- - - best place to buy - what is good to buy - shelf life - etc.

Education needed

MREs?

 

I thought that stood for "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians".

 

Actually I have been told the cheese tortellini isn't too bad

 

What are you wanting to buy MREs for?  Emergency food?  Planning an op in Central America?

38 minutes ago, GRIZ said:

What are you wanting to buy MREs for? 

Zombie Apocalypse.

1 hour ago, USRifle30Cal said:

 - - - best place to buy - what is good to buy - shelf life - etc.

A few questions, what type/amount/length/number of people of storage? A few days, weeks, a month, year. It depends on what you're storing them for. Hurricane or major storm for a few days, social unrest for a few weeks, filling a bug-out location? Camping or backpacking, RV trip? Feeding the In-laws?

What resources will you have available? Fresh water? Heating source? Storage space?

Need a few more details....

I lean towards Mountain House brand. Comes in different sized buckets, cans and pouches.

A lot of these "emergency food" issues can be solved more easily and less expensively by hitting Shop Rite during the Can Can Sale.

You're probably better-off with some pork roll and peanut butter......

5 minutes ago, GRIZ said:

A lot of these "emergency food" issues can be solved more easily and less expensively by hitting Shop Rite during the Can Can Sale.

Depends on how long and where they will be stored. Many cans don't have a really long shelf life.

 

Treerats, Bambi, even those groundhogs in a pinch!

I see them for sale occasionally on Sportsmen’s guide

1 hour ago, Sniper22 said:

Depends on how long and where they will be stored. Many cans don't have a really long shelf life.

 

Storage conditions have effects on everything.  Normal canned food has a shelf life of 1 to 3 years.  Under good conditions this may be 3 to 5 years.  Depends on the food and the storage conditions.  I've seen cans last a lot longer than 5 years.

MREs have a shelf life too.  About 5 years.  Can be longer but I've known them to last much less than 5 years.

If you're looking for long term no maintenance food supplies I'd go for the freeze dried, nitrogen packed stuff.

Just a quick look I found MREs for sale for about $5 a meal.  If you know how to read labels you duplicate the nutritional value about half that price.  Rotate your stock and it will last longer than you.

 

2 hours ago, Sniper22 said:

Zombie Apocalypse.

A few questions, what type/amount/length/number of people of storage? A few days, weeks, a month, year. It depends on what you're storing them for. Etcetera, etcetera.......

Need a few more details....

I lean towards Mountain House brand. Comes in different sized buckets, cans and pouches.

Pretty much all of ^^^^

What is your definition of an MRE.  I mean, Lunchables are technically MREs.

If you can make a fire and have potable water, Mountain House is what I recommend.  The food is tasty, though some of it is a bit on the salty side.  The pros of Mt House are, it's relatively inexpensive, last a very long time if stored properly, and light enough to transport 3 months worth of grub in a grab-n-go situation.  The only thing I can say against Mt House is the serving size.  One pouch is too much for one person, but not quite enough for two people.  If you are planning for a long term food shortage or heading for the hills for months, you can buy Mt House in a #10 can

Midway USA has okay regular prices and every so often really good sale prices.  You can also find it in many sporting goods stores.  Buy a couple of pouches and give it a taste test.

Proper military MREs are more convenient, many are self heating, but are more expensive and have a shorter shelf life.   Also, they weigh quite a bit more than the freeze dried stuff.  It would be difficult to backpack a lot of it.
 

Canned food will suffice, seriously. 

Top Ramen... cheap.

24 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Top Ramen... cheap.

Cup noodles... already has da cup

1 hour ago, Ray Ray said:

Canned food will suffice, seriously. 

 

33 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Top Ramen... cheap.

What's great about these choices, the food is good AND it's easier to store AND you can donate it when the so-called experation date is close.

Cup noodles... already has da cup

That means you need hot water...

Open bag of ramen, and eat. Might not taste like chicken soup, but will keep you going. [emoji6]

High in sodium, so if you end up getting eaten by a bear, at least you’ll take some time off his life expectancy.

Just now, Screwball said:

 

That means you need hot water...

Open bag of ramen, and eat. Might not taste like chicken soup, but will keep you going.

High in sodium, so if you end up getting eaten by a bear, at least you’ll take some time off his life expectancy.

 

Ha! Open cup, invert

moving on

MRE's? For storage in the home?

If so, why not just stock regular canned food? Lasts nearly as long, tastes way better and you can easily cycle it.

Not sure about the best price, but the info on the page I'm linking to here will answer all your other questions.

Ha! Open cup, invert
moving on

True...

Rather just have a bar to eat as I walk. Surviving the apocalypse, not walking around a party with a styrofoam cup. Plus, you got those dried carrots in there. [emoji1787]

Seriously though, I do have two MREs sitting in my trunk, just in case. I forget how I got them, but at the very worst, I’ll have two small bottles of Tabasco sauce after I get stuck somewhere. But for as much money you can spend of prepared survival food (or marked up MREs), going to Sam’s/BJ’s/Costco can yield similar results with less coinage.

1 minute ago, Screwball said:

 

True...

Rather just have a bar to eat as I walk. Surviving the apocalypse, not walking around a party with a styrofoam cup. Plus, you got those dried carrots in there.

Seriously though, I do have two MREs sitting in my trunk, just in case. I forget how I got them, but at the very worst, I’ll have two small bottles of Tabasco sauce after I get stuck somewhere. But for as much money you can spend of prepared survival food (or marked up MREs), going to Sam’s/BJ’s/Costco can yield similar results with less coinage.

