What's the best way to warm / heat an MRE ?

“U. S. soldiers and thousands of Emergency Relief workers around the world have been forced to eat MREs cold. They weren’t intended to be eaten cold, but one of their great advantages is that they can be. MREs have served their purpose well with no reheating in personal emergencies, family emergencies, and city or state emergencies (earthquakes, toxic spills, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, floods, etc.).

XMRE chemical heater pouches can be bought separately or they may come with each MRE kit. Placing the XMRE in the chemical heater pouch provides a high tech way to heat an MRE pouch with no fire or flame. Adding water will cause a harmless chemical reaction which produces heat and warms the food pouch within 10 -15 minutes, safely and quietly. Simply follow the instructions on the pouch.

If you don’t have a heater pouch, XMRE pouches can be heated in a variety of different ways depending on the situation. Below you will find a few additional and common ways of heating them.

1) Boiling for 3-5 minutes – take the pouch and place it in clean boiling water heated from available sources: fire, heating tabs, or stoves.

2) Placing next to a non-liquid heat source: radiator, engine block, or even the human body. Be careful of burning or melting the pouch if the heat source is too hot.

3) You can use the sun to warm the pouch by simply laying it in the sun. It’s simple and it works.

4) Microwave 2-3 min. after removing from the pouch. The pouch contains an aluminum, non-microwaveable layer which gives the pouch such a long shelf life.
No matter how you heat your XMRE entree meal, although the foil pouch is very strong and durable, it can be damaged if too high a temperature is applied. NEVER apply direct flame to the pouch like from a BBQ or campfire. The outer and inner layers of plastic laminate will melt and contaminated the food.”