Sure-Pak MRE Meals Ready to Eat Case Pack of 12 for Survival and Emergency, New

This is the fourth time I have ordered SurePak MRE's and I can say that the meals are high-quality, well-packaged, and pretty tasty even considering the fact that they are designed to last a long time. I store these in my disaster kit in my car's trunk (Southern California) so they are exposed to some pretty high temperatures in the summer months. For this reason, I rotate them about every 1 to 1.5 years as this is the manufacturer's recommendation for storage above 100 degrees. I always try a few of the meals that I'm discarding to see how they've held up, and I have never had problems. If I had to eat them passed their expiration, I don't think I'd notice a significant taste or quality difference. The heaters work quite well and more often than not, I have to let the food cool down before I can eat it. Typically, I only eat the main meal items (entree and side dish) as I've found some of the other items included in each packaged meal to be less than appealing (i.e.crackers/bread substitutes). Even without eating every item in the package, my hunger is more than satisfied. Primarily I am writing this review to address some of the serious concerns raised in other reviews. I want to stress that this is only my personal experience over the course of several purchases, and I know other people's experiences will vary, but the product is not universally flawed. I will address the most common issues I found in other reviews: -External packaging: sometimes the meals come in the colorful box pictured, sometimes they come in a very plain brown, box. In all cases the contents of the box have looked the same, tasted the same, and have the same variety and internal packaging. The box they come in doesn't seem to make a difference to the product it contains. Multiple food items that make up each individual meal are combined in a rugged, sealed plastic bag, so I imagine they probably just select individual meals and box them however. The individual meal is the product, not the case of meals. -Expiration dates: While I have never received meals that were expired, I have received some that were up to a year old. Given the shelf life and the conditions under which I store them, this is not necessarily a problem for me; I will be rotating them more frequently than suggested anyway. They still have a respectable shelf life and the expiration dates, while needing a little interpretation, are clearly stamped on each item in the package. You can't really expect to get items fresh off the production line; the manufacturer must maintain inventory and so you should always expect some of the shelf life to be used. -Heaters: I have never received meals without heaters when heaters were advertised as being included. Also, they work surprisingly well and if need be, you can eat the meals cold; they are fully cooked. -Variety: every box contains at least four different types of entrees and I have never gotten the same group of entrees repeated on subsequent orders, nor have I ever received a box with only one type of entree. I also have never seen (on Amazon) the option to select your entrees, so you're kind of stuck with what they send, but they do send more than one type of entree in each box. -Counterfeits/Knockoffs: I think maybe people think they are getting a fake product because of the shipping box looking very generic in some instances (see above). The meals are produced by SOPAKCO, which is a company that has been doing this for over 60 years and has a very comprehensive and informative web site about their products. Based on their pictures, descriptions, and specifications, the meals appear to be genuine to me. Again, these are only my experiences, and while I know it's an inconvenience, if you get anything less than what is advertised, return it. I don't think the company is being malicious or intentionally misleading and most vendors on Amazon will gladly refund or replace.

I bought these for emergency supplies. I brought a couple of these with me on a camping trip over the summer, and also had to use a few during some extended power outages at home. These actually taste pretty good. Heaters work well as long as you follow the directions. If there's anything I can tell you through this review, they are not excellent, and are definitely not the food you want for a daily meal (these things are about 1200 calories each for the whole kit, and one MRE is one full meal) - but if you are looking to buy emergency food supplies for your home, these are very much a smart purchase. Allergen warning - these do contain wheat products and cow dairy products, and one of the MREs is a pesto pasta (pesto contains pine nuts and parmesan). Please be mindful of this when buying. I may call it a smart buy, it's not really a good idea to have emergency food that could kill you.