 

Bar, cone.. let’s not get bogged down with shapes

8 minutes ago, mossburger said:

why not just stock regular canned food? Lasts nearly as long, tastes way better and you can easily cycle it.

milspec MREs last about two to three years.  That's basically the same shelf life of  canned goods.  you can probably get five to six years shelf life out of canned goods if you store them in a cool temperature stable place. 

Mountain House has a guaranteed shelf life of decades, and has a proven track record.  Also, try and transport 90 meals worth of canned food.  as far as canned food is concerned, what are we talking about, peas, creamed corn, chicken noodle soup, Vienna sausages?  Those aren't meals.  You could probably survive on 20 cans of asparagus for a while, I guess, but why do that when you could be eating beef stroganoff, chicken fried rice or chili mac?

Ramen! Are you kidding me?  I think that shit actually removes nutrients from the body.

Canned food is not a bad plan, but it's a boring one with a limited shelf life and is not easily transported.  Lets say we are not talking about survival.  Let's say we are going camping for a week.  Would you want to lug seven days of canned meals in your backpack?

With Mt House, you can buy and forget, that  is, until you need it.  With canned goods it's continually rotating stock and wondering if that 5 year old can of cream of mushroom soup will kill you.

8 minutes ago, Scorpio64 said:

 

Ramen! Are you kidding me?  I think that shit actually removes nutrients from the body.

 

It’s called the apocalypse diet dude! And it’s trendy

1 minute ago, Zeke said:

It’s called the apocalypse diet dude! And it’s trendy

So is eating Tide pods, but okay.

Just now, Scorpio64 said:

So is eating Tide pods, but okay.

Fair point 

Sportsman's Guide is currently selling them.  I think it's good to have a couple of dozen on hand for emergencies, but IMHO, you're better off with a lot of freeze-dried foods for long-term storage.

20 hours ago, Sniper22 said:

Zombie Apocalypse.

Good plan. Feed the MREs to the zombies, and your zombie problem is solved. 

MRE's, under desperation, will get the job done but I never found them tasty..like, at all.

I'd suggest buying any of the freezedried backpacking food from brands like Mtnhouse and Backpackers Pantry. If you served some of their food like the beef stroganoff to someone without telling them what it was, they would think you actually cooked it at home. Most of their meals are yummy except the eggs are weird. May cost more but I'd much rather eat something that tastes good versus cheap and gross.

MRE: Meal Refusing to Exit. A steady diet of MRE's with keep you blocked up for days.

16 hours ago, Scorpio64 said:

milspec MREs last about two to three years.  That's basically the same shelf life of  canned goods.  you can probably get five to six years shelf life out of canned goods if you store them in a cool temperature stable place. 

Mountain House has a guaranteed shelf life of decades, and has a proven track record.  Also, try and transport 90 meals worth of canned food.  as far as canned food is concerned, what are we talking about, peas, creamed corn, chicken noodle soup, Vienna sausages?  Those aren't meals.  You could probably survive on 20 cans of asparagus for a while, I guess, but why do that when you could be eating beef stroganoff, chicken fried rice or chili mac?

Ramen! Are you kidding me?  I think that shit actually removes nutrients from the body.

Canned food is not a bad plan, but it's a boring one with a limited shelf life and is not easily transported.  Lets say we are not talking about survival.  Let's say we are going camping for a week.  Would you want to lug seven days of canned meals in your backpack?

With Mt House, you can buy and forget, that  is, until you need it.  With canned goods it's continually rotating stock and wondering if that 5 year old can of cream of mushroom soup will kill you.

You're using confirmation bias to support your reasoning.

Mountain House is has a long shelf life...as long as the seals remain intact.  You've already noted the water to reconstitute MH would weigh a lot.  90 meals of MH is not that compact.  If you're in a situation where fresh water may be restricted canned may be a better idea.  If your water tastes like crap your MH will taste like crap.

Peas, creamed corn, Vienna sausages? Live on asparagus for 20 days?  Where do you shop?  Go to the international foods aisle of any decent supermarket and you'll find your chili mac, fried rice, jambalaya and a lot of other non boring foods in cans.

How much you carry backpacking is very dependent on your fitness level.  Now I can't recall ever "backpacking" a week of canned food.  3-5 days of canned food yes.  Along with a M16, several hundred rounds of 5.56,  a few grenades, a claymore, 100 rds for the M60, half a dozen grenades for the M79, and maybe a spare battery for the radio. So yeah, I've probably carried the weight of 7 days of canned meals "backpacking".  MH would make a lot of sense if you're carrying a week or more worth of food on your back.

MH costs $6-9  a pouch. $7 for fried rice!  At the lower end is stuff like biscuits and gravy (do you want to live on that?  A can of Beefaroni and a can of mixed veggies can be had for under $2 on sale.  Big price difference.  You can easily have canned and dry foods stocked for a third the cost or less of MH.  I can replenish my stocks at any Shop Rite.

How much emergency food do you keep on hand?  Do have pallets of the stuff you need to rotate?  I've never seen any problem rotating stock.  Never had to worry about a 5 year old can of mushroom soup.  Never had one around.  BTW mushroom soup is not a good choice for nutrition but does provide a base for other things.

You have to watch out for Mountain House too,

https://www.google.com/amp/s/foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2017/mountain-house-breakfast-hash-recalled-for-possible-foreign-materials-contamination/amp/

Nothing is perfect.