Sopakco MRE Meals Ready To Eat Case Pack of 14 For Survival And Emergency Green Box

Purchased 3 cases of 14 meal Low Sodium MREs from Marcus Leach. Shipped fast - ordered 01 DEC 2016; arrived 08 DEC 2016. The MRE cases were pristine (not shop-worn and scuffed up and banged around like you sometimes see), and vendor shipped all 3 cases in a shipping box and didn't just stick the shipping label on the MRE case itself (like you also sometimes see).WHAT'S IN THE BOX: Opened and inspected all three cases which all had the same mix of meals - 4 Beef Ravioli in Meat Sauce, 2 Chili Macaroni, 3 Vegetable Lasagne, 1 Penne Pasta with Vegetable Sausage Crumbles, 1 Cheese Tortellini in Tomato, 3 Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. One of the cases had an extra Ravioli in Meat Sauce - 15 meals instead of 14, so thanks to my unknown benefactor at SOPAKCO.WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE I SAMPLED: The Ravioli in Meat Sauce meal contains the eponymous ravioli - 270 calories, 340 mg sodium 14%; Frosted Brown Sugar Toaster Pastry (an actual commercial foil pack of two Pop-Tarts inside the vacuum sealed mylar MRE envelope) - 210 calories, 170 mg sodium 7%; Crackers - 180 calories, 115 mg sodium 5%; Strawberry Jam - 70 calories; Grape Jelly - 70 calories; Tootsie roll - 50 calories; flameless ration heater, commercial plastic spoon (NOT MRE spoon length - open meal pack lengthwise) paper napkin, Mrs. Dash-esque seasoning instead of salt , pepper.The ravioli is smaller than the canned mini ravioli, and tastes just like any canned ravioli you've ever had. The crackers are denser than commercial saltines, and somewhat blander. The grape jelly and strawberry jam were as you'd expect; the Pop-Tarts were dry and compressed together but still very edible, and the commercially packaged Tootsie Roll was somewhat dry but also still very edible.The commercial flameless ration heater was not as efficient as the mil-spec variety. Followed the instructions exactly, even wrapped the heater envelope and meal pouch in a dishtowel and put that in an insulated shopping bag for the recommended 12 minutes. The ravioli was lukewarm instead of piping-hot, but lukewarm is still much, much better than cold.TOTAL CALORIESIN THIS MEAL - 850; TOTAL SODIUM - 625 mg 26%WHAT'S NOT IN THE PACKAGE: No side dish, coffee, hot cocoa, coffee creamer, sugar, fruit drink mix, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, chewing gum, matches, hot sauce.BE ADVISED: These are NOT complete mil-spec MREs, even though most of the components are from the same supplier and in the same packaging as the mil-spec versions. The case pack says 'EMERGENCY RATION MEALS' - two meals per person per day, about 1600 - 1700 calories.ALSO BE ADVISED: Eat everything in the meal pack to obtain the full caloric value - especially in an emergency/survival situation.A WORD ABOUT 'EXPIRATION DATES': The ravioli component was the only item with a date. The ravioli itself was manufactured on 1 290 (17 OCT 2011), was packed in the cardboard sleeve on 2 221 (08 AUG 2012) and the all the components were assembled into the MRE pack on 2 282 (08 OCT 2012). Figure that everything else in the meal pack is roughly contemporary. There is no 'expiration date' per se, and even if there was the food items would not be 'okay-yummy-healthy-fine' on the day before the 'expiration date' and 'radioactive-flaming-Ebola-deadly' the day after.Given reasonable storage (72 degrees F or less, out of direct sunlight) these should be good for at least another five or six years, and probably much longer than that.These are good to have for a quick, warm meal, but are NOT really suitable for long-term storage - look into freeze-dried food with a 25 to 30 year shelf life to fill that niche.I added Nescafe 3 in 1 espresso roast coffee sticks and a small bottle of hot sauce to each case - and a long-handled iced tea spoon.These are good, and very reasonably priced. Highly Recommend.***UPDATE 06 JUN 18 - PLEASE NOTE*** Have been working my way through the first case. Can report that the meals sampled thus far (ravioli, spaghetti with meat, vegetable lasagne, chili mac, cheese tortellini, penne pasta with vegetable (!) sausage crumbles) have all been perfectly fine - reasonably tasty, reasonably filling. Added a small jar of chunky peanut butter to each case just because I like crackers with peanut butter.All six different meals have all had the same grape jelly and strawberry jam, package of MRE crackers, brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts and Tootsie Roll; only thing different has been the main entrée.About the flameless heaters: Maybe the first one was sub-par, but the other five thus far have all worked great. Suggest that you add only enough water to moisten the heater (and it doesn't take very much, either - even the 400ml the instructions dictate seems to be too much), put the heater and meal back in the entrée box with the heater underneath the meal, wrap it in a towel or spare shirt, or whatever you have to additionally insulate it, and let it go for a half-hour. Yes, a half-hour.All the meals were piping hot, and the heater pad was still cranking out the heat.Use the Mrs. Dash-esque seasoning and the pepper provided, and I add a couple of good jolts of Tobasco sauce as well.Hope this helps.

