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Ready to eat meals have been on the scene for many decades. They can be dated back as far as the civil war where rations were given to soldiers who were out in the field. During the various wars that the world has seen, the military designed ready to eat meals or MREs to sustain the military troops who were out in the field. Ideal as emergency food, meals ready to eat have a wide variety to choose from.
These military rations were designed to provide the troops with plenty of calories to sustain them during the various scenarios that they may have been undergoing at the time. They had all of the required calories to offer them plenty of nutrition as well as some condiments, toilet paper, and a few other items that the military threw in for the troops.
However, during Y2K the meals ready to eat took on a different popularity as many civilians scrambled to stockpile food and other items. Unfortunately for these civilians, it was illegal to purchase the military versions of the MREs, and they couldn’t obtain them.
The manufacturers saw this as a need and quickly jumped on the bandwagon to provide civilians with MREs so that they too could prepare for any emergency situation. This trend quickly took on an entirely new meaning and soon, there were many groups who were jumping on board to stockpile these meals as they were quick and easy to prepare and required little storage space.
Thanks to the manufacturers noting that there was a need for emergency food supplies that were easy to store, and easy to prepare, meals ready to eat took on a new resurgence of emergency food supplies and people began to stockpile them into their emergency food supplies.
As an emergency food supply, the meals ready to eat offer a variety of entrees and they also come with flameless ration heaters and condiments. The utensils are also in the package, so all that a person needs to do is add some water to the packaging and activate the heater. The meal will be ready within about 15 minutes.
Meals ready to eat offer a variety of nutritional value in that they come in small snack sizes that provide approximately 100 calories per package upwards to 3000 calories per meal for larger sized ones. Most people choose meals ready to eat that are about 1500 calories, such as our XMRE 1300XT. However, if you’re in an emergency situation, you’re under a lot of stress, and your body may require more calories than usual to sustain you and get the job done.
Investing in meals ready to eat for emergency food supplies is a great way to ensure that your family will have healthy food to eat. Since it’s so easy to store, you won’t have to give up an entire room in the house for your food storage, and you can rest assured that meals ready to eat have a long shelf life.
Meals ready to eat have a shelf life of approximately from three to five years. After this point, the meals begin to taste stale although many state that their products are still good even after the manufacturer date of five years.
Manufacturers have a method wherein they stamp the manufacturer date on the side crimp of their products. Each manufacturer uses a slightly different method so you’ll want to go online to their specific site and learn how correctly to read the date on particular brands before you choose to shop in the military surplus stores, e-Bay, or on Craigslist. You’ll also want to know how to read this date if you’re shopping at thrift stores, yard or garage sales and estate sales.
Many families will sell such things off if a parent or grandparent dies. They simply don’t realize the value of such food items for emergency food supplies so you can often get great food at a fraction of the price if you stumble on such a sale. Keep your eyes open as these make excellent options for your emergency food supplies and finding them at a fraction of the cost is a great way to stockpile food for an emergency, and save money.
Today, these meals can be found online as well as in a variety of other locations. Civilians can even enjoy some versions of the military MREs if they go to a military surplus store or locate them on such online sites as e-Bay and Craigslist. Or you can simply get military grade MREs from us.
From doomsday preppers to church groups to busy parents who have kids in sports, these meals offer a nice variety from fast foods and a great way to have a quick meal regardless of the particular situation people are in. Meals ready to eat are the ideal emergency food supply. The government recognized this and had them on hand for the troops.
All that a person needs to have on hand in order to enjoy a meal ready to eat is the meal package and some water. Most of the entree’s come with their own flameless ration heater or FRH. These work by simply adding in the right amount of water and activating the FRH.
Within minutes the person can be enjoying a hot and ready meal. No need for any specialized equipment and the meal will satisfy even the hungriest of people.
Meals ready to eat can be found and purchased in the following locations:
- Big box stores in the camping and bulk foods sections.
- Camping stores.
- Sporting goods stores.
- Online at the various manufacturer’s sites, such as our XMRE site.
- Military surplus stores.
- Manufacturers brick and mortar locations.
- Online auction sites such as e-Bay and Craigslist.
- Thrift stores.
- Second-hand stores.
- Occasionally at a yard or garage sale.
- Estate sales.
Whether you’re buying meals ready to eat to use as food storage for emergencies or simply looking for the ideal camping foods, meals ready to eat offer plenty of great nutritional value. They’re easy to store and take up very little space. You can stack them, store them in buckets with sealing lids and you can store them with your camping gear.
They will fit in virtually every nook and cranny and are ideal to stash in the car for emergencies as well as to keep on hand at home. Meals ready to eat can be purchased in bulk, and many larger groups will purchase them in bulk and then divide up the different entree’s so that no one is stuck with all of one particular entree.
This is ideal for those who want to have an emergency food storage but don’t want all one particular entree. Since meals ready to eat are so lightweight and portable, they make ideal food to take along on hiking trips, camping trips, weekends at the beach and other family outings where packing heavier food items will take up too much space or be too heavy to carry as well as emergency food supplies.
Children will appreciate that they can easily carry their own dinner in their own backpacks and they will feel all grown up. Adults will be happy that everyone has an entree that they enjoy and that they are so easy to take along.
If you’re unsure of which entrees you would enjoy, you can often sign up for newsletters and sales notifications on the websites of the manufacturers of meals ready to eat. Each month they’ll send you an email letting you know which products are on sale that month.
This is a great way to buy a sample sized package and find out if your family enjoys a particular entree or not. If your family doesn’t like a particular entree, you can then pass that one up and move on to another that they may like.
Storing emergency food does no good if no one in the family likes it. Always find out what will and won’t work for your family before you invest heavily into any particular entree. This can save you from trying to get rid of something that you lose money on.
While meals ready to eat are expensive, you can watch for deals on the manufacturer’s site and learn to buy them only when they’re on sale. If you’re given a gift card for a location such as a sporting goods or camping supply store you might consider using that gift card to stock up on your emergency food supply as well.
Regardless of the emergency, whether it’s an apocalyptic scenario, a blizzard, an EMP, a flood or even a hurricane or tornado, having your emergency food supply safely stores away will go far in helping you and your family to survive the situation.
The sooner you plan your emergency food supply, the more you can plan the other details of your emergency preparedness plan. Ready to eat meals are the ideal choice for an emergency food supply and they’re easy to store in your vehicle, at home, in your camping gear, at the office, at the gym, and anywhere else that you can think of to store them.
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