Personal question for Surplus / ex-mil guys....

IMPs are great in that you get tooth pick, matches, gum and toilet paper. Some of them have a chocolate bar. Good stuff.

But having tried freeze dried, I will not backpack heavy IMPs or MREs out on the trail ever again.
The only way to stuff three days worth of MREs in your pack is by field stripping. Then you are throwing half the stuff away.
With Mountain House all you are left with is the zip seal bag to pack out your garbage.

I ate a Mountain House dehydrated meal out snowshoeing this last weekend, chicken and rice. Tasted good, filled my belly.

As I sat in the sun on a rock with my JetBoil stove and waited the 2 minutes for the water to boil for the ration and to make myself a tea, I read the back of the packet. The best before date (note, not expiry date) was 2047.

In 2047 I would be 90 years of age, so the food likely has a later expiry date than I do.
 
Check Meal Supply Kits ( https://can.mealkitsupply.com/collections/mre ) for quality civillian MRE's
Watch (and laugh) Steve1989 on youtube, he does international military ration reviews including Canadian IMP's and the above mentioned Meal Supply Kits, He does not have good stuff to say about the MRE Star brand.
I have found rations on kijiji.ca both Canadian IMP's and American MRE's
Longevity of any ration is based on storage, cool and dry.
Good luck
 
I take MREs hunting, hiking etc. I keep MREs in my emergency kits in both my service truck and personal vehicle and at home. That being said I have several of the mountain house and Wise company products longer term storage items as well. The mealkitsupply.ca mres tasted better and i get a kick out of the department of national defense comment card that's included . MRE star I'd say they were still very edible just not as good. Frontier firearms carries them. The convince of the MRE style meal is worth it.If your feeling international there's mremountain.com the carry a wide variety from all over the place. Also remember water is a precious resource, it takes far less water to cook an MRE with a ration heater then boiling water for freeze dried. Yes they weigh more. It depends on what your situation is and what your overall plan is. I'd go meal kit supply in this particular case.
 
Wow, starting this thread I didn't realize what a hot button topic it would be ! ( ;

Keep in mind, I have freeze dried food, an excellent water purification system, stove etc., the IMPs are simply for a quick meal for myself and the kids in an emergency situation. I will not be lugging them through the bush so I don't care what they weigh, I just want quick and easy.

Everything is in the garage of my house, in big Rubbermaid tubs. They will be nice and cool, not frozen though, and readily accessible even if the house is damaged in a quake.

My kids and I thank you guys for sharing your ideas and experience, it's great that a community can do that in this day and age.
 
My wife and I started to think about this kind of stuff a couple years ago when we moved out of the city. A really good resource we found was the church of latter day saints. Although we are not members of their church, they provided us will a lots of useful literature about food storage, drying, pickling, gardening, water storage and treatment, etc... They also sell lots of quality prepackaged/canned food that you can buy at a their food store or online.

From what I learned about the Mormons is they believe they need to first survive the tribulation and wrath of God before the rapture.
 
Buy a pressure cooker and hit the market every year when things come into season.
Can meat, chicken, fish and veggies and fruits.
 
shadow sniper said:
Dont go more than 8-10 MRE’s.
Stock up mountain house or alipneaire.
25 shell life, cheaper, no problem stocking them in a car.
Click to expand...

Fully agree. Have eaten both and hands down winner are the mountain house offerings. Easy too get things like coffee , tea, candy and add to the meals similar to a ration pack.
 
Dlask Arms said:
HAHA, I just moved to Tsawwassen from spending 30 years in Richmond last summer. Every once in a while I would lay in bed wondering if / when the 'Big One' would hit and how fast I could get out of Dodge if it happened.

Now I live on a nice high hill in Tsawwassen where I can see it all happen down in the distance while I (hopefully my Vodka doesn't break in the quake) can sip a martini and soak it in to tell the grand kids. :d
Click to expand...