Are you looking for sustenance when the Zombie Apocalypse hits? Maybe just some rations for something more mundane like a hiking trip? This box has you covered! According to my Google-foo on the interwebs this ration pack was commissioned from Sopakco by FEMA for disaster relief operations. Sopakco is one of three official suppliers of MRE's to the military and these MRE's most certainly reflect that. First I'll get into the details of what you are buying and then into the more subjective part -- taste.The box comes with 14 MRE's and as some other reviewers have said, there is a preponderance of one meal, instead of an even mix of the menu. In my box (yours may vary, of course), I had the following meals:6 - Penne Pasta with Vegetable Sausage Crumbles3 - Meatballs in Marinara2 - Grilled Beef Patty1 - Boneless Pork Rib1 - Beef Ravioli in Meat Sauce1 - Sloppy Joe FillingAll of the MRE's were marked with the date code 2192, with the first number being the year and the last three numbers being the day of the year, or in this case, July 10th, 2012. So, a little over three years old, which isn't bad since these will last at least 5 years and if you plan on storing them in your house, as opposed to a hot garage or shed, as I do, they will be pretty much at 75 degrees year round. That will take them out to at least 10 years. So, we're good there. However, each individual food packet within the MRE has their own date of manufacture, which is different and all before the date of packaging. I opened a Penne Pasta and the dates ran from the powdered tropical drink mix of 1271, or Sept. 28, 2011 to dates for all the food from 2128 to 2174, or from May 7, 2012 to June 22, 2012. Again, not bad, considering that they were packaged a little over two weeks later. What do all these numbers really mean and why am I boring you with them? They show that they are pretty close in date and that Sopakco is on top of things where quality control is concerned. That's all.All of the MRE's come with a useful spoon, a heater that worked very well and a drink mix. However, I'm pretty sure that since these are the FEMA spec MRE's that none of them (and my Penne Pasta did not) come with coffee, sugar or creamer. Not to worry! With the addition of 5 more American dollars I threw in my box a disposable pepper grinder (fresh pepper or nothing for this guy), a Morton's salt shaker, a small 59 cent bottle of Tapatio hot sauce (I of course would never presume to tell you what hot sauce to use since this is a very personal choice and I won't judge you), and about 15 sticks of instant coffee mix. Personally I used the Trader Joe's instant coffee with sugar and creamer already added.Which brings me to price, nutrition and calories. All of the calories in the Penne MRE added up to 1250. This is great news since civilian MRE's rarely have that many calories. That is exactly as many as the military spec's for their MRE's. All of the listed ingredients were what you would expect to be in food. No weird chemicals, no unpronounceable ingredients, no preservatives. What most of the food packets had though was added vitamins and minerals. You know, to keep you in tip top zombie killing shape. All of the sodium in the one Penne MRE added up to 74% of your daily intake, based on a 2,000 calorie diet, which is a little low in calories for an adult male for one day. This is really not a bad sodium amount and was quite surprising since even one 300 calorie Cup O' Noodles can contain that much! The price you pay for 14 MRE's that contain 1250 calories each is, in my humble opinion, fantastic. When you break down the price of the various MRE's you can purchase on Amazon by calorie amount per box per amount paid, there is no comparison.Now, as to the taste. I personally thought that everything was pretty darn good. Trying to imagine the scenario in which I would eat the MRE made it even better, i.e, surrounded by severed zombie heads as proof of my post-apocalyptic dominance, to imagining how hungry I'd be after summiting Everest. Even my initially less than enthusiastic wife was generally surprised and ate all of her half of the MRE. A ringing endorsement, to be sure. The Penne pasta was good and as I had mentioned, the included heater pack was easy to use and got it quite hot, the crackers with cheese spread and peanut butter were tasty and the drink mix and oatmeal cookie were perfectly fine.So, purchase with confidence and practice your head shots!