How Well Will You Eat During the Next Disaster?

MREs or “Meals, Ready to Eat” have long been used in the military but it wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina, the threat of Y2K and other natural disasters that a civilian demand for MREs was known. Unfortunately, companies that produce MREs are not allowed to publically sell them which create a demand that we at Hikingware are happy to fulfill.

We are proud to announce that we now have civilian MREs, with many different varieties of meals to choose from. There is no need to add water and the meals can be eaten anywhere at any time. Each meal contains the complete calories and nutrients of a regular meal. Here is an entertaining look back at the history of early efforts to provide meals for our military while they were out on the battlefield. It should bring back some memories (and perhaps a touch of indigestion!) to our older veterans. Reserve Ration: This early 1900s MRE was a field ration that included one pound of dehydrated meat (i.e. jerky) and hard tack biscuits. Yum.

C-Ration: Because the Reserve Ration had such low nutritional quality, in 1938, the C-Ration took its place in the military. Where the Reserve Ration composed of dehydrated meat and hand biscuits, the C-Ration was a canned, pre-cooked “wet” ration. C-Rations were meant as a worst case scenario type food and were intended for limited consumption like when there was no access to a camp kitchen (A-Ration) or to unprepared, pre-packaged (B-Ration). Unfortunately they ended up being pretty popular, and we’re using the term popular lightly, during World War II. Just like their predecessor, they lacked variety and consisted of only M-units and B-units; known to civilians as meat and bread.

MCI: In 1958, C-Rations were replaced by another wet ration type of food called MRIs aka the Meal, Combat, Individual Ration. Unfortunately for the soldiers subject to these rations there was little improvement made in the transition from C-Rations. They were used in the military until 1975 when the first MRE was developed.

MREs: Even after the MRE was created, they did not taste very good and were given a range fo nicknames by soldiers. Some of them were “Mr. E” (mystery), “Meals Rejected by Everyone”, “Meals, Rarely Edible”, “Meals Rejected by the Enemy”, “Morsels, Regurgitated, Eviscerated”, “Meal, Ready to Excrete”, “Materials Resembling Edibles”, and even “Meals Rejected by Ethiopians”. An individual meal that received its own personal nickname was the frankfurter. They came in packages of four and were referred to as the “four fingers of death”. Although quality has improved over the years, many of the nicknames have stuck.

One of the number one complaints about these older MREs was that they had a very low dietary fiber content which caused constipation and even more nicknames. Some of the examples of the nicknames are “Meals Refusing to Exit”, “Meals Refusing to Excrete” or “Massive Rectal Expulsions”. It has been quoted that in December 2006 comedian Al Franken (on his 8th USO tour at the time) joked to troops in Iraq that he’d had his fifth MRE so far and “none of them had an exit strategy”.

All joking aside, MREs have come a long way since their initial creation as the Reserve Ration. Now MREs come in a variety of flavors and with many different menu options helping to break up the monotony of mushed up meat and bread every time a soldier sits down to a meal. Our civilian MREs offer up to 1,300 calories a meal and can be eaten any place, any time.

Do you have any nicknames for MREs or any experiences eating the newer civilian MREs you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!

Tim Torkildson is a nationally-known writer and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times. He currently works as an editor for Tork Media.