Us Mre 1988 Mre Corned Beef Hash
NEW AND IMPROVED
T-Ration and MRE Development
Major Rita Alspach, Susan D. Gagne and Alice Meyer
Quartermaster Professional Bulletin � December 1988
Evolution of the MRE and T-Ration combat rations
New and improved!
Everyday the phrase comes to us, reflecting changes in requirements, changes in tastes. No aspect of our military lives is exempt, and subsistence, one of the soldier'due south almost basic needs, is a prime example of an area where change is continual. Still, as the Ground forces's doctrine and force structure are modified and refined, the bottom line for feeding our troops remains simple. No thing what, meals must be nutritionally sound, available, and most importantly soldiers must eat them.
Blueprint and development of opera�tional rations similar that of other military materiel, is
driven initially by the operational and organizational concepts to which they reply. Those concepts give a specific meaning to a ration'southward essential characteristics of nutritional adequacy, acceptability, stability and military utility. Quite simply, those concepts grade the standard against which a ration's suitability for fielding is measured. Nonetheless, operational concepts don't ascend in a vacuum. In the example of the ii rations which make up the subsistence footing for the Ground forces Field Feeding System (AFFS), major advances in food processing and packaging technology accept helped shape those concepts. This technology equally applied to ration development of the T-Ration, arid the Meal, Set to Eat, Private (MRE) has also made the new AFFS viable.
Every ration developer finds out sooner or later that the ideal gainsay ration provides the total daily nutritional allowances in virtually no weight or infinite, and magically transports and prepares itself into an endless variety of delicious and familiar foods. It also retains these backdrop indefinitely, no affair how long or where it is stored. Nobody expects these miracles to get existent, but then, the capabilities of the MRE and T-Ration may have seemed equally outlandish less than ii decades ago. When one ration developer in the late 1940s proposed that food could be heat processed in flexi�ble materials he was considered wildly visionary. Past the late 1950s, things had inverse considerably. Retort pouch adequacy was shown to be enough to state of war�rant the formulation of the outset parameters for the ration that was to become the MRE. By 1961, the concept had been sufficiently developed along the lines of organizational and opera�tional requirements that specifics for developmental technology were canonical. The goal was to increase the acceptability and reduce the weight of the Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) using the capabilities of the retort pouch equally a foundation.
Testing had already shown that the flat configuration of the antiphon pouch meant that less desperate heat processing than required for rations in round metal cans was needed. This resulted in better retention of feature food texture and flavour. Further, whereas the MCI had been designed for simply "infrequent use", the MRE was required to laissez passer the test of acceptability without monotony when eaten every bit the sole diet for seven consecu�tive days - a then nearly unusual "up-front" requirement for a gainsay ration!
Technical and user tests showed that the offset paradigm MREs did non meet these criteria. Farther piece of work was necessary to assure package integrity and to formu�late acceptable products. When "Concluding" user/technical testing took identify in 1974-75, the MRE was then significantly preferred to the MCI as to warrant the new ration'south use as a sole diet for 10 consecutive days.
The MRE was adopted equally the DOD gainsay ration in 1975. The first buy, a large-scale product exam, began in 1978, with delivery in 1981. By this time, HQDA was giving serious consideration to basing AFFS on the MRE without Tray Packs, at to the lowest degree for the commencement 60 days. The developers at Natick protested that the MRE had non been designed or tested for this. A prolonged feeding test in the early 1980s confirmed that this objection was well founded, and the MRE took its place as part of AFFS, not its merely component.
The MRE not merely increased combat ration acceptability and reduced package weight, making the ration easier to carry on the person, but also proved to elimi�nate problems of rust, corrosion and detinning. This gave the MRE a significantly longer adequate shelf life than was obtainable with the MCI. In improver, it eliminated issues of depen�dency upon commercially avail�able can sizes, making the ration easier to better every bit feedback comes in from the field. The latter proved specially valuable, as feedback - principally from the foregoing prolonged feeding exam in 1983 as well as larger and smaller scale tests in 1985, 1987, and 1988 - led to an extensive incremental improve�ment programme. That program has been ongoing since 1984 and is aimed at increasing the MRE's acceptability for prolonged con�sumption as part of AFFS.
