinfo.com/ so no 30 day stints in the woods living on ration packs :-)

[Gailainne]

I would imagine the 30 day limit would have something to do with the lack of greens/fresh vegetables, something "Bushcrafters" would have no problem in obtaining, supplementing the packs.

[rik_uk3]

When tinned food goes bad, it "blows" the tin swells, the same happens with the meals in rat packs, no swelling you should be fine. What does happen over time, is that the food value reduces, the same as tinned food. I have loads of rat packs, some at least 6 years old, and don't worry about eating them

When my mom passed away, and I cleared her home, the cuboard was full of tinned food (like many people who lived through the war, she stocked up "just in case"), some of it must have been 20 years old or more. I threw a lot away, but kept stuff like sardines, pilchards, mackerel, corned beef, ham, sugar etc and it tasted fine and had no ill effects from it; I even had to big tins of whold chicken in jelly :)

Dissclaimer: If you do eat old rations and get ill don't sue me, and tell your family not to sue me in the event of you shaking off this mortal coil as a result of eating old rations ;)

[Tadpole]

Reminds me of a true story a few years back, when the "Foot and Mouth" Scare was on in Britain. There was a big military exercise involving us Brits over in the USA, and obviously we were taking our coveted UK rations with us.
A directive came down from somewhere (no-one knows where) that the Americans were throwing a wobbler that we were going to bring these rations in, because they contained "Beef Stock Drink".
Just after the hurricane Katrina disaster in America, the British government sent 500,000 current ration packs to the USA to help feed the victims. The USA Government stock piled most of them. they cited that same “reason” "unfit for human consumption" … the packs contained meat and meat products (beef drink) the storage cost was $18,000 per month.
The US Government later sold the remaining un-issued rations to third world nations as part of an aid package

[rik_uk3]

Some of the Filipino Nurses I work with were given brit rat packs back home after the tsunami, they all say they loved them :)

[addyb]

I would imagine the 30 day limit would have something to do with the lack of greens/fresh vegetables, something "Bushcrafters" would have no problem in obtaining, supplementing the packs.

Actually, I believe that the suggested 30 day limit is more to the point that rations tend to constipate you quite a bit and it's not entirely healthy when you're not having regular bowel movements. I know that reads a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense. It's not like a firefight is going to stop for ten minutes so that a soldier can do his business.

I could be wrong, though!

Adam

[Surrey Yeoman]

It's always worth checking the dreaded ebay for British rat-packs. Search on "rations" in militaria or camping. There's usually someone flogging them, sometimes in boxes of 10 and cheaper than most surplus / camping stores.

Don't worry too much about the packing dates, like many others, I've eaten them well over 10 years-old.

Remember the Ray Mears episode in the Thai Jungle with the Yank and his tin of 1969 dated pemican? Luvverley!!!

Yeoman

[FGYT]

yep we used to regularly get pack dates of ten years before issue
i think i still got some in the loft (tins) and thats another 15yrs :eek: normally the Choccy goes white and the Scary frightener solidifies

also got some Canadian IMP some where from 88 :eek: :eek: now that was good eatin ;)

ATB

Duncan

[Voivode]

Actually, I believe that the suggested 30 day limit is more to the point that rations tend to constipate you quite a bit and it's not entirely healthy when you're not having regular bowel movements. I know that reads a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense. It's not like a firefight is going to stop for ten minutes so that a soldier can do his business.

I could be wrong, though!

Adam

AFAIK, you're more or less right. Rations are designed to keep a soldier going in the field, not be a perfectly balanced diet. Also bear in mind that eating ratpacks and not exerting yourself might be disastrous for your wasitline; the current Canadian IMP loadout is ~1200 kcal/meal (http://www.mreinfo.com/imps.html) , so eating 3/day will net you about 3600 kcal, not counting whatever you might snack upon between meals. The typical person is meant to get around 2000 kcal/day, and that's assuming you're doing something other than sitting at a desk. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation (http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/calories-burned.php) for my situation (31 yrs old, 62.3kg, 170cm, heavy activity) and it returned 2700 calories! Obviously this is only an approximation, but it still demonstrates that if I were living on IMP's I would probably start getting fat, even if I'm active! I can attest to having a ravenous appetite when our party backpacks in the mountains, since we're carrying ~20 kg packs with significant elevation changes, but I can't imagine "bushcrafting" as practiced by most to involve this kind of energy output.

I've also heard they bung up the works, and many aren't really all that tasty. Why not prepare your own tasty treats before heading out? :)

Edit: I also noticed that most every manufacturer declares a 2-3 year shelf life, at least on the new models, and the British model supplies 3800-4200 kcal/day. :eek: FYI.

[Nikolai]

I went to a surplus shop at the week end, and the sell single meals (breakfast, main meal and pudding) for £1 each and sundries for £1 too. I picked up about 6 packets of the Metalballs and pasta in tomato sauce and i'm set for the week end now :D:D I remember it was near Heanor in Nottinghamshire

[bikething]

snip... Metalballs and pasta in tomato sauce ...snip
:lmao:

well it made me laugh !!