Meals - Ready to Eat (Military Ration Packs)
 

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a good UK or European supplier of Military 24hr ration packs?

I'd prefer the British Army packs rather than USA MRE's however if the price is right I may consider the Yank version.

I have looked online but can only find rip off outfits selling them at between £11 and £15 a throw! I presume these companies get them from a wholesaler for around the price I'm expecting to pay. Most of these retailers appear to only possess small numbers of rat packs. I presume their target audiance is mountaineers and ramblers etc who only ever want a few meals at a time.

I want to purchase them in bulk (say 30 days at a time). I may agree to a bulk buy of 6 months if the price is right.

I don't want any stolen hooky packs either - Our brave soldiers need all the nourishment they can get.

I see the Yanks have companies selling in bulk to the preppers. Here in the UK we are a bit behind the times in this respect.

Cash waiting for the right price. I reckon a fair price is around £7 per 24 hr meal. Shipping costs extra (cost price).

Anyone help?

I'm a former TA Infantry officer. I remember living on the old (pre 1996) compo rations! The star item being Biscuits Brown AB! We used them to mix with our porridge in the morning.

Thanking you in anticipation...
Neil

I think you will struggle to get them for the price you are asking.
I think the cost price to the MOD is bout £12 a day, it is not just the cost of the meals but the hand packing of the items into a box that adds to the cost.

They are also more expensive than many commercial varieties because they come with a ten year shelf life for many of the items.

Why not look on the bay for the closest supplier and see if you can collect, it seems to me that the postage is the killer as they are heavy (having carried them on and off for the last 17 years).

The cheapest camping pouches tend to retail for about £4 a meal which equates to 10-12 quid a day less all of the sundires.

38

These are sold in Sainsburys, Waitrose, Tesco, and are sometimes on offer

Ready Meals | Look What We Found | Meals Delivered - LWWF

They taste delicious, BUT are not calorific, which is a good or bad thing depending on what you want from your food.

I took 12 of these to Norway this summer, and bulked up with bread or couscous. Yum.

I bought a shed load from a big sainsburys when they were on bogof, so worked out at £1.50 each. My favourite is the Porter/stout beef stew.

yeah the MoD rat-packs are nice, specially the chocolate puddings after a pack of dumplings with steak.. lovely yummy

used this packs a few times on trips in the past... BUT... did you thought about the weight to carry all this as well ?

the rat-packs are perfect for a shorter trip like up to a week on a bike or backpack... to cover your needs, for more and longer periots, you need a 4x4 or trailer to carry them all...

went down a alternative way by now, that involves less weight and less hassle compare to buying this expensive MoD or so called Expedition ready meals.... try the "dry food" stuff for a change... you only need to mix it up with a bit of water which you may carry anyway in a 10Lt MSR water bladder, add a water filter pump if you want to source your water out of lakes or streams which you may do anyway and you are set...

the dry stuff is packed between your gear as easy than the rat-packs and can be sourced virtually every where cheap in any small local country corner store or big city supermarket around the world.
as base stock I carry a few 0.5Lt Platypus foldaway bottles each filled with sugar, milk powder, loose tea, egg powder, porridge, pancake powder, for stuff like oatmeal or cereals I use the small waterproof Exped roll bags to carry it, weight wise it's only a fraction of what you have to carry in rat-packs..

anyway here is a link from a German company who sales MoD, US and German Army rat-packs and survival foot in big quantities if needed... http://www.segurisk.de

I managed to buy some (a box of 10 different menus) for £5.00 each but the same supplier no longer does them at that price.

I often just make up my version using normal supermarked food. The only issue being that you'll end up with some tins. I just take both ends off and squash the tin flat to pack way the empties.

You can get ready made pasta dishes, and chunky soups in pouches though.

My luxury is a propper can opener rather than the compo ones

Try to source some: Drytech / Real Field Meal.

It is in a league in its own when it comes to flavour. I'm not saying that because it is Norwegian... Also british and US forces prefer this brand. But it cost more...

Of course it depends what floats your boat but I like my food and am a massive fan of the "Look What we found" range of pouches (available in most supermarkets or direct from the website). £2 - £3 per meal and really, really tasty, long sell by dates (12 months or so), robust packaging. Way better than the old style pouches from camping shops.

For fans of "Look What we found" Amazon UK are selling 8 packs for £11.60 inc delivery (£1.45 ea) for a few of their recipes, means getting 8 of the same flavour, but that's cheap without having to shop around the supermarkets.

ive seen british 24hr ration packs sell for £20.
i dont think 30x would be classed as bulk?
you could buy them by the case slightly cheaper perhaps but they wont be as cheap as you want to pay, to get 'bulk' price from a supplier you would have to be talking pallets worth.

The brand new MOD ration packs with the updated thai green curries, Oreos, bottle of tabasco,chocolate cookie pudding etc are normally costing about £25 per 24 hour pack.

£250 per box of ten. So you are looking at £750 for a 30 day supply if bought from the MOD.

Obviously if you are going for the older type stuff then you will be paying very much a cheaper rate, but considering that the bulk of the contents is replicated inside every box, then that explains your money being wasted.

Unless you want 30x bottles of tabasco/handywipes/boiled sweets/teabags/coffee/chewing gum.

It would be far cheaper to bulk buy your main meals for the amount you want then buy the extra stuff you need like toilet paper etc.

My view exactly, and it summarises the way to go for me.
This reminds me of arriving at campsites when the very first purchase is a bulk buy of toilet paper from the local Lidl store, preferably in pink; a 3 pack split between two lasts for days and days.
The second purchase has to be a few bottles of vino - only the Italian ration packs include such essential liquid + Grappa (maybe the French also as far as the wine is concerned).


Thanks for that link; I've never even heard of LWWF but it will be investigated.

I also looked for some ready made meals and concluded that the LWWF are way better than the other alternatives. It is just they are only around 350 kCal/pack, so you would need to eat two or bulk up with rice/pasta/couscous/spuds, pitta bread, etc. Difficult to find outside the UK, but Amazon sometimes do deals on them.

I looked at the ready meals in German supermarkets and they were pretty dire. No resemblance in flavour to any meat, etc.

Dehydrated food is OK where weight has to be at a minimum, but the flavour is just poor, though edible if hungry enough.

It's a long time since I tasted any UK Rat Packs, but they were good for the occasional meal, but much too heavy to carry if walking.

I decided that I would try and cook my own 'proper' meals each night on an extended trip and just use the LWWF where weight was going to be a critical factor.

Grey Beard

I usually carry 2-3 days supplies of water and canned/dried foods as my emergency rations. As I travel tend to buy local stuff to cook fresh each evening. sometimes if I haven't bought as i travel I dip into my supplies. but then top up with something near equivalent when I get the chance.

Re the wine, here in France many supermarkets sell 25cl small bottles of wine so just right for one :)

Only legal way to get the real US military ones these days, even for those of us in the states, is to serve your time in the military. Resale has been strangled due to a mass amount of soldiers stealing them to sell to the preppers! Still going for about $12usd each when you do find them though!

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