Ration packs

[Monkey]

Being british ex-forces, I have a certain fondness for the standard 24 hour ration packs
. I have seen a thread on here on where to get them, but does anyone know what their shelf-life is?
I am planning to buy a box of 10, but it might take me a while to use them.
knowing the forces they probably sit on the shelf for years , but does anyone know??
cheers
Monkey

 

[Mutley]

Travel-light food I think it is called has a shelf life of, 3 years.

Can have all sort of flavours, chilli, curry, spotted-dick, toad in the hole, and taste good too!

Don't know if those are the ones you meen though. Strangely enough, Cupa-Soup can be quite good.

 

[MagiKelly]

Being british ex-forces, I have a certain fondness for the standard 24 hour ration packs
. I have seen a thread on here on where to get them, but does anyone know what their shelf-life is?
I am planning to buy a box of 10, but it might take me a while to use them.
knowing the forces they probably sit on the shelf for years , but does anyone know??
cheers
Monkey

The shelf life is measured in years on these but how long you get will depend on how long they have sat before you get them. If you are buying a box of 10 I am guessing you are goiing to www.armyrations.co.uk (currently £50 for 10, can't be bad when a wayfarer meal cost £3 on its own). Best bet is to email them and ask them what the dates are on the box.

 

[MagiKelly]

Just checke the web site. They have a 4 year shelf life and were made in 2004. Plenty of time for eating.

 

[Monkey]

Many thanks for your help John.
I will get on Armyrations.co.uk and get myself some boil in the bag hamburgers..
mmmm delicious!
cheers
Monkey

 

[Chopper]

BE VERY CAREFUL ON THIS ONE.

A couple of years ago I done a lot of research on this very subject as I wanted to obtain some for a scouting activity that I was involved in.

After many hours on the phone I eventually tracked down the department that is responsable for the safety of all rat packs.

I was told by a manager of this dept that all packs are batch tested every six months from the date of manufacture, and that in a fair few cases some of the contents can be unfit for consumption, I raised the question that I had been told that they last for years and he nearly collapsed spluttering the words "rather you than me, I have condemned thousands of packs after six months".

So be careful.

Chopper

 

[Spacemonkey]

Nah, they're merely packed full of goodness as my granddad used to say when he produced a swollen tin. Remember the days when tinned food lasted for decades? I still have some diddy tins of peanut butter from the Vietnam war on the shelf....

 

[tricky boy]

The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,

http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php


The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.



Patrick

 

[innocent bystander]

The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,

http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php


The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.



Patrick

I went through them once, as the only place i could find the veggie rat packs. Good service, but like you say, not cheap..

 

[PeterW]

The only official supplier of legit army ration packs are,

http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php


The site is well worth a look as the norwegian army rations are excellent. He sells a few current issue packs recently manufactured with a nominal 2 year shelf life. More expensive than a lot of places but you know exactly what you are purchasing. Top bloke to deal with, any questions drop him an email, he is very knowledgeable.

Patrick

Be careful of using the words 'official'...

We used to use a lot of these for our courses, until supply dried up. They are now marked 'MOD use ONLY' and these can be classified as stolen property if they have not been through the correct channels.

Apparently, many of the suppliers were recieving them via 'back door' MOD stores....!

The other nice thing is that you need a menu that has not got processed cheese in it. This is removed from the boxes on decommissioning as its deemed unfit for human consumption..... But its fit right up to the moment its removed...!!!!

Cheers

Peter

 

[innocent bystander]

The ones i got from Expedition Foods, came in a plain box with a wrapper stating "supplied in association with Expedition foods". Full menu and ingredients on outside of wrapper and a best before date plus picture of steaming pongo.

 

[AJB]

Hi Monkey,

I bought a couple of 24hr packs from armyrations.com last week. They were made in Oct 2002, but there was no mention on them about shelf life. They were only £5.95 each so I guess they were getting close.

 

[tricky boy]

Just to clarify my comment about expedition foods being the only official legit supplier of army rat packs. To the best of my knowledge they have been selected by the MOD to retail their packs in the public sector. Expedition foods outer wrap with their own printed sleeve. Any other pack purchased will have been obtained illegally. I have no association with expedition foods except as a satisfied customer

Shelf life as stated is 2 years for all components except the chocolate which is 1 year because of the best before on the Yorkie bars. This allows for worst case storage. Under controlled storage the pack should be good up to 3 years

Regards


Patrick

 

[Chopper]

I can see there will be a lot of squirty bottoms on BCUK

 

[stotRE]

I can see there will be a lot of squirty bottoms on BCUK

They had best eat lots of biscuits brown to block it up. lol

 

[neo_wales2000]

They are good stuff, as to shelf life, well the chocolate won't keep for years, but the boil in bag meals will keep for a long time. Like canned food, if they start to 'Go Off' they will start to swell; it all depends on how they have been stored.

I am eating some with a packing date of 2002, no problems, even with the chocolate, although the pate looked a bit shrunken in the tin, so I dump them. I've had a 10 packs given me from a fellow nurse who is in the TA, they dumped a skip full because they needed room for other bits of kit, and were told to take any if they wanted them.

There is a seller on ebay selling the boil in the bag meals, 36 meals for £45, free post and packin (no, its not me)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16036&item=7158123774&rd=1

Thats a third the cost of commercial boil in the bag food

 

[Great Pebble]

Ahhh.. you pays your money and you takes your chance.
Despite the noted concerns about cheese (should be rectified in later issues) and pate type stuff, It would have to be said that the dates on most packs, not just the British issue, are on the conservative side.

Of course Gawd knows what they put in them to make them last like that....

 

[Pappa]

Does anyone know if it's still possible to obtain tins of 'Bacon Grill' from the old British Army 24 ration packs?

Pappa

 

[simonsays]

Does anyone know if it's still possible to obtain tins of 'Bacon Grill' from the old British Army 24 ration packs?

Pappa

Asda sell 3 different brands of bacon grill. I wouldnt have thought there was -that- much difference in taste.

Cheers,
Simon

 

[TwoFourAlpha]

Bacon Grill

Both Sainsbury's and Tesco sell a passable sustitute for the Real Thing. It's not quite as good, but it will do.

You'll find it near the Corned Dog and Pressed Tongue. Usually in square tins with a key on them for added finger slicing fun.