Heck, we used to eat C-rations well over 20 years old.
Yup. Was eating them in the 80’s.
“Heck, we used to eat C-rations well over 20 years old.”
In 1968 we had Turkey canned in the 40’s. USN, Nom, Nom.
Roger that. My brother Ken said while on Okinawa in 1944 he checked the date on a C-Ration he was eating. Omaha, Nebraska 1929! It’s a continuous struggle to keep my bride from heaving canned goods and stuff the day after the arbitrary Use By Date.....which is another “gift” from the grifters in DC.
We did a storage test on MREs at Yuma Proving Ground about 20 years ago.
I asked the chief test person, a PHD from Nadick, if you were really hungry, how long the MREs would be edible without harm?
He said: “by the time it gets to be bad for you, you will not be able to eat it.”
I have found his information to be correct. On some MREs that were not stored well (exposed to AZ summer temperatures for a few years) several items became so unpalatable I could not stomach them. Extreme acrid/sour chemical taste I had to spit out after putting it in the mouth.
Apple sauce and Chocolate seemed to go bad first.
Main entre’s a few years later.
I have encouraged a tolerant digestive system over my lifetime, but I could not eat those MREs.
Stored in good conditions (shaded, underground), they seem to be fine 20 years later...
I have eaten many canned goods that were “out of date”.
I have had canned tuna go bad in as little as 3 years.
They’re so full of preservatives you won’t need to be embalmed.
“Heck, we used to eat C-rations well over 20 years old.”
Tuna from 17 year-old MRE is more like eating what I think Alum might be like but it didn’t kill me. The other contents were similarly just OK. Tobasco sauce however is just like new.