Posted on Apr 22, 2022
Recalling MRE-related Food Fights From Recent History
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When Sarah Sicard of the Military Times reported in March that the mini, .125-ounce tabasco bottles would, after a 10-plus year absence, be reappearing in the U.S. military’s meals ready to eat (MRE), fans on service member chat forums rejoiced.
Even though Sicard noted that the switch to the baby jars of pepper sauce in the MRE was made by necessity — the military is no longer able to buy suitable plastic packet material — the hot sauce news mostly inspired warm reactions.
That’s not always the case when the topic is the MRE, a lightweight, self-contained meal of food averaging around 1,250 kilocalories. Introduced in the early 1980s to replace Meal, Combat, Individual rations, the MRE also has an accessory packet for items like coffee, salt and sugar. MREs can be consumed cold if necessary or warmed up using the MRE’s flameless heating device, according to the Department of Defense (DOD) Defense Logistics Agency, which spends about $420 million annually on MREs.
But let’s face it, MREs — mocked as “meals refused by the enemy” — contain processed, bland food. Options are limited in part because meals must have a shelf life of three years, they must be portable and indestructible, and their preparation can’t give away a soldier’s location.
Service members need to eat to survive on the battlefield, and rations have to be as healthy and appealing as possible. That’s why battlefield food testing and development, overseen by the Combat Feeding Directorate at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts, are important. Important, but not easy.
There are currently 24 menus, and each one can spark polarizing taste debates. Soldiers want more flavorful foods, which might explain why tabasco sauce is so popular. The DOD has had to address or study MRE health concerns raised by Congress, the media and service members. And on and on.
Food fights over MREs
Take a look at a few MRE-related food fights from recent history, and share your favorite MRE anecdotes in the comments:
Pizza, pizza — at long last — pizza. Stephen Moody recalled his fellow soldiers asking for a pepperoni pizza MRE in the 1980s. Around four decades later, Moody, by then the director of the Combat Feeding Directorate, was there to make it happen.
It took years after break dancing and big hair were cool for the directorate to start tossing around the ingredients needed for a pizza MRE, Moody said in a May 30, 2018, Army blog post.
To retain the pizza’s quality and color over the 36-month shelf life, the directorate had to use a high-heat-tolerant mozzarella cheese and tinker with moisture, pH and oxygen levels, according to the blog post. And, Army Times reported Feb. 21, 2018, researchers used rosemary extract to solve an oxidation issue.
“The Combat Feeding Directorate has been working on it since 2012 and now it’s finally being packaged,” according to that 2018 blog.
Rolled out in late 2018, pepperoni pizza slice, with cherry blueberry cobbler, is currently on Menu 23.
The 21-day MRE diet and gut health. Could a 21-day diet of MREs cause stomach problems in service members such as bloating, cramps, gas, headaches and other “leaky gut” symptoms?
In 2016, the Army called for volunteers to help study the question. This was prompted by anecdotal reports that some service members were experiencing gastrointestinal issues after eating MREs in operational environments, according to an Army blog post.
That year, the publication Task and Purpose posted the video diary of civilian Independent Journal Review journalist Juan Leon unofficially undergoing the 21-day diet challenge, in which he subsists on just two MREs a day. In the video, Leon reports feeling miserable, experiencing stomach cramping and a depressed mood, symptoms that resolved only after he stops eating MREs.
Alas, the Army’s official study of the 21-day MRE diet, which involved around 60 adults, was published in 2019. The conclusion was that MREs cause no serious intestinal issues and just a slight change in lactic acid bacteria.
Researchers suspected the latter issue was due to the lack of fermented yogurts and cheeses in MREs, which the Natick team said they’d work to improve, according to the Army blog post, from Sept. 26, 2019.
“Meals ready to excrete.” That is the headline of a post by The Smoking Gun website of MRE evaluations submitted in 2005 by soldiers stationed at Fort Greely in Alaska.
In reality, the MREs were not universally panned. “Great MRE really enjoyed it,” said one soldier. “Meals are improving,” said another.
But the fickleness of opinion about MREs was apparent. Soldiers’ views diverged on taste, texture and even item names: “Chipotle bread leaves a horrible aftertaste for far too long.” “Good idea with the flavored bread now only if it was softer.” “Maybe change the name ‘chicken loaf’ (because it) scares me.” And at least one Fort Greely service member wanted more tabasco sauce.
