Army rations food hygine advice?

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Hi i was issued some army rations this weekend (cadets).
main meals were all boiled in a huge saucepan, but not all were opened and eaten, a question arose from this.

If a un-opened (foil bag), ration has been cooked properly and left to cool, can it be reheated and cooked again safely, or eaten cold?

normally with cooked food at home it can as long as it's cooked thoruoghly, well these haven't even been opened to allow bacteria in, so it makes sense that is still ok, it must happen to soldiers on excersice having to re-heat stuff

 

[bikething]

AFAIK the stuff is pre-cooked so it's already had 1 cooking cycle. The cooking instruction leaflet says "all pouched foods may be eaten hot or cold."

i can't see that it would be a problem.. unless someone knows different?

 

[copper_head]

worked as a chef for three years (not any more tho, say hallehuja (sp)). The reason why you shouldnt reheat food twice (so 3 cooking cycles) is that between 8oC and 63oC bacterial growth occurs, so the more you heat up/cool down a food item the longer it is in this temperature range. Therefore the more bacterial growth occurs. 82oC is the tempeature that HACCP defines as being the 'safe' temperature that all food must reach to be cooked, and destroy bacteria. However this applys to fresh or frozen ingredients, i dont know if it is the same for hemetically sealed ration packs, presumably they must be sterile in order for the MOD to use them. Not sure id want to risk it tho.

 

[addyb]

I agree with Copper's words. What he's referring to is called "The Danger Zone," which is the temperature range in which bacteria grows easily. It's just basic Food Safe, and because I'm a restaurant server I had to take this ridiculous course. Anyway, you can basically cook food once and cool it. If you want to heat it up again, it's gotta be taken a minimum temperature of 70 degrees celcius. Now, apparently you can only do this once. But since we're talking about army rations, I'd expect things to be a bit different. They're all pre-cooked because the foil bag is basically just a flexible can. Like a c-ration but not in a tin. Rappleby, you probably shouldn't worry about the rations because they're already cooked. I wasted away my teenage years in Cadets and ate far too many canadian army rations for my own good.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just remember than rations are supposed to plug you up a bit. I don't think a soldier can yell out "Stop shooting, I've gotta go!"

Adam

PS: I don't know about British rations, but over here it's not recommended that a grunt sustain himself on rations for more than 30 consecutive days.

 

[bikething]

PS: I don't know about British rations, but over here it's not recommended that a grunt sustain himself on rations for more than 30 consecutive days.

just dug this out of an old thread...

Features of the 24-Hour operational ration pack are:

An individual ration for normal use in the field.
Ration is designed to feed one person for one day.
It has been designed to provide a balanced nutritional diet.
Can be eaten hot or cold.
ORP provides an average of 3800-4200 Kcal per ration.
Ration is 10% protein, no more than 35% fat, 55% carbohydrate.
Continuous consumption up to 15 days, ideally no longer than 30 days due to nutritional qualities.
7 Menus consisting of Breakfast, Snack, Main Meal, Beverages, Sundries (matches, tissues etc)
Hot meals in flexible foil pouches.
Rations packed in waterproof outer cardboard boxes.
All ORPs have a shelf life of at least 3 years.
Presently, up to 2.5 million rations produced annually.
British military ORPs are packed in a production line within HM (Her Majesty’s) Naval base at Portsmouth, England, UK.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

cheers for that

i have used a few different rations the meal pouches are very simular to the US army MRE ration packets.

 

[Glen]

It's just basic Food Safe, and because I'm a restaurant server I had to take this ridiculous course. Anyway, you can basically cook food once and cool it. If you want to heat it up again, it's gotta be taken a minimum temperature of 70 degrees celcius. Now, apparently you can only do this once. But since we're talking about army rations, I'd expect things to be a bit different. They're all pre-cooked because the foil bag is basically just a flexible can. Like a c-ration but not in a tin. Rappleby, you probably shouldn't worry about the rations because they're already cooked. I wasted away my teenage years in Cadets and ate far too many canadian army rations for my own good.

I think the crux here is that the food courses refer to food kept in the open, or refrierated enviroment, the ration packs are sterilised before packing so it shouldn't have any bacteria in it to be able to grow.
The post above giving a 3 year shelf life ( presumable including desert conditions ) heavily implies that they should be OK for reheating so long as the air tight seal hasn't been broken.

 

[addyb]

That's true, Glen. Thanks for that input!

Also, our IMP's (Individual Meal Packets) have a 3 three year shelf life too. I think the CF's mindset on rations is as follows: One year after being manufactured, the regular force ships everything they didn't eat to the reserves. A year after that and the Cadets get them. It's neat because IMP's are packaged at a naval base called Esquimalt which is about a two hour drive from me.

What about survival rations? I had a grizzled old chief tell me once that "Survival rations should last forever at room temperature because they're just pure carbohydrates." I'm referring to those little tiny coloured food candies that aircrew are issued.

Anyone want to take a stab at this one?

Adam