Considering of this MREs procured in 1988 are markedly dissimilar than earlier issues. "Welt pack" retort pouch entrees have totally replaced freeze dried entrees in all 12 menus, with ix components reformulated to meet irresolute tastes. Entree quantity has been increased from five to viii ounces for x menus. A fruit flavored drink powder is included in all menus and liquid hot pepper sauce in some. A premoistened towelette is added to the accessory packets. These changes slightly increased the MRE'southward weight, but information technology is still below that of the MCI.
These new MREs were tested at Fort Bragg, Due north Carolina, during Market Foursquare II this past summer with enthusiastic response from the troops. Work is underway towards future incorporation of pouched white bread, boosted wet-pack fruits, and pouches with amend performance characteristics in extreme environments.
The other part of AFFSS is the T-Ration. Developed and fielded as individual items, its growth has been even more evolutionary than the MRE. Commercial and military developers originally saw the potential of the flat, rectangular pans that required 50% less processing fourth dimension than the conventional round #10 can providing more acceptability. Items such as Lasagna, beef pot roast, and cakes could be successfully packaged in the Tray-Pack. This is not attainable in #x cans. Due to the marketing difficulties and competing priorities, the com�mercial market was never fully developed.
Notwithstanding the T-Rations high potential for military use was recognized.
Tray-Packs do not require refrigeration and tin can be prepared with minimal food service equipment and trained personnel simply by heating the containers. Because of this, they offer the possibility of providing hot "kitchen prepared" meals to big and modest groups through�out the theatre of operations, even where this had previously been unfeasible.
A Alphabetic character of Agreement for AFFS food service equipment referencing both Tray-Packs and the MRE was approved in 1981. By 1983, the War machine Product Evaluation Commission of the DOD Food Planning Board has canonical a plan of field testing to advance introduction of adequate Tray-Pack foods on a line item basis into the supply system.
The initial variety of fully developed, specification Tray-Packs has increased annually. Contempo experience with the new items at Market Square Ii demonstrated their much improved acceptability. As a result of ongoing efforts, 14 each T-Ration breakfast and dinner menus incorporating 54 different items are bachelor for 1989 pro�curement. To brand ration breakdown simpler, these are provided in 36-person modules which include other items required for a nutritionally consummate meal. The modules also contain expendable utensils, cups, plates, etc. for consuming the meal. The 1988 modules are most notable for responding to continuing complaints near a lack of typical breakfast entrees: corned beef hash, and various types of omelets are amid the new breakfast components. Development to increase the multifariousness and acceptability of the components is continuing at a rate of five new items a year.
Every bit the user must eat his way through the stocks already available, it may be some time before the improvements summarized higher up or yet to come are evident in the field. This problem is recognized and is being addressed at the highest levels in DCSLOG. In the acting, the latest version of the MRE will be provided to troops on field exer�cises at major preparation centers (such every bit National Preparation Center).
Surveillance inspection is accomplished to prevent issue of deteriorated or otherwise unsuit�able rations. Apply of the Unsatisfactory Fabric Report (UMR) is the best mode to provide this feedback. Combat rations must above all be sufficiently acceptable to troops nether combat stress; that is those rations must be of such quality to encourage consumption. Unless the soldier eats plenty of his ration to sustain his efficiency in the field, that ration has little value. Converting processed foods into rations that meet this level of acceptability is not a simple undertaking. In accomplishing information technology, the developers at Natick rely on expanding their technological capabilities and receiving specific, substantiated and responsible feedback from the field. Neither is exactly easy to get. That's office of the challenge, also as Natick'south goal as work towards the platonic combat ration continues.
At the fourth dimension this article was written in 1988:
MAJ Rita M Alspach was a Subsistence Officeholder, Food and Technology Directorate, Natick RD & Due east Center, Natick, Ma.
Susan D. Gagne was the Project Officer of the Tray Pack Program, Food Technology Partitioning, Natick RD & E Eye, Natick Ma
Alice Meyer was a Armed services Requirements Analyst, Food Applied science Directorate, Natick RD & E Center, Natick, Ma.
Source: http://old.quartermasterfoundation.org/mre_tration.htm
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