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Science

US Military Creates Indestructible Sandwich 71

Posted by michael from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.
Spudley writes "They're capable of surviving airdrops and extreme climates, and able to stay fresh for over 3 years, and the US military wants them to supplement their existing battlefield rations. The article predicts they'll eventually make it to the grocery store too. Apparently, soldiers who tried the pepperoni and barbecue-chicken pocket sandwiches have found them "acceptable"."
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US Military Creates Indestructible Sandwich More

US Military Creates Indestructible Sandwich

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  • Wasnt April 1st like 10 days ago... A Little late.
  • no need to freeze, no need to microwave, frozen microwave pizza-flavored hot pockets!

    yum.

    • I just can't wait to see the crash test dummies whacking themselves in the head with the Indestructable Sandwich. Which is harder? Sandwich or Dummy? Which bush is the sandwich hiding behind? And that three year fresh thing has to be a gimmick like you open a packet and pour "liquid fresh" on it (remember liquid smoke?)
    • ...and costs $426.90 per packet - which the tax payer pays for.

      Thank you very much.

  • Only "acceptable". (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Matthias Wiesmann ( 221411 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @09:55AM (#3322965) Homepage Journal
    Soldier talking to the media tend to be very positive about stuff comming from their side - or be in trouble.

    Most food I ate in the military was officially considerd delicious (edible if you are hungry) or very good (tastes like dog food). If they told the press that the food is acceptable, I cannot fathom how disgusting this must be... shudder.

    • Can't comment on MRE's, but as the grandchild of a military officer, I have eaten at both the Officer's Mess Hall and the Enlisted Mess Hall and found the food to be pretty good. Kinda high in fat and cholesterol, but not bad at all.

      • MRE not that bad (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MarkusQ ( 450076 )

        I haven't found MREs to be all that objectionable. The thing to remember is that you don't eat them when you're staying in a five star hotel, just as you wouldn't sleep on the ground or catch rain water to drink. Conversely, you don't haul an espresso machine and a queen sized bed on your back for fifty miles just so you'll have "all the comforts" at the end of the day.

        If you think in terms of food quality per Kg hauled (and remember that it's frequently you that's going to be doing the hauling), MREs are great--much better than trying to scrounge for twigs and berries, or going hungry.

        --MarkusQ

        • Why not eat your enemies it would give you incentive to kill kill kill !!!

          • Re:MRE not that bad (Score:4, Funny)

            by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @11:32AM (#3323653) Journal

            Why not eat your enemies it would give you incentive to kill kill kill !!!

            Well, for one thing, you'd still have to carry in all the condements, etc. For another, most of my enemies aren't backpackers, so I'd have to haul them in too. And lastly, given what I think most of them are full of, I'm not sure I'd like the taste.

            MREs seem a lot easier and more appitizing.

            -- MarkusQ

          • When it comes right down to it, pal, don't think we wouldn't. ;)
          • (* Why not eat your enemies it would give you incentive to kill kill kill !!! *)

            Because you risk getting equiv of Mad Cow desease. You cannot cook it out because it is a protien and not a virus.

            It probably would not hurt if a few did it, but if done as policy, it would eventually catch up to us.
            • If it would not hurt a few wouldn't those few eventually that survive eventually evolve to be able to eat humans?
              • (* If it would not hurt a few wouldn't those few eventually that survive eventually evolve to be able to eat *)

                No. It takes "recycling" to increase the risk to noticable levels. But, even in small amounts there is a small risk.

                Besides, I think it would take many many generations to put an immunity into the gene pool. Besides, there is no evidence that canibal communities ever evolved a defense. Filtering for reversed protiens may be costly and tricky from a biological perspective.

        • Re:MRE not that bad (Score:3, Informative)

          by Rorschach1 ( 174480 )
          The ham slice is just plain nasty, though. Every one I've had has somehow managed to be totally dry, despite soaking in a packet of juice.

          Chicken a la king is pretty good. Smells a bit like dog food, but oh well. The vacuum-sealed crackers are great with the peanut butter.

          The freeze-dried peaches, on the other hand, should be kept around for packing fragile items for shipping.

          • They ALL smell like dog food. The damned Army at least has the money and wherewithal (and general softness) to helicopter hot, fresh food to their troops (don't argue with me on this one, I saw it firstand, in Kosovo of all places; chow via blackhawk).
            Thankfully they on't make the ham-slice anymore, nor the chicken a-la king, or even the freeze dried peaches.
            Typically, about half the MRE's I get issued get stuffed in a cardboard box in my wall locker; the rest eaten, supplemented by a handy-dandy backpacker's shaker of spices. The ones that get saved get sold at gun shows. people pay a lot of money for those damned things, even more for the newer ones that come in the light tan package.
    • Peer pressure bring on a new profoundness when everyone around you has an M16.

      Considering the requirement for an MRE, I'd say the ones I've eaten were pretty good. Definately not great, but either is alot of the crap I pull out of my microwave.

      I'd just be concerned about the "sachets of oxygen-scavenging chemicals". I know they will say DO NOT EAT, but you just know some fool will think it's salt and then asphyxiate on his own blood supply.

      Besides, isnt this just a Hot Pocket (yummmm) jammed with preservatives?
    • And what I want to know is this: What are the long term effects of eating it? I'm serious. If it lasts that long, one must wonder what kind of preservatives are in it?
    • That is incorrect. I am a soldier and ahve spoken with the press a few times; nothing about "what to say" was ever mentioned to me and some comments that I made, which were not positive, were never mentioned by anyone else. The military prefers "impressing civilians" by being very good at D&C (Drill & Ceremony), meaning everything related to being in a formation (a group of soldiers organized in columns and rows.)
      I doubt it works. I personally wouldn't particularly care if someone was marching out of step with everyone else.

  • "Acceptable" eh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by reaper20 ( 23396 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @09:56AM (#3322970) Homepage
    Scientist - "So, how do you like these new sandwiches?"
    Tired Grunt - "These taste like absolute shit, the only reason I'm eating this is because I haven't eaten all day and I'm hungry as hell."

    Scientist jots down "acceptable".
    • Like the toast submarine sandwich commercial that aired during the superbowl. I always like when TV interviews "discover" that troops can guess the age of MREs by the expiration date of included chocolate bars and candy. Check it out. [ku.edu]
  • The feeling of BBC Radio Five Live [bbc.co.uk] this morning was that acceptable probably meant "edible, but flavourless".

    Also, the likelihood is that these will eventually become consumer items too (freeze dried coffee started as a military solution)
  • Have you ever had Waffle House's sausage & egg?

    GTRacer
    - Egg McMuffilicious!

    • Waffle house is the gem of ths south. I moved down from NY and just love WH. And in georgia they have one like every couple miles, sorta like the frequency of bagel shops and pizza places back on the island.

      For some reason no on else likes the stuff down here. Oh well more cheap waffles for me.
      • Actually, I like most of their food. I was just ripping on them a little because their employees suck. No smoking means no smoking for everybody, dammit! That and they tend to be less than helpful late at night except at the bigger restaurants...

        GTRacer
        - Chicken-fried steak and gravy is good!

  • Safer food!

    Ahh, leave it to Monty Python to predict this 30 years ago!

    http://www.montypython.net/scripts/cycling.php [montypython.net]
  • not only can you stock up on canned food in your bomb or storm shelter - but also canned sandwiches!
  • In general, I don't like processed foods because they don't seem to be as healthy. But I believe that these premade sandwiches should save people a lot of money, because they don't need to throw out food as much, and also, we don't have to waste time making our own sandwiches.

    We apparently like the instant foods a lot, and can't be as bad as some make it out to be. As mentioned in the article, they invented freeze dried coffee, and that cheese.

    Pizza pockets are cool, but I for the average person popping a frozen pizza pop into the microwave isn't that hard.

  • That's good because... (Score:4, Funny)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @10:36AM (#3323259) Journal

    ....sandwiches that stay fresh up to three years...

    This is good news because it isn't that good for you to subsist on nothing but Twinkies.

    --MarkusQ

  • I don't care how advanced the processing of food gets you'll never replace Ramen noodles. Every geek on Slashdot knows where I'm talking about. If not for them, coffee, and beer most of the people who consider themselves Slashdotters would have died from starvation a long time ago. it's the only food that costs like 10-15 cents a pack =]

  • Have to Wonder (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 4of12 ( 97621 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @11:08AM (#3323468) Homepage Journal

    "They're capable of surviving airdrops and extreme climates, and able to stay fresh for over 3 years, and the US military wants them to supplement their existing battlefield rations. The article predicts they'll eventually make it to the grocery store too. Apparently, soldiers who tried the pepperoni and barbecue-chicken pocket sandwiches have found them "acceptable"."

    So if they're capable of surviving all that trauma and still able to "keep fresh", I have to wonder if they're not too durable.

    Like, for example, if, after being eaten, the chewed up sandwich comes out the other end looking essentially the same as when it went down the esophagous.

    My guideline: if bugs and bacteria don't like to eat something, then it's probably not meant for human consumption, either.


    • You're too paranoid. What gives MRE's its storage life is not a bath of chemicals; its a very simple technique. The food is sealed in airtight packets with residual oxygen is removed. The packets are sturdy metal alloy interiors with plastic exteriors. They don't leak, and are near impossible to unintentionally puncture. No oxygen in the packet, no oxygen can get in, food can't decompose.

      • Re:Have to Wonder (Score:3, Informative)

        by pmz ( 462998 )
        Without oxygen, anaerobic bacteria, such as those that cause botulism, can still grow. Chemicals will still be needed, unless the food can be guaranteed sterile when packaged.
        • They are called retortable pouches 'cause they are commercially sterilized in a retort, (much like canned foods). They actually retain considerably higher quality than conventional canning as it takes way less time to get the center of mass to 250F, hold it for 15 minutes, then cool it down. Unfortunately, poultry products tend to get that "Alpo" aroma anyway. As someone mentioned earlier, the products are safe to eat well beyond the expiration date. However, some purely chemical changes still take place over time, (again just like canned goods. These changes can affect color, flavor, and aroma. Guess it depends on how hungry you are.
  • "able to stay fresh for over 3 years"

    I'm assuming the term "fresh" is used only relative to the current rations, and not to, say, fresh pizza?

    • Actually, the context for "fresh" is consistent acceptable taste. If properly stored, and MRE can last 7 years and still keep its same edible consistency. If you had to, you could probably eat MREs older than 7 years, they just won't taste right.

      • Re:Define "Fresh" (Score:2, Interesting)

        by the_consumer ( 547060 )
        Some friends of mine and I once bought a big tin can of rations from the Korean War. We opened up the can, there was a woosh as air filled the vacuated space inside, and pulled out a few of the rations. They were like graham crackers. We ate them driving home. This was about 10 years ago, so the rations were almost 40 years old at the time. Not great eating, pretty bland, but edible.
  • Ok, I must first say that I am not in the military but I've had my fair share of MRE's. Best friend in the Army that's why I got them, he thinks they taste like shit. He lives on Copenhagen, Red Man and Mt. Dew in the field. I'm actually looking forward to these. I camp alot and these thing would be great for avid hikers/campers that want to eat on the go and don't want to spend $5 a pop for some high energy bar. Not to mention these would also be good for humanatarian missions where we (USA) drops in food rations to the locals. Just my $.02(non refundable) on this one.

  • I _like_ MREs (Score:5, Informative)

    by jfengel ( 409917 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @11:35AM (#3323676) Homepage Journal
    I am not a soldier, but I find MREs wonderful for certain kinds of activity (long bike rides, a few days' camping). They're vastly preferable to freeze-dried food (which are still lighter, since they have no water, and are the only option for long-term use unless you want live off the land.)

    You don't eat 'em until you're hungry, and then they're very filling, which is all you want. And they don't taste nearly as bad as the jokes I've read so far here. They're actually quite tasty. Hardly haute cuisine, but at least as good as most American fast food. That may not seem like praise, but you've seen the numbers in which people scarf that up.