Fast shipping, ordered Sunday night, got here Tuesday afternoon. Case double banded, and flaps securely glued down. Don't use a sharp blade to open carton, it is FULL. Date on carton 5290 (October 17, 2015), dates on most items 5229 or thereabouts. However the Beef Roast with Vegetables entree was coded 4002 (January 2, 2014). It was still good-tasting (for MREs) and texture was as packed. No deterioration in 2 1/2 years. All in all, flavors reminded me of things I have eaten before and liked. The portions were adequate for me. There is a lot of food in one MRE. The one I ate last night had a total of 18.5 ounces of food. A typical meal has entree, side, dessert, and crackers with cheese, jam or peanut butter. It also has a 'bug juice' packet, coffee, sugar, creamer, salt pepper, a heavy-duty spoon, and finally a wetnap and a small paper towel. Description of taste and texture for one meal: Beef Roast with Vegetables Edit July 21, 2019@ I ate the marinara with meatballs last night. The marinara sauce was a little sweeter than I make it and there were a LOT of meatballs. 4 stars for entree Cinnamon bun was still flaky and firm. 4stars for cinnamon bun Cherry blueberry cobbler was the perfect sweetnes, the cherries were halves and just the right bit of tartness. The pastry was neither soggy or dry. My calico cat, Sugar, helped me eat the cobbler. 5 stars for dessert. The bread sticks were OK, but I only had three out of the four provided. Bread sticks 3 stars. So, this was a 4 year old meal and had no off tastes, deteriorated packaging or missing items. Edit August 2020 I had to start eating one of these every few days to stretch my groceries. They are STILL good, even though one had been in my emergency backpack in my car for three years. Temps ranged from 9 degrees to 102 outside during that time. Cats still slap each other out of the way to get the cobbler. Payday is coming and I am getting another case before winter gets here. The perfect thing to have for the pandemic currently occuring. I also bought some freeze-dried food at the same time. Based in my experience with them, I am raising my review to 5 stars.

I wanted to see what MRE's were all about so i tried ordering this box after reading some reviews. I put two in my luggage for a fishing vacation because I had the extra room. The meals are as advertised and came with a heater and were packaged only 6 months before i received them which means they have plenty of shelf life. I received a mix of vegetarian and meat alternatives and most had titles I looked forward to trying. They also come with a main dish, a side dish, a snack like jelly and crackers, a dessert like animal crackers and a small bag with a spoon, napkin, powdered drink mix, salt/pepper and sugar. Each "meal" comes individually wrapped so it's airtight/watertight and twelve to a box with two meals of six varieties (like meatballs marinara, cheese tortellini and chili mac). I was surprised at the number of calories in each meal. You could eat the crackers and jelly when you get hungry and eat the main/side dish an hour later and then still have the desert snack for later. I found it hard not to be snacking on the whole thing all day. Heating them did not require much water, but I had some difficulty heating them evenly, even when left to heat for twice then the required time. To preserve the meals for five years, they contain about 30% of the salt you need in a day. If you are eating two or three of these meals a day you are getting plenty of salt (more than you would probably want). Just eating two of these for lunch on a boat for two consecutive days seemed to leave my very thirsty overnight. Also, the meals contain a lot of sugar, which you can dial back by not making the side drink. They have been formulated by some thoughtful folks in the military for carb/fat/sugar balance and are well designed for military on the move. They are not well designed for fisherman on a boat or for people looking to store food and sit waiting for the apocalypse to blow over. I found them to be messy and a bit like opening a can of chef boyardee in terms of flavor. The meat and chicken in the meal is mechanically separated, so it's not a healthy meal and it's not a high quality meal but it is edible and maybe even more palatable than some of the other long terms shelf options.

I was born in New York City and now live in coastal North Carolina. Knowing hurricanes, when I saw Sandy headed to New York City, I telephoned my elderly aunt who lives in Chelsea. She said everything would be fine and not to worry. I asked her if she had much food and water stored in her efficiency walk-up (she did not). I suggested that she get a few things just in case and also fill some pots and pans with water (just in case). Well, as you know, the worst happened and after that night we couldn't reach her by cell phone. She lives a couple doors down from where the face of that brownstone came crashing down, exposing the furniture in peoples rooms. The place was (literally) a disaster area and I knew she was not only poorly prepared but having lived in the City all her life, wouldn't know what to do. I first thought of running up there in the truck to get her, but its 800 miles and with the tunnels flooded I had to wonder what my chances of getting to lower-Manhattan might be. She's also a stubborn old coot and my chances of getting her to leave with me were slim. Then my wife suggested - "hey, call up Fed Ex and see if we can mail her the kind of stuff we store for storms". So I telephoned Fed Ex and sure enough, despite their local office in Chelsea being closed, they'd do their dead level best to get a package to my aunt the next day (although they wouldn't guarantee a time). So I get excited and was about to run off to a local shop and start boxing things up to send when, again, my wife was the voice of reason and suggested I check out Amazon. I ended up here on BIGFLYSPORTS page and had them send a case of MRE's direct to her door. I also sent an LED flashlight with extra batteries and a pack of water purification tablets (the kind used by back-packers). To make a long story short, we got our first call from her 13 days later and she was THRILLED with the care package we sent. She said it reached her long before the streets were open, before the subway was open, before the power was on, and before a single FEMA, Fire, Police or any other kind of responder showed up to check on the typical resident of her area. She got it the next day. She's over 70 years old but used her new flashlight to read the directions on how to use the heat packs, prepared the foods as directed, and ate well each day. She allowed that "it would be okay" if I got her another box of MRE's for Christmas ("to store away just in case"). I think I'm her new favorite nephew! Many thanks to Fed EX, BIGFLYSPORTS and Amazon for helping my family out during Sandy. You gize ROCK.