I remember having drinks with a coast guard guy a few yrs ago, he told me that a lot of rescue gear was on the east side of the Rockies. The way he explained it was the shock wave models had them coming in then bouncing back off the Mountains. He said "imagine when two wakes collide, there goes Vancouver Island"
 
OK, speaking as a supervisor in a CAF Warehouse Technical Services organization, I can clearly state that when expired IMPs are returned to our facility, they are broken down, and disposed of. We have to strip the matches out and separate the cardboard into the proper waste stream.

There are some who, when doing this task, 'rescue' bits - I don't complain when someone saves a pack of the beef jerky, or a chocolate bar. That said, you're eating food that's already 5 years old...do you really want to?

Garbage.

My suggestion is that if you're looking for long term supply, go to one of the 'mountain house' type cans.

For short term emergency use? One of the MRE packs will do fine, but watch the life-cycle. Others have mentioned Costco being a good source for this.

Highly suggest a life-straw too.

NS
 
I too have a kiddo and wife that am am concerned about and while Calgary likely won't splinter, there are other factors in recent years that have made me think on similar lines.
In researching, I resigned myself to two game plans (and this after the flood of 2013), we have access to water or not. Heat 'n eat (or not) or add water and heat. Without water your pretty much %$@#% so, focused on short and medium term strategy for that, and then decided on the buckets of long term shelf life provisions. I think it all comes down to how often you are willing to restock/refresh....2 years, 3 years, 10 years....or set 'n hope nothing bad happens but 10 years down the line ....there are the bins, the water purifiers the plans to get water. In my assessment, water is THE most important thing to think about.
 
Haters gonna hate...mre's have their place and they aren't that bad. At least you can eat them straight out of the package without water or heat.

Do NOT buy 'mre star' brand. It is branded to look like the US made ones but it is a serious step down...some of their meals are inedible.

$15 per is on the high side but not insulting like some pricing out there.

http://armyissue.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/94/products_id/4399
 
Last edited:
gunnyee12 said:
If you're really still after some Canadian IMP's here's some that just popped up. https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1834582-Military-Rations
Looks like they might have expired long ago though
Click to expand...

I asked and he said they're after 2015 dates. Not bad for kicks as a civilian I like them but I wouldn't be looking at IMPs for storing long term.

As mentioned the mre star ones suck, they lack variety and contents - but have excellent sugar cookies in them

I'd just go for the mealkitsupply canada mres. They should be the freshest.
 
Last edited:
Another vote for mountain house,, quick easy rates good.
I like the gluten free options..
Nothing worse the passing the famous MRE brick...
Try eating them for 2 weeks, MRE hard on the tummy, mine anyhow..
Mesquite BBQ seasoned chicken with beans and rice is my favorite.
700 calories, 40 gr protein. Two servings
Sometime cabellas and basspro have then on sale for 8.99$
5 year exp.
 
I eat freeze dried backpacing food too. When I'm backpacking. They dont taste any better than an mre in my opinion. None of them taste good after two weeks.

In my personal experience (post tsunami, earthquakes and hurricanes) while mre's are heavy and relatively expensive they win over the freeze dried in a disaster setting.

An MRE, just like the latest craze in pre prepped menus of food delivered to your door, is ready to go. It doesn't require decision or forethought. The amount of effort to replicate one with a freeze dried meal is huge. Freeze dried meals also have expiry dates and many of them are sub 2 years.

A complete MRE is one moderately sized package. Remember this when you think about having to replicate the alternative.

1. There is coffee, tea, sugar and creamer.
2. There is a powdered fruit beverage drink
3. There is a main course AND a side dish
4. There is bread or crackers with a spread
5. There's a dessert/snack
6. There's gum to use as a dentrice
7. There's a wetwipe, cutlery, a napkin and condiments.
8. There's tp and matches.

And again, it's ready to go. It doesn't require you to bust out the stove and boil water and then wait 10-20 min for the food to hydrate. If you do want to heat your MRE you can use untreated water and it's ready in minutes. It doesn't need dishes, utensils, condiments, dishwashing or toothbrushes and hand washing added.

