When "expired" foods actually stop being tasty

I think it depends on what’s canned. It was the meat tins specifically that frightened our komodo grill and Coors beer smuggling cold war interceptor groups. Apparently the fruit and veg were gross but edible, and anything dry like bread was down right good. I think the smell of legend was either beef stew or corned beef. I heard different things from the old heads.

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I think the culture is a little different now. As is the technology. As for the MREs, I have cases of them left over from deployments. I keep one in my bag for trips to the mountains, and I have yet to have any problem with them. And some of them are 20 years old.

And probably still good. Modern militaries are pretty liberal with the field rations. Dad and my aunt (same unit as g-pa, now combat and maritime SAR) would get issued MREs/field rations for every drill. 3 per day, for the duration. My brother who is now army reserve, previous a marine. Is issued a full case before each exercise. Lower ranks were required to eat them (to get accustomed to deployment conditions). But dad being an officer, and auntie being in finance. They could just go to the deli across from the base.

We had a lot of MREs in place of brown bagged lunch. I’d even bring extras because they drew a crowd regardless of what age or grade level you were.

Still think they’re fun, but wouldn’t want to eat them all day every day.

I’ve had exactly that brand of make syrup mold too. Now I keep it on the fridge and try to use it within a few months.

I think most of the MREs on the market are actually not surplus but rather made for sale to the public by the same companies. Shelf life for MREs is variable depending on temperature.

My local Army Navy story has MREs, and as far as I could tell by looking up the obnoxiously opaque codes on the packages, they were already 5 years old. Still edible, but a stupid thing to buy if you want to store them for emergencies since most of the optimal storage life is already used up. Wish they would just put the date manufactured in clear print on the packages.

I was actually specifically talking about the mil ones. Most of those are unused current issue offered for sale through stuff like eBay. Illegally. But if you look at surplus stores and what have they’re still selling shit dated Vietnam or gulf 1.

3 years is the “goal” shelf life, in crazy desert conditions. So it’s a little weird to go to the town fair and see 30yr old mres labeled “not for the public”. Doubly weird to eat one

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