Yet Slate writer and Iraq War Veteran Zachary Lunn insisted in his 2019 piece, “The legend of the vomelet,” that everyone agreed that Menu No. 4, the cheese and veggie omelet, was “legendarily” the worst MRE.
“Imagine,” Lunn wrote, “a gelatinous (yet somehow firm?) rectangular slab of yellowish-beige food matter.” (View it here if you dare: https://twitter.com/tlcplmax/status/ [login to see] 93514496.)
This may prove that some MREs are beyond redemption, even after a slathering of sauce from a tiny tabasco bottle.
Learn more
Sarah Sicard, “Tabasco bottles make a glorious return to the MRE,” Military Times, March 17, 2022: https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2022/03/17/tabasco-bottles-make-a-glorious-return-to-the-mre
Mallory Roussel, “Army researchers dug into the effects of MREs on gut health, here’s what they discovered,” Army blog, Sept. 26, 2019: https://www.army.mil/article/227225/army_researchers_dug_into_the_effects_of_mres_on_gut_health_heres_what_they_discovered
Zachary Lunn, “The legend of the vomelet,” Slate, May 6, 2019, https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/05/vomelet-bad-mre-omelet-military.html and “Veggie omelet MRE came from lab, not wet market: report,” Duffel blog, Sept. 17, 2021, https://www.duffelblog.com/p/veggie-omelet-mre-came-from-lab-not?s=r
Gary Sheftick, “Fueling soldier lethality: Pizza MRE, new performance bar to hit the field soon,” Army blog, May 30, 2018: https://www.army.mil/article/205936/fueling_soldier_lethality_pizza_mre_new_performance_bar_to_hit_the_field_soon
Chrissie Reilly, “History highlights: Good eats,” Defense Logistics Agency, April 20, 2016: https://www.dla.mil/AboutDLA/News/NewsArticleView/Article/752290/history-highlights
Caitlin Kearney, “Tabasco and the war against bland military meals,” National Museum of American History, April 30, 2015: https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/tabasco-and-war-against-bland-military-meals
About MREs, Defense Logistics Agency: https://www.dla.mil/TroopSupport/Subsistence/Operationalrations/mre.aspx
“Meals ready to excrete,” The Smoking Gun: https://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/meals-ready-excrete
Even though Sicard noted that the switch to the baby jars of pepper sauce in the MRE was made by necessity — the military is no longer able to buy suitable plastic packet material — the hot sauce news mostly inspired warm reactions.
That’s not always the case when the topic is the MRE, a lightweight, self-contained meal of food averaging around 1,250 kilocalories. Introduced in the early 1980s to replace Meal, Combat, Individual rations, the MRE also has an accessory packet for items like coffee, salt and sugar. MREs can be consumed cold if necessary or warmed up using the MRE’s flameless heating device, according to the Department of Defense (DOD) Defense Logistics Agency, which spends about $420 million annually on MREs.
But let’s face it, MREs — mocked as “meals refused by the enemy” — contain processed, bland food. Options are limited in part because meals must have a shelf life of three years, they must be portable and indestructible, and their preparation can’t give away a soldier’s location.
Service members need to eat to survive on the battlefield, and rations have to be as healthy and appealing as possible. That’s why battlefield food testing and development, overseen by the Combat Feeding Directorate at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts, are important. Important, but not easy.
There are currently 24 menus, and each one can spark polarizing taste debates. Soldiers want more flavorful foods, which might explain why tabasco sauce is so popular. The DOD has had to address or study MRE health concerns raised by Congress, the media and service members. And on and on.
Food fights over MREs
Take a look at a few MRE-related food fights from recent history, and share your favorite MRE anecdotes in the comments:
Pizza, pizza — at long last — pizza. Stephen Moody recalled his fellow soldiers asking for a pepperoni pizza MRE in the 1980s. Around four decades later, Moody, by then the director of the Combat Feeding Directorate, was there to make it happen.
It took years after break dancing and big hair were cool for the directorate to start tossing around the ingredients needed for a pizza MRE, Moody said in a May 30, 2018, Army blog post.
To retain the pizza’s quality and color over the 36-month shelf life, the directorate had to use a high-heat-tolerant mozzarella cheese and tinker with moisture, pH and oxygen levels, according to the blog post. And, Army Times reported Feb. 21, 2018, researchers used rosemary extract to solve an oxidation issue.
“The Combat Feeding Directorate has been working on it since 2012 and now it’s finally being packaged,” according to that 2018 blog.
Rolled out in late 2018, pepperoni pizza slice, with cherry blueberry cobbler, is currently on Menu 23.