The no water needed to prepare an mre is a big point in itself. Clean water post disaster can be an issue. Even when you have a Genny and 3 stage filter with pump in a pelican box.

When carrying a week or more of food on your back or prepping for long term then I like dried and freeze dried stuff (the mesquite BBQ seasoned chicken with beans and rice mentioned above is a favourite too) but after a natural disaster you are busy. There is stuff to do. Time is precious. MRE's save time.

My $.02 ymmv
 
Last edited:
juliet lima said:
Freeze dried meals also have expiry dates and many of them are sub 2 years.
Click to expand...

You got that backwards IMPs have a horrible shelf life especially it not stored in a cold room etc. Freeze dried is 25 years plus.

juliet lima said:
And again, it's ready to go. It doesn't require you to bust out the stove and boil water and then wait 10-20 min for the food to hydrate.
Click to expand...

Neither does freeze dried, unless you want it hot

juliet lima said:
It doesn't need dishes, utensils, condiments, dishwashing or toothbrushes and hand washing added.
Click to expand...

Neither does freeze dried, unless you want to prepare it like normal meals

juliet lima said:
The no water needed to prepare an mre is a big point in itself. Clean water post disaster can be an issue. Even when you have a Genny and 3 stage filter with pump in a pelican box.
Click to expand...

You mean unless you want to drink ever LOL

juliet lima said:
but after a natural disaster you are busy. There is stuff to do. Time is precious. MRE's save time.
Click to expand...

No they don't. If you cant figure out dump water in a bag and do something else for 5 min. You fail completely at time management.

Shawn
 
My idea of water filtration is simple

Boil it .. pot fire water.

If you want to get more complex .. Boil it .. let it cool .. Pour through a brita .. drink

Food for the kids .. if you are really roughing it KD with no milk & no butter.... or cans of beans / or there favorite pasta in a can.. mr noodle
all very easy to keep a stock of and easy to just use the oldest first
Quaker breakfast porridge as well
Jar of peanut butter

if you had a 2 week supply (Stock) and bought once a week .. if a disaster hit on shopping day you would still have one week food for the kids
 
shawn said:
You got that backwards IMPs have a horrible shelf life especially it not stored in a cold room etc. Freeze dried is 25 years plus.
Shawn
Click to expand...

Um, funny, I've got a bunch of freeze dried backpacking meals in front of me.....they range from 2-5 years shelf life. Can you get longer, sure. I didn't say all, I said some. I also didn't get it backwards....I didn't say MRE's lasted longer.

shawn said:
Neither does freeze dried, unless you want it hot
Shawn
Click to expand...

I'd actually pay money to watch you crunch your way through an unprepared freeze dried meal. I've done it, it sucks.

shawn said:
Neither does freeze dried, unless you want to prepare it like normal meals
Shawn
Click to expand...

Except you now need to boil water, get out utensils and open up 6 different freeze dried packages to get the same food, break out your condiments, etc. An MRE has it all in one pack ready to go.

shawn said:
You mean unless you want to drink ever LOL
Shawn
Click to expand...

Good point. Gosh, and here I am a WASH expert and never thought of that. Or maybe I was saying that since clean water is such a ##### to create in post disaster settings that only having to worry about your drinking water beats having to come up with clean water to cook with too.

shawn said:
No they don't. If you cant figure out dump water in a bag and do something else for 5 min. You fail completely at time management.
Shawn
Click to expand...

For starters, if you can go from zero to ready to eat freeze dried in 5 min I'd like to see that. Second, if one has nothing better to do with ones time then you can probably devote your day to prepping food. To address your comment on effective time management...well, maybe you can deploy to the next disaster with us and show us how to be more effective with our time...I'd sure appreciate it since we frequently average sub 4 hours of sleep a day for weeks on end...I won't be using that 'extra 5 min' to be prepping food though.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom