The Meal, Ready-to-Eat — commonly known as the MRE — is an individual field ration that is in lightweight, self contained packaging. The United States military buys MREs for its service members to use in combat or other field conditions where organized food facilities are not available. The MRE replaced the  Meal, Combat, Individual rations (called MCI’s) in 1981 and is has also replaced the LRP ration developed by the U.S. Army for Special Forces and U.S. Army Ranger patrol units in Vietnam.

History

The first soldier ration consisted mostly of beef, peas, and rice. It was intended to be enough food for a soldier for one day. The military used canned goods during the Civil War. Later, they issued kits that contained whole rations, and contained canned meat, salt pork, bread, coffee, sugar and salt. During the First World War, canned meats were replaced with lightweight preserved meats (salted or dried), in order to save weight and allow more rations to be carried by soldiers carrying their supplies on foot.

At the beginning of World War II,  quite a few new field rations were introduced, including the Mountain ration and the Jungle ration. However, cost-cutting measures by Quartermaster Command officials during the latter part of World War II and the Korean War made it necessary to come up with a specific ration that could be used regardless of the environment. The use of canned wet rations continued through the Vietnam War, with the improved MCI field ration.

After repeated experiences dating from before World War II, Pentagon officials ultimately realized that simply providing a nutritionally balanced meal in the field was not adequate. Service members in various geographic regions and combat situations often required different sub-sets of ingredients for food to be considered palatable over long periods.

Moreover, catering to individual tastes and preferences would encourage service-members to actually consume the whole ration and its nutrition. Most importantly, the use of specialized forces in extreme environments and the necessity of carrying increasingly heavy field loads while on foot during extended missions required significantly lighter alternatives to standard canned wet rations.

In 1963, the Department of Defense began developing the “Meal, Ready to Eat”, a ration that would rely on modern food preparation and packaging technology to create a lighter replacement for the canned Meal, Combat, Individual ration. This led in 1966 to the Long Range Patrol or LRP ration, a dehydrated meal stored in a waterproof canvas pouch. However, just as with the jungle ration, its expense compared to canned wet rations as well as the costs of stocking and storage a specialized field ration led to its limited usage and repeated attempts at discontinuance by Quartermaster Command officials.

In 1975, work began on a dehydrated meal stored in a plastic retort pouch. It went into special issue starting in 1981 and standard issue in 1986, using a limited menu of 12 entrees.

The MRE has been in continual development since 1993. In an array of field tests and surveys, service members requested more entree options and larger serving sizes. By 1994, commercial-like graphics were added to make the packets more user-friendly, while biodegradable materials
were introduced for non-edible components such as spoons and napkins.

Some of the early MRE main courses were not very palatable, earning them the nicknames “Mr. E” (mystery), “Meals Rejected by Everyone”, “Meals, Rarely Edible”, “Meals Rejected by the Enemy”, “Morsels, Regurgitated, Eviscerated”, “Meal, Ready to Excrete”, “Materials Resembling Edibles”, and even “Meals Rejected by Ethiopians“. Some meals got their own nicknames. For example, the frankfurters, which came sealed in pouches of four, were referred to as “the four fingers of death”. Although quality has improved over the years, many of the nicknames have stuck. MREs were often called “Three Lies for the Price of One”: it’s not a Meal, it’s not Ready, and you can’t Eat it.

Their low dietary fiber content could cause constipation in some so they were also known as “Meals Refusing to Exit”,  “Meals Refusing to Excrete”,or “Massive Rectal Expulsions”. While the myth that the gum found in MREs contains a laxative is false, the crackers in the ration pack do contain a higher than normal vegetable content to facilitate egestion. In December 2006 comedian Al Franken (on his 8th USO tour at the time) joked to troops in Iraq that he’d had his fifth MRE so far and “none of them had an exit strategy”.

My how far we’ve come!  The MRE’s of today are some of the most tasty and nutritionally balanced meals you can eat.  The number of entrées expanded to 16 by 1996 (including vegetarian options), 20 entrées by 1997 and 24 entrées by 1998. Today, service members can choose from up to 24 entrées, and more than 150 additional items.

When the free market got involved with MRE’s the quality and taste really jumped up to par.  The MRE’s we sell at TheReadyStore.com are not only healthy, lightweight, and nutrional, but they also taste great! They make your body feel great too!