Military ration

Vegetarian Meal, Ready-to-Eat

Military Rations are prepared, preserved, and packaged meals that vary from country to country depending on dietary needs and preferences. In a time of crisis, such as a natural disaster or other threat, the government, such as FEMA, will often supply affected populations with these rations while food is limited in availability.

Description

Military rations vary from country to country, the most commonly known is the MRE or Meal Ready to Eat or the Humanitarian Daily Ration or HDR for short produced by the United States.

Common varieties

24 Hour GP Ration

A ration produced in the United Kingdom. This will provide three meals for a single person for one day, plus additional beverages and snacks for later use. It is nutritionally balanced and the three meals come inside a boil-in-foil pouch, these can be heated by submerging the bag in some boiling water. British Rations used to come with a portable Hexi Cooker that used to be fueled by Hexamine fuel blocks. As of now, Hexi Cookers are no longer provided with the Ration pack.

IMP / Individual Meal Pack

The IMP or Individual Meal Pack is a ration of Canadian design. Operating over a similar layout to the US MRE by utilizing the flameless ration heater used in the MREs. IMPs provide three meals for a single individual with complete daily nutrition. They are often favored for their taste by military personnel of other nations.

IRP / Individual Ration Pack

A ration used by the Russian Military. Often considered to be the most unfavored ration due to the its being mostly canned meat and packs of dehydrated crackers. They are often the most awful tasting rations and provide a basic nutritional balance. Those who have eaten an IRP have said that the ration itself is very salty tasting, due to its extensive use of salt as a preservative.

HDR / Humanitarian Daily Ration

A Ration of US design, based on the concept of the MRE. The HDR is used to provide a large population with food during an emergency. The HDR provides food that is acceptable those with both religious and dietary restrictions. The ration is mostly vegetarian, with a limited number of actual animal based products inside. These have been air dropped in large quantities throughout various Middle Eastern countries to feed refugees and inhabitants. The HDR originally had yellow packaging, however, due to a similarity to undetonated explosives that were marked with yellow the HDR packaging was changed to a light pink-orange packaging instead.

See also

• Food storage