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MRE Meals – A Prepper’s SHTF Food Guide

Prepper Food

MRE Meals – A Prepper’s SHTF Food Guide

Military MRE Meals – An Introduction

Around these parts, we are big on prepper food storage and supplies. As one of the top prepper news outlets, we, as do our readers, realize how imperative it is to be vigilantly prepped at all times. This article should give you everything you need to know about Military MRE Meals. What are MRE meals, what are the best MRE meals and what are some cheap MRE meals and where do can you buy them.

If you are new to prepping, you’ve potentially seen the term MRE meal during your reading and your curiosity has finally got the best of you. Well, welcome aboard, here’s all the information you will ever need on the subject.

What Are MRE Meals?

MRE Meals are the core food supply, or food rations, used by our very own United States Army. Historically, the MRE Meal was originally by C-Rations and K-Rations back during the Second World War. They were next evolved into what was known as MCI, or Meal-Combat-Individual rations during the Korean conflict. Now they are known as MEALS, READY TO EAT.

A basic Military MRE can be broken into a number of different food categories, all contained within a military-style durable package. The following image shows you what you can generally expect from an MRE meal for sale. This MRE Meal is sold on Amazon by Western Frontier and is called Ultimate MRE.

mre meals for sale

MRE Meals are popular amongst the prepper community, as well as backpackers, hikers, those who many want them for bug out bag essentials, and those simply want to have emergency food supplies in their homes.

While MRE Meals can be warmed up over a campfire, or using a modern microwave, their extreme advantage to both military personel and preppers is that they can be ingested cold, or as is.

MRE Meals are typically far from boring, in fact, they are often varied in terms of types of meals the recipients would eat with each package they open. You may not think that following an EMP attack you’d be picky about what you eat, however, given time, it will be easier to eat diverse meals.

MRE Meals Quick Facts

  • Typically, the MRE food chain consists of 24 different meals which can amount to over 150 different food items. All things considered, that’s rather amazing considering how tightly packed and compact the MRE meal packs are.
  • All MRE meals are required to have an initial storage life of at least 3.5 years.
  • MRE Meals can withstand impact from falls of 100 feet without the assistance of a parachute and over 1200 feet with the use of a parachute.
  • Currently, AmeriQual is the largest provider of military MRE meals.

Common MRE Meal List

  • Stews, spaghetti, Meats
  • Sides such as corn, potatoes, rice, even fruit
  • Breads
  • Crackers
  • Candy and candy bars (yeah, who said a prepper’s life during doomsday would be all that bad?)
  • Drinks such as coffee and Gatorade
  • Sauces
  • Often times, an MRE meal package will come with a flameless heater device
  • Spoons, forks, knives, salt, sugar, gum, even toilet paper, and matches.

As you can see, MRE Meals can be composed of a variety of different foods, utensils, and cooking devices. The point of MRE Meals are meals that can help you survive and thrive during SHTF and the variation in meals really helps to achieve that goal.

How To Eat MRE Meal

MRE Meals are ready to go. You can eat them cold, but, MRE Meal pouches typically come with a way to heat them up even if you don’t have access to modern technology or a fire. This really comes down to what you enjoy, I personally don’t love hot food, so I wouldn’t have any issue ingesting them at room temperature. But circumstances, such as drastically cold weather, could influence me in (or anyone) in a much different direction.

Best MRE Meals Reviews

Most people are looking for cheap MRE meals these days. The thing is, the most prominent and dominant company you will find is Western Frontier. I think their prices are affordable and offer great value, plus they inspect ever package for freshness. Western Frontier Ultimate MRE Case bundle offers 24 meals with a recent inspection date. This is a great deal for a family that preps and it is available on Amazon.

ultimate mre meal review

These 24 meals are verified to be fresh by Western Frontier. They can be used as long-term food storage or used immediately for camping and various other activities whereas non-perishable food might be an issue. These meals are intended for military grade use. In other words, they are built for troops. They’ve upgraded their meals to include some new meal types, most notably Jalapeno Pepper jack Beef Patty and garlic chicken breast.

If stored at room temperature, you should safely get 5 years out of them. You could put some of the packs inside of a bug out bag for each member of your family.

In order to heat the meals, you would simply add some water to the heating pack which would activate the heat needed to warm up the meals. Clearly, they don’t have to be heated, this is just personal preference.

Conclusion

Military MRE Meals could be essential for a bug out scenario. A SHTF situation could warrant that we evacuate immediately, allowing us to grab a bug out bag that has some MRE meal packs already loaded. MRE Meal packs can also be stored at home and used in the event you lose power for several days or even weeks. MRE Meals are must-haves for any prepper.

Author: Jim Satney

PrepForThat’s Editor and lead writer for political, survival, and weather categories.


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