Military MREs, or “Meals Ready to Eat,” a.k.a. “Meals Rejected by Everybody” or “Meals Rejected by the Enemy” as many troops call them, are getting overhauled.
After nearly 35 years in combat and training, almost everyone who has come in contact with an MRE has a joke to tell. Although engineered to keep troops alive under austere conditions, MRE’s rarely get any love. Even used sometimes to make bombs, it has gotten so bad that the only thing many soldiers and Marines eat from it is the candy or the pastry that’s been included as part of the package.
Now, the MRE menu is getting its biggest change it has seen in decades. The diet of America’s armed forces is getting an overhaul
Dubbed as the taste of the future, the Department of Defense has embarked on the task to not only make MREs survival kits, but also something troops in the field under austere conditions could look forward to.
At the beginning of the video, a group of soldiers are asked what they think of the MRE kits and if they enjoy eating them. One of the soldiers then makes it clear that the taste of the food that comes in the kits is “all around terrible.” Another soldier mentioned that out of a scale of one to ten, the taste of the food in the MRE kits is “about a three.”
Cook preparing food (YouTube)
Clearly, taste has traditionally not been a priority as the Department of Defense designs the kits to prioritize nutrition and a shelf life of at least several years. To keep these kits from spoiling, food scientists had no choice but to compromise on the taste.
US Army food lab (YouTube)
With the help of the latest food technology, it looks like there are some major improvements on the way. One of the most popular requests from the troops is to somehow have an MRE kit that features pizza. Considering that pizza doesn’t last very long before going bad, it seemed like an impossible feat to design a version of it that complies with the standards of the Defense Department, but it looks like food scientists have finally found a way to make it possible.
Towards the end of the video, several troops sampled a prototype version of pizza that is compatible with the MRE kits and their feedback was great. They said that it tasted great and they would love to have this as part of their regular MRE kits.
Thanks to some major innovations, it looks like the future is promising for MRE kits. It might not be much longer before our troops look forward to eating nutritious and delicious meals from the MRE kits.
Check out this video for more on the MRE kits of the future:
