View Full Version : Ration packs
Being british ex-forces, I have a certain fondness for the standard 24 hour ration packs :eek:
. I have seen a thread on here on where to get them, but does anyone know what their shelf-life is?
I am planning to buy a box of 10, but it might take me a while to use them.
knowing the forces they probably sit on the shelf for years :rolleyes: , but does anyone know??
cheers
Monkey
Travel-light food I think it is called has a shelf life of, 3 years. :eek:
Can have all sort of flavours, chilli, curry, spotted-dick, toad in the hole, and taste good too!
Don't know if those are the ones you meen though. Strangely enough, Cupa-Soup can be quite good. :)
MagiKelly
18-05-2005, 14:55
Being british ex-forces, I have a certain fondness for the standard 24 hour ration packs :eek:
. I have seen a thread on here on where to get them, but does anyone know what their shelf-life is?
I am planning to buy a box of 10, but it might take me a while to use them.
knowing the forces they probably sit on the shelf for years :rolleyes: , but does anyone know??
cheers
Monkey
The shelf life is measured in years on these but how long you get will depend on how long they have sat before you get them. If you are buying a box of 10 I am guessing you are goiing to www.armyrations.co.uk (http://www.armyrations.co.uk) (currently £50 for 10, can't be bad when a wayfarer meal cost £3 on its own). Best bet is to email them and ask them what the dates are on the box.
MagiKelly
18-05-2005, 15:01
Just checke the web site. They have a 4 year shelf life and were made in 2004. Plenty of time for eating.
Many thanks for your help John.
I will get on Armyrations.co.uk and get myself some boil in the bag hamburgers..
mmmm delicious!
cheers
Monkey
BE VERY CAREFUL ON THIS ONE.
A couple of years ago I done a lot of research on this very subject as I wanted to obtain some for a scouting activity that I was involved in.
After many hours on the phone I eventually tracked down the department that is responsable for the safety of all rat packs.
I was told by a manager of this dept that all packs are batch tested every six months from the date of manufacture, and that in a fair few cases some of the contents can be unfit for consumption, I raised the question that I had been told that they last for years and he nearly collapsed spluttering the words "rather you than me, I have condemned thousands of packs after six months".
So be careful.
Chopper :)
Spacemonkey
18-05-2005, 18:54
Nah, they're merely packed full of goodness as my granddad used to say when he produced a swollen tin. Remember the days when tinned food lasted for decades? I still have some diddy tins of peanut butter from the Vietnam war on the shelf....
tricky boy
18-05-2005, 20:51
The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,
http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php
The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.
Patrick
innocent bystander
18-05-2005, 23:00
The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,
http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php
The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.
Patrick
I went through them once, as the only place i could find the veggie rat packs. Good service, but like you say, not cheap..
The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,
http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php
The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.
Patrick
Be careful of using the words 'official'...
We used to use a lot of these for our courses, until supply dried up. They are now marked 'MOD use ONLY' and these can be classified as stolen property if they have not been through the correct channels.
Apparently, many of the suppliers were recieving them via 'back door' MOD stores....!
The other nice thing is that you need a menu that has not got processed cheese in it. This is removed from the boxes on decommissioning as its deemed unfit for human consumption..... But its fit right up to the moment its removed...!!!! :eek:
Cheers
Peter
innocent bystander
19-05-2005, 08:43
The ones i got from Expedition Foods, came in a plain box with a wrapper stating "supplied in association with Expedition foods". Full menu and ingredients on outside of wrapper and a best before date plus picture of steaming pongo.
Hi Monkey,
I bought a couple of 24hr packs from armyrations.com last week. They were made in Oct 2002, but there was no mention on them about shelf life. They were only £5.95 each so I guess they were getting close.
tricky boy
19-05-2005, 18:53
Just to clarify my comment about expedition foods being the only official legit supplier of army rat packs. To the best of my knowledge they have been selected by the MOD to retail their packs in the public sector. Expedition foods outer wrap with their own printed sleeve. Any other pack purchased will have been obtained illegally. I have no association with expedition foods except as a satisfied customer :)
Shelf life as stated is 2 years for all components except the chocolate which is 1 year because of the best before on the Yorkie bars. This allows for worst case storage. Under controlled storage the pack should be good up to 3 years
Regards
Patrick
I can see there will be a lot of squirty bottoms on BCUK ;)
I can see there will be a lot of squirty bottoms on BCUK ;)
They had best eat lots of biscuits brown to block it up. lol :)
neo_wales2000
28-05-2005, 16:36
They are good stuff, as to shelf life, well the chocolate won't keep for years, but the boil in bag meals will keep for a long time. Like canned food, if they start to 'Go Off' they will start to swell; it all depends on how they have been stored.
I am eating some with a packing date of 2002, no problems, even with the chocolate, although the pate looked a bit shrunken in the tin, so I dump them. I've had a 10 packs given me from a fellow nurse who is in the TA, they dumped a skip full because they needed room for other bits of kit, and were told to take any if they wanted them.
There is a seller on ebay selling the boil in the bag meals, 36 meals for £45, free post and packin (no, its not me)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16036&item=7158123774&rd=1
Thats a third the cost of commercial boil in the bag food :)
Great Pebble
28-05-2005, 17:21
Ahhh.. you pays your money and you takes your chance.