I can't speak to the taste of the product because I'm storing these in case of emergency, but what I can say about them is that after looking at a lot of different options (some more expensive, some less) I decided on these because they have a very long shelf life and are the "standard" by which all other emergency rations are judged. I like the fact that every pack includes a variety of foods (mains, sides, condiments, snacks) and that there are heaters in them as well. If I'm ever in another situation like Hurricane Sandy, I'll sleep better the night before knowing that I'll at least have something warm to eat for a week. A note about the seller: one of the reasons I chose this particular product is because it seems like they sell a lot of them (both to the US Gov't and to private citizens) which means they're probably in constant production. When choosing a ration that you may rely on for several years, shelf-life is critical so getting the "freshest" possible rations is a big plus. I'm happy to say that these arrived stamped as having been made about 4 months ago, which means they have at least four and a half years left if they're properly stored. Other products may advertise a long shelf life, but if they were made years ago, they are effectively spoiled on arrival. These are not, and I'm confident they'll be good when I need them.

Exactly as described. Bought mine in 2020 and they are indeed from the year 2015. I contacted the seller and told them I was unhappy with my purchase because they were expired or almost expired and I suspected mine of being rotten. I wasn't expecting my money back or anything, Just wanted to ask them to rotate or check their stock in a angry customer fashion. I think this was mainly to blow off steam from our botched deal after realizing my purchase of 12 MREs had already expired. I eventually opened an mre to check the quality to give them benefit of the doubt (No TTI). I opened what was a dark piece of corn bread that had a splotch of white. Could've been mold or flour. I wasn't daring enough to find out. However, judging by the darker color, I could already do an educated guess. I opened another one to see if it was defective also. For see reason it wasn't discolored at all like the other was. At that point I got kinda confused and honeslty a little bit scared of ingesting anything out of that box. I don't wanna have to do a universal taste test every time to see if I'll die from the next entree. It really takes the mre out of mre when your meal is not ready to eat. Anyways after all this, I realized there was no hope of me getting my money back after opening it. I didn't wanna go through the hassle of shipping either. I live in Alaska where something like that costs 1/3 of it's value in shipping. Not to mention to try and persuade somebody over the internet or letter that you want money back for what's basically a valueless box at this point. I chose this specific post because of the price and because of the happy reviews. The one I read somebody got 2017 mres so I thought it was safe to buy from this source and the description just hadn't been updated yet. Must've been another seller. Anyways, despite me being extremely rude they were kind enough to give me a partail refund no questions asked no hassle and explained how I bought exactly what was described. Basically it's a legitimate post and they are selling exactly what they are saying. MRES FROM 2015. Honestly I think it's just an mre problem. People forget to rotate them or get rid of them like its a food item at a grocery store. Not to mention they're expensive. A warehouse finds out they got 10 cases of mres about to go bad that's valued at 1000$ total. Do you throw them away or try to sell them before they expire? Make 2000$ or report to the manager that you lost 1000$ in product in one fell swoop.

I decided to take the plunge and buy some MREs for common sense preparedness. This seemed like a reasonable price, considering the cost of shipping from other places. I'm shocked by how much thought was put into the meals and how delicious they are. I may need to modify my rating depending on the manufacturers date (need to check it). But overall, I'm very pleased with SurePak's MREs. UPDATE: It appears the date of manufacture was 1355. If I'm reading that correctly, it's the year 201[1], [355]th day, or Dec 21, 2011.