To Eat or Not To Eat

[Mistchaser]

Dear all,
I've discovered some Army 24hr Rat Packs in the loft.... They are how can I say it ...slightly old, as in the date stamped on them is 1994.

Should I be worried about them ?

I feel that they should be fine; as the preservatives are well preservatives and surely as they are vacuum sealed no bacteria can enter them. For sure i'll be keeping the matches, kleenex and purification tablets they have to be ok.

Does anyone have any knowledge or info ?

I'm intrigued to see/hear what everyone thinks.


Thanks in advance

 

[LazySod]

From what i've heard the purification tablets may not be up to par, but the food should be fine in my view, your only 4 years past the 'use by' date.

 

[maddave]

Rat packs generally have a 10 year shelf life. Expiry was 4 years ago The kleenex and matches etc will be fine. The water sterilising tabs have a finite life and are now well past doing their job properly. The food may be off too

 

[Sniper]

I've recently used up my last ratpac dated 1992 a couple of weeks ago the chocolate was the only throw away bit I had the rest was absolutely fine, mind you the tea bags looked a wee bit dry but it was fine to drink and the birds loved the biscuits (can't stand them) and my mate has another batch for me which are 2007

 

[saddle_tramp]

yum. . . . chicken supreme 4yrs past it!

 

[Mike Ameling]

If the individual food packets are still sealed, then they should be just as edible as they were before the expiration date. (yes, note how I carefully worded that ) The dietary experts will tell you that they will have lost some "nutritional value", but most people won't notice the difference.

If the food packet is puffed and bulging, it's probably not a good idea to open and eat it (growing biological experiment). If it is supposed to be "wet" inside but is now dry, it again is of questionable use. The crackers/biscuits never seem to go ... bad ... being as "edible" as when originally packed. (another careful choice of wording )

Ditto the dry "juice" powders and the gum. And the utinsels and towellettes/TP only get damaged by getting soaked if a seal on their packet is bad.

Ooops, mixing some LRP's, C-rats, and K-rats, and MREs info into the mix. Those "dates" are a ... best if used by ... date. Quality is generally guarenteed through that date.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
- LRP's were the best, when you could get them! But then the military came out with the MRE's.

 

[durulz]

Well, there was that episode of Ray when he had a Vietnam veteran bring along some old US army rations and they ate corned beef dated to 1969...
Still, rather you than me. If you do eat them make sure you have some of that posh quilted toilet paper just in case - you might be getting plenty of use out of it.

 

[rik_uk3]

Well, there was that episode of Ray when he had a Vietnam veteran bring along some old US army rations and they ate corned beef dated to 1969...
Still, rather you than me. If you do eat them make sure you have some of that posh quilted toilet paper just in case - you might be getting plenty of use out of it.

It was pemmican not corned beef

 

[Mistchaser]

Thanks Folks,

I guess I'll give them a try. At least the kleenex is still OK so it may come in handy. Thanks for the tip on the purification tabs, I assumed they would last for years.

I've never thrown away a household tin of food because it's out of date and the foil pouches are effectively the same.

You often read about people discovering old army supplies and living on the contents - I guess it is more of a "best before" rather than "must before"

~~~The primula cheese has spoiled though ! ~~~~~ didn't like it anyway!

Thanks for eveyrones input

MC

 

[durulz]

It was pemmican not corned beef

Whatever it was called, I still wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot cattle-prod!

 

[durulz]

Thanks for the tip on the purification tabs, I assumed they would last for years.

How ironic. The purifier is no longer pure.
Such is life...

 

[w00dsmoke]

Be very aware that rat packs were designed for x amount of shelf life but operationally there is an expectation of a very quick turnaround much less than the shelf life. In addition to this, you can never be sure where they were stored and were they stored at the correct temp range?

I've used rat packs that had plenty shelf life left in them and was violently ill with food poisoning after eating one...:yikes: I'm sure that this may be exceptional, but I've really gone off rat packs since then...

 

[robwolf]

when i was in the ta 1984 we had compo rations from the 60s they were fine