    The single coolest thing about them is the heater packs. They come with bags containing a sheet of some chemical which reacts with water to give off a LOT of heat (and hydrogen gas). They're capable of taking food from frozen to too-hot-to-eat in a few minutes, without building a fire. Nothing makes a cold, miserable person happier faster than hot food.

    The second coolest thing is the mini-bottles of Tabasco sauce.
    • My brother's been in the National Guard for a couple years now, so all I know about current MREs comes from him. Basically, the problem is that if you live on them for weeks or months at a time, you get sick of them. The only way to make them worth eating is to put tabasco sauce on everything, he says, and apparently it's a pretty standard thing to do. So take that for what it's worth. I had one MRE years ago that a friend in the Guard gave to my brother and me, and didn't think it was that bland, but I imagine it may have seemed a lot more exciting as a kid :).
    • The Tabasco sauce generally isn't used as seasoning. Oddly, most rangers use them as eyedrops to stay awake during training and combat. Burns like hell, but keeps you awake...

  • It's supposed to be under "science" so why is everybody asking how it tastes ?
    We should be asking ourselves... what would happen if an indestructible sandwich travelling at very high speed were to meet another indestructible sandwich travelling at the same speed ??
    • "what would happen if an indestructible sandwich travelling at very high speed were to meet another indestructible sandwich travelling at the same speed ??"

      Boing.
    • 2*(sandwich)*c^2
    • A big mess?

    • (* what would happen if an indestructible sandwich travelling at very high speed were to meet another indestructible sandwich travelling at the same speed ?? *)

      I think you are thinking about an *anti-sandwich* colliding with it.

      Hey, a new weapon?
      • Actually I was thinking about a silly episode of that michael knight's talking car, when it meets another (evil) talking car.
        A very shitty episode btw, but I remember they were somehow raising the concept of what would happen if an indestructible object was to encounter another indestructible one, putting this as if it were a big scientific issue you know :)
        like the cars were actually indestructible *lol*, and even so, if that couldn't, for some reason, cause the end of the world or something :)
        The thing is "indestructible sandwich" really struck me like "indestructible car" :)

  • Nothing like firsthand experience. (Score:3, Informative)

    by slashdot_commentator ( 444053 ) on Thursday April 11, 2002 @12:12PM (#3323927) Journal

    You can try ordering from this company: Longlifefood.com [longlifefood.com]

    The "variety pack is roughly $20 USD. Another must buy is a pack of chemical heaters. They look like a plastic bag with flat, metal brillo pad. Stick in the the MRE, put in a little water, and boy does that package get hot! Shipping costs are bundled into the price of each item, and the company puts a 20% discount on the final price. They end up costing slightly more than a TV dinner, and they taste about as good as one. They don't need refrigeration and are great for extended camping trips.

    • The color scheme on that website is acceptable. While it might not be particularly appealing, if you need the information badly enough the text is completely edib... err, I mean legible. It's not nearly as bad as some of the other sites I've seen out there.

      -
  • I was an Army brat and my mother was a horrible cook, so whenever I got to eat in the officers mess, or dad brought home some MRE's or whatever it was one hell of a treat. Nothing beats SOS for breakfast in the morning.

  • MRE (Score:1)

    by kefoo ( 254567 )
    Meal, Ready-to-Eat" (MRE)

    Also known as "Meals Rejected by the Enemy", "Mice and Rats are Editable", and "Meal, Ready-to-Eat: Three lies in one."
  • "...if you've got to keep the buggers fresh, do it by washing 'em once a week."

    Maybe these will find their niche in English train depots?
  • This isn't news. Back in my highschool days the lunch ladys dished these up every Wednesday. Oh sure it had different names but I think we all knew what it was.

  • because that's *FUCKING DISGUSTING*. I'm inspired to learn jsut what that stuff does to your body.... an intersting 'experiment' in food processing, but edible, i think not....

    -shpoffo
  • Indescructible sandwiches? British Airways has been doing them for years...
  • I think I've already seen the indestructible sandwich, in an English pub. I made the mistake of buying one. It tasted like left-over emergency rations from World War II.
  • The now defunct British Rail invented these years ago.

    Now used a ballast under the tracks :-)

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