Help needed with rations packs

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Tadpole

Full Member
Nov 12, 2005
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Bristol
SunDog said:
Reminds me of a true story a few years back, when the "Foot and Mouth" Scare was on in Britain. There was a big military exercise involving us Brits over in the USA, and obviously we were taking our coveted UK rations with us.
A directive came down from somewhere (no-one knows where) that the Americans were throwing a wobbler that we were going to bring these rations in, because they contained "Beef Stock Drink".
Just after the hurricane Katrina disaster in America, the British government sent 500,000 current ration packs to the USA to help feed the victims. The USA Government stock piled most of them. they cited that same “reason” "unfit for human consumption" … the packs contained meat and meat products (beef drink) the storage cost was $18,000 per month.
The US Government later sold the remaining un-issued rations to third world nations as part of an aid package
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
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69
south wales
Some of the Filipino Nurses I work with were given brit rat packs back home after the tsunami, they all say they loved them :)
 

addyb

Native
Jul 2, 2005
1,264
4
39
Vancouver Island, Canada.
Gailainne said:
I would imagine the 30 day limit would have something to do with the lack of greens/fresh vegetables, something "Bushcrafters" would have no problem in obtaining, supplementing the packs.

Actually, I believe that the suggested 30 day limit is more to the point that rations tend to constipate you quite a bit and it's not entirely healthy when you're not having regular bowel movements. I know that reads a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense. It's not like a firefight is going to stop for ten minutes so that a soldier can do his business.

I could be wrong, though!

Adam
 
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Jul 15, 2006
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It's always worth checking the dreaded ebay for British rat-packs. Search on "rations" in militaria or camping. There's usually someone flogging them, sometimes in boxes of 10 and cheaper than most surplus / camping stores.

Don't worry too much about the packing dates, like many others, I've eaten them well over 10 years-old.

Remember the Ray Mears episode in the Thai Jungle with the Yank and his tin of 1969 dated pemican? Luvverley!!!

Yeoman
 
yep we used to regularly get pack dates of ten years before issue
i think i still got some in the loft (tins) and thats another 15yrs :eek: normally the Choccy goes white and the Scary frightener solidifies

also got some Canadian IMP some where from 88 :eek: :eek: now that was good eatin ;)

ATB

Duncan
 

Voivode

Forager
Oct 24, 2006
204
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Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
addyb said:
Actually, I believe that the suggested 30 day limit is more to the point that rations tend to constipate you quite a bit and it's not entirely healthy when you're not having regular bowel movements. I know that reads a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense. It's not like a firefight is going to stop for ten minutes so that a soldier can do his business.

I could be wrong, though!

Adam

AFAIK, you're more or less right. Rations are designed to keep a soldier going in the field, not be a perfectly balanced diet. Also bear in mind that eating ratpacks and not exerting yourself might be disastrous for your wasitline; the current Canadian IMP loadout is ~1200 kcal/meal , so eating 3/day will net you about 3600 kcal, not counting whatever you might snack upon between meals. The typical person is meant to get around 2000 kcal/day, and that's assuming you're doing something other than sitting at a desk. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation for my situation (31 yrs old, 62.3kg, 170cm, heavy activity) and it returned 2700 calories! Obviously this is only an approximation, but it still demonstrates that if I were living on IMP's I would probably start getting fat, even if I'm active! I can attest to having a ravenous appetite when our party backpacks in the mountains, since we're carrying ~20 kg packs with significant elevation changes, but I can't imagine "bushcrafting" as practiced by most to involve this kind of energy output.

I've also heard they bung up the works, and many aren't really all that tasty. Why not prepare your own tasty treats before heading out? :)

Edit: I also noticed that most every manufacturer declares a 2-3 year shelf life, at least on the new models, and the British model supplies 3800-4200 kcal/day. :eek: FYI.
 

Nikolai

Tenderfoot
I went to a surplus shop at the week end, and the sell single meals (breakfast, main meal and pudding) for £1 each and sundries for £1 too. I picked up about 6 packets of the Metalballs and pasta in tomato sauce and i'm set for the week end now :D:D I remember it was near Heanor in Nottinghamshire
 

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