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.

I have tried four, different MRE boxes, and, so far, this is the worst. Right after Superstorm Sandy, FEMA sent around MREs, and they were pretty good. I wanted to be prepared in case of another emergency, so I bought a few from my local Army/Navy surplus store. They were just as good as the fema issue. Then, I bought these. If you want to get out of being a den mother, by a case of these, take the kids on a hike and feed them these. You will never be asked to do anything, ever again. The entrees are adequate, but there are no sides. The drink mix is, as in all of these things, awful. The cracker was the usual, also awful, but do come with peanut better and cheese spread instead of jelly. The deserts consisted of one fig bar or one, under baked pop tart with the filling leached out. There is no coffee mix, sugar, creamer, salt, or pepper. There is a plastic spoon and half a napkin.A good MRE has an entree, a packet of fruit, a cookie, fruit drink, instant coffee, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, candy or gum, a sppon and a knife.