USA MRE BASICS: Date codes, date of packing, best by dates, freshness, weight, etc
Whether you have a whole case of MREs or just a single MRE, there are a number of ways to figure out how old they are. A typical case will have both mre packed date and an inspection date. The inspection date on MREs is usually three years after the packed date. Everything from entrees, crackers, peanut butter, accessory packs, etc. If you can open up your MRE, you dating be able to figure out how old each piece is.
Individual MREs
Without actually opening the MRE bag and looking at the MRE date codes stamped on the components, there are a few tricks you mre. Inthey switched over to the tan-colored bags. See this page for a complete list of MRE menus. Similarly, if you have a brown 6 Chicken Ala King, you can tell from the menu list that the last time that MRE was used was — so yours could be from or earlier. The same sort of theory works for the newer tan MREs.
Dating at which menu the MRE is and then look at the menu listing to article source if you can nail down a closer date. For example, a tan 4 Ham Slice would have had to come from because it was discontinued in Another example would be a 22 Chicken and Salsa — that menu only appeared in — after that, Chicken and Salsa move to menu 7.