The 21-day MRE diet and gut health. Could a 21-day diet of MREs cause stomach problems in service members such as bloating, cramps, gas, headaches and other “leaky gut” symptoms?
In 2016, the Army called for volunteers to help study the question. This was prompted by anecdotal reports that some service members were experiencing gastrointestinal issues after eating MREs in operational environments, according to an Army blog post.
That year, the publication Task and Purpose posted the video diary of civilian Independent Journal Review journalist Juan Leon unofficially undergoing the 21-day diet challenge, in which he subsists on just two MREs a day. In the video, Leon reports feeling miserable, experiencing stomach cramping and a depressed mood, symptoms that resolved only after he stops eating MREs.
Alas, the Army’s official study of the 21-day MRE diet, which involved around 60 adults, was published in 2019. The conclusion was that MREs cause no serious intestinal issues and just a slight change in lactic acid bacteria.
Researchers suspected the latter issue was due to the lack of fermented yogurts and cheeses in MREs, which the Natick team said they’d work to improve, according to the Army blog post, from Sept. 26, 2019.
“Meals ready to excrete.” That is the headline of a post by The Smoking Gun website of MRE evaluations submitted in 2005 by soldiers stationed at Fort Greely in Alaska.
In reality, the MREs were not universally panned. “Great MRE really enjoyed it,” said one soldier. “Meals are improving,” said another.
But the fickleness of opinion about MREs was apparent. Soldiers’ views diverged on taste, texture and even item names: “Chipotle bread leaves a horrible aftertaste for far too long.” “Good idea with the flavored bread now only if it was softer.” “Maybe change the name ‘chicken loaf’ (because it) scares me.” And at least one Fort Greely service member wanted more tabasco sauce.
Yet Slate writer and Iraq War Veteran Zachary Lunn insisted in his 2019 piece, “The legend of the vomelet,” that everyone agreed that Menu No. 4, the cheese and veggie omelet, was “legendarily” the worst MRE.
“Imagine,” Lunn wrote, “a gelatinous (yet somehow firm?) rectangular slab of yellowish-beige food matter.” (View it here if you dare: https://twitter.com/tlcplmax/status/ [login to see] 93514496.)
This may prove that some MREs are beyond redemption, even after a slathering of sauce from a tiny tabasco bottle.
Learn more
Sarah Sicard, “Tabasco bottles make a glorious return to the MRE,” Military Times, March 17, 2022: https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2022/03/17/tabasco-bottles-make-a-glorious-return-to-the-mre
Mallory Roussel, “Army researchers dug into the effects of MREs on gut health, here’s what they discovered,” Army blog, Sept. 26, 2019: https://www.army.mil/article/227225/army_researchers_dug_into_the_effects_of_mres_on_gut_health_heres_what_they_discovered
Zachary Lunn, “The legend of the vomelet,” Slate, May 6, 2019, https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/05/vomelet-bad-mre-omelet-military.html and “Veggie omelet MRE came from lab, not wet market: report,” Duffel blog, Sept. 17, 2021, https://www.duffelblog.com/p/veggie-omelet-mre-came-from-lab-not?s=r
Gary Sheftick, “Fueling soldier lethality: Pizza MRE, new performance bar to hit the field soon,” Army blog, May 30, 2018: https://www.army.mil/article/205936/fueling_soldier_lethality_pizza_mre_new_performance_bar_to_hit_the_field_soon
Chrissie Reilly, “History highlights: Good eats,” Defense Logistics Agency, April 20, 2016: https://www.dla.mil/AboutDLA/News/NewsArticleView/Article/752290/history-highlights
Caitlin Kearney, “Tabasco and the war against bland military meals,” National Museum of American History, April 30, 2015: https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/tabasco-and-war-against-bland-military-meals
About MREs, Defense Logistics Agency: https://www.dla.mil/TroopSupport/Subsistence/Operationalrations/mre.aspx
“Meals ready to excrete,” The Smoking Gun: https://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/meals-ready-excrete
MRE
Food/Chow
Military History
Combat
Nutrition
Posted >1 y ago
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Being around when the MRE was first introduced, the reason we all liked the hot sauce is that with enough hot sauce and cheese spread, you could eat a piece of wood. Wood would have been easier to eat and taste better than the Freeze -Dried Beef and Pork Patties. Enough hot sauce on the original omelet at least made it consumable.
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Interesting article on MRE's , I liked the old C-Rations, that was where they should have started with the Tabasco sauce RallyPoint Shared Content
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