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Thread: Purchasing real MREs legally

  1. #1

    Purchasing real MREs legally

    I'm interested in a getting a small stockpile of MREs for general disaster preparedness, say food for a family of four for two weeks. Every place I've found online seems either to be selling what appears to be stolen or fake overpriced MRE-like things that are probably made in China and won't last a month.

    Does anyone have suggestions on where to buy them? I don't mind paying a premium, I just don't want to end up with counterfeit stuff or boxes that were rejected because they were left in a trailer in the desert for a month.

    Why does the government make this so difficult? It seems like a lot of research has gone into developing these and it's in everyone's best interest to be somewhat prepared for natural disasters.

  2. #2
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    This isn't MREs, but it is what I keep for emergency food supplies. It is freeze-dried food, packed in nitrogen-filled cans. It has a shelf life of twenty five years.
    http://www.nitro-pak.com/mountain-ho...l-security-pak

  3. #3
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    Having eaten more than one's fair share of MRE's, I decided to use another supplier for emergency preparedness. Many military surplus stores seem to stock them if you are dead set on ingesting Meals Refused by Everyone, Meals Refusing to Exit, etc.

  4. #4
    I'm not dead set on it by any means, it just seemed that they'd be ideal for this since they are designed for a long shelf life, completely self-contained, and nutritional OK. I've never been in the service but have eaten them a few times backpacking.

    What supplier did you use? Thanks,

  5. #5
    Interesting. Have you eaten any?

  6. #6
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    Mountain House is the dog food of freeze dried food.

    Costco sells emergency FD food http://www.costco.com/emergency-kits-supplies.html but I haven't tried any of it.

    I buy my backpacking supplies from http://www.ldpcampingfoods.com/ but they are on the expensive side and not really marketed for emergency stores.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by harry hood View Post
    Interesting. Have you eaten any?
    Is that question aimed at me, about Mountain House freeze-dried? Yes, I've eaten it. I don't think it is as bad as Montgomery thinks. The way I see it, the chief attribute is that the food will be available when the next 8.4 earthquake happens. Before you buy a whole bunch canned in nitrogen, you could buy a few packs at any outdoors store, and see what you think.

  8. #8
    It was, sorry. I'm posting from my phone and the interface confuses me sometimes. Thanks for the info, I'll order some and try it out.

  9. #9
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    The Canadian military uses a lot of 'boil in bag' stuff, some of it is pretty good. When they go out on a training exercise, they are not allowed to return any foodstuff to stores, so it just gets collected by any soldier that wants it.. I usually try to track these fellows down, and see what they have..Most of the time they just give it to me, or we do a little bartering, and I walk away with enough for my next 10 day solo canoe trip..
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  10. #10
    Why not just go to costco, choose some canned and dried foods that you would like to eat, and stock up. Keep plenty on hand, and replace what you use with new. I'm assuming you have some sort of off grid cooking, like a coleman stove. Pasta lasts forever. Flour. rice. Baked beans, and on and on.

    There is no reason to make it so complex when there are plenty of stable foods out there.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Cunningham View Post
    The Canadian military uses a lot of 'boil in bag' stuff, some of it is pretty good. When they go out on a training exercise, they are not allowed to return any foodstuff to stores, so it just gets collected by any soldier that wants it.. I usually try to track these fellows down, and see what they have..Most of the time they just give it to me, or we do a little bartering, and I walk away with enough for my next 10 day solo canoe trip..
    Bill,

    When we went on long trips, many of our military members would throw out the left over MRE's. Any parts of the meal you didn't want you just tossed in the huge box, even if it was a full MRE. Usually we had an enormous box soldiers could pick through. We always had some soldier going around scrounging and taking tons of the stuff toward the end of training. I always thought they were starving and desperate.

  12. #12
    Yeah, that's sort of what we do now but we don't normally eat a lot of canned food so rotating stuff is hard. I think you guys have talked me out of my MRE idea though.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by harry hood View Post
    Yeah, that's sort of what we do now but we don't normally eat a lot of canned food so rotating stuff is hard. I think you guys have talked me out of my MRE idea though.
    I don't usually like it either, but I do like some. Baked beans I do like. I can eat canned chili. Some canned or jarred pasta sauce. Canned fish. And of course, SPAM, a food in it's own food group.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Cherry View Post
    I don't usually like it either, but I do like some. Baked beans I do like. I can eat canned chili. Some canned or jarred pasta sauce. Canned fish. And of course, SPAM, a food in it's own food group.
    They still produce SPAM? I haven't seen that in years. Some of the items in MRE's were very good, like the dehydrated fruit. Others, like the dehydrated pork patties, would get buried in a huge hole in the desert floor.

  15. #15
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    Grow what you like in a garden, eat fresh while you are able, then can the excess. Eat the canned goods through the winter, but hold some back each year until you have a stockpile that you can rotate--always eat the oldest first, adding new each year, but don't let it get more than 2-3 years old.

    Looking at all those ready-to-eat manufactured options, they're all very, very expensive on a per-meal basis. For our family of 5, we average about $1-1.50 per person per meal. Many of those options are $5 and more per person per meal.
    Jason

    "Don't get stuck on stupid." --Lt. Gen. Russel Honore


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