Military MRE Food: Pros and Cons

MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat packages, are food packages that are designed to last for years, even under severe circumstances. While they can certainly help soldiers and adventurous souls stay alive in extreme conditions, they are not devoid of cons. The excellent example of military MRE available on the civilian market is 1300XT from XMRE.

In this short piece, we take a look at the top pros and cons of military MRE food.

Pros

Here are the top advantages of MREs:

Variety of food choices

When MREs were first introduced, the number of food options was very limited. However, over the past couple of years, an enormous number of fresh MRE food items have been added to the menu. As a result, these days, you can get various beef, chicken, and pork main dishes, but also side dishes like rice, oatmeal, and pasta. Notably, MRE meals produced by the maker XMRE score very highly in this regard.

Longevity and durability

If the conditions are right, MREs last a long time. In many cases, a package may last over a decade! Usually, MRE packages tend to be highly durable, too. You can carry them in rough shape for years and still be able to eat the content inside them.

Ease of use

As most MRE packs come with flameless ration heaters nowadays, you can eat your meal even if you are stuck in a forest where there is no electricity or fire. Plus, you can find all sorts of useful things, including spoon and toilet paper, inside a pack.

Cons

Here are the top disadvantages of MREs:

Relatively higher cost

If you directly compare MREs to ordinary food or even freeze dried food, it becomes apparent that MREs cost a tad bit higher. For a single Meals Ready to Eat pack, you need to shell out between $8 and $10.

Lack of availability

You cannot find MRE food inside regular grocery stores. To purchase your share, you must visit a military store. That said, these days, many online sellers have begun selling MREs, too. So, the process of purchasing MREs has become a lot easier than it used to be.

Massive calorie content

A typical MRE package contains about 1200 calories of food. Even though this is good news for soldiers involved in a war, for an individual who is not in the army gulping down so much food at once is nearly impossible.

As is evident from the above information, not everything about MREs is positive. Still, compared to the pros, the cons of MREs can be considered as negligible.