Despite the noted concerns about cheese (should be rectified in later issues) and pate type stuff, It would have to be said that the dates on most packs, not just the British issue, are on the conservative side.
Of course Gawd knows what they put in them to make them last like that....
Does anyone know if it's still possible to obtain tins of 'Bacon Grill' from the old British Army 24 ration packs?
Pappa
simonsays
31-05-2005, 20:07
Does anyone know if it's still possible to obtain tins of 'Bacon Grill' from the old British Army 24 ration packs?
Pappa
Asda sell 3 different brands of bacon grill. I wouldnt have thought there was -that- much difference in taste.
Cheers,
Simon
TwoFourAlpha
31-05-2005, 20:13
Bacon Grill
Both Sainsbury's and Tesco sell a passable sustitute for the Real Thing. It's not quite as good, but it will do.
You'll find it near the Corned Dog and Pressed Tongue. Usually in square tins with a key on them for added finger slicing fun.
Spacemonkey
31-05-2005, 20:41
I think I'm going to vomit after reading that...
Anyway, for people who can't get powdered egg try http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=48
Makes an ideal xmas present for grannies to remind them of the 'good old days'...
Both Sainsbury's and Tesco sell a passable sustitute for the Real Thing. It's not quite as good, but it will do.
I've tried a few different types, but so far none of them seem to match up.
Pappa
zackerty
01-06-2005, 04:03
What about getting 12 Big Macs, and wrapping them in shrinkwrap?
They ought to have a shelf life of at least a decade... :D
Biddlesby
01-06-2005, 19:01
I agree, no bacteria would be stupid enough to degrade Macdonald's food....
I was looking at a ration pack in Becketts yesterday. Personally, they look disgusting. Then again, I've never tried one. Still, dried baked beans and sausages in a tiny foil packet.... And at that price (£8 there) how good are they for you? Not that I'm suggesting going on a ration-pack-only diet.
Basically, I question the quality and taste of the food. Now I'm not saying that they should be restaurant-quality food, just that I'd prefer to spend a bit more for some nicer food.
innocent bystander
01-06-2005, 22:38
Personally i went for the v1 menu, and quite shocking the tikka masala actually tastes quite good. Now, if they did a boil in the bag naan bread ?!?!?!?!? :)
zackerty
02-06-2005, 00:40
There is nothing quite like walking 20 miles uphill, boiling up noodles and beans, .....and the group nearby are eating steaks, eggs, crayfish, fresh veggies, and tinned peaches in fresh cream...
They may carry heavy, but their kit gets lighter, the further they walk :)
neo_wales2000
02-06-2005, 02:59
whats wrong with a fried spam sarnie for brekkie? good stuff.
Batchelors sell packets of dried mixed veg, onion, mushrooms, peppers, they are not bad, use the mixed veg with corned beef for a stew, you can use 5 min rice and a spoonful of curry powder to spice it up :)
Basically, I question the quality and taste of the food. Now I'm not saying that they should be restaurant-quality food, just that I'd prefer to spend a bit more for some nicer food.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the boil-in-bag stuff which is actually rather good. Same as Wayfarer commercial civvy stuff, it turns out.
My only issue with 24hr rations is the fact that half the calories come in the form of sugar for your brews (which I don't take) and deeply unpleasant cheapo chocolate.
(I actually like the weird biscuits)
Tend to do my own dried stuff these days, tho', and/or forage ineffectually.
Jim.
There is nothing quite like walking 20 miles uphill, boiling up noodles and beans, .....and the group nearby are eating steaks, eggs, crayfish, fresh veggies, and tinned peaches in fresh cream...
They may carry heavy, but their kit gets lighter, the further they walk :)
I totally agree - for short (day or 2) trips.
Longer trips without resupply impose limits on perishables, though, innit?
Jim.
I ate a 10 year old tin of rat-pack cheese on an exercise last year. It wasn't too bad between two fruit biscuits (biscuits, fruit, for the use of).
Mind you, I was rather hungry...
My wife gave me a the tip to use baking bags from the supermarket to use for DIY boil in the bag meals. Tip your cans of whatever, I like stewed steak and mixed veg, into the bag put it in the pan of boiling water and as long as you are careful you have water for a brew too and it costs a third of the price of wayfarer and such.
You actualy ate cheese posessed????? :eek:
innocent bystander
26-06-2005, 16:42
I have 2 memories of cheese possessed.
1) when the can saw a tin opener the contents squirted out under pressure. Which was nice. Not.
2) the cheese bouncing down a hill at high speed, like the rubber ball that it is. Don't ask why..... :rolleyes:
wingstoo
26-06-2005, 21:18
Hi Folks,
Army ration packs are wonderful things, have been eating them for years; both tinned and the boil in the bag type.
Three weeks ago ate a tin of goulash that was at least 12 years old, had no problems with that, tins of beans from the same batch, still no problems, even margarine and processed cheese from the same batch with no bad effects at all. Just do not eat the contents of tins that are noticibly swollen as this means there is something going on inside.
Boil in the bag rations are also really long lasting, so long as the packaging is intact, have eaten stuff from those that is dated as far back as 1994, remember it is precooked and vacuum packed, so will last years and years, if it looks like it is off dont eat it otherwise just check the packaging, if its intact its more than likely going to be ok.
Hope this helps
The Squirrel Hunter