A ready-to-eat meal (MRE) is designed to give troops the calories and nutrients they need when a hot meal isn’t available. Each MRE contains about 1,250 calories, enough to provide roughly one-third of a service member’s recommended daily energy and nutritional needs in the field.
But that calculation assumes the service member eats everything inside. In the field, some troops shed components to lighten their load. Others have little time to stop, heat an entrée or finish everything they carry.
In the field, some troops shed components to lighten their load. Others have little time to stop, heat an entrée or finish everything they carry. On exceptionally demanding missions, even three complete MREs might not replace the energy they burn.
A Paper Tiger
The MRE is the primary military individual ration for those serving on a mission. It is designed for when regular food is unavailable to the individual. These provide something just shy of 3,750 calories in a day.
They can cover many operations, but some Army accounts say that combat calories that need to be consumed may be in excess of 4,500 calories. Even for those who are in exceptionally heavy-duty jobs, it may be in excess of 6,000 calories.
The distinction matters. An MRE that falls short during an arduous mountain patrol has not necessarily failed its nutritional specifications. The troop’s energy needs may have exceeded the standard daily allotment. The Army encountered that problem in Afghanistan.
Combat-feeding officials heard from deployed troops who were losing weight and asking for extra calories. In response, developers created the Modular Operational Ration Enhancement, or MORE, to supplement MREs and other rations during particularly demanding operations. An enhancement pack provides about 1,100 additional calories, according to the Army.
Consumption is a challenge in itself. A military nutrition guide warns that troops sometimes do something called “field stripping” of an MRE, which is discarding components to reduce weight. The guide warns against this, such as removing an entrée or other items, because these foods are meant to supply energy and nutrients included in the nutritional total.
Those that have looked into the matter have found that the problem goes beyond MREs. A review of military training studies shows that soldiers in the field have reported feeling sluggish and low energy, even when the calories on paper say it is enough. Some issues were the time of meals, the quality of the food, and how hard the training is. These are all factors that should be taken into account.
In other words, these calories don’t matter if it is on paper, because they may not be able to be consumed. If the practicality and quality of the calories are poor, then something is bound to go wrong when consumed.
Rations Need To Fit The Mission
The military develops a set of different rations that are meant to counter these problems, at least in theory. The problem is that they are not diverse enough. This means that it is meant to sustain someone, though a day of field training may not contain all the necessary qualities for all the activities that could be sustained.
Army researchers faced that problem while developing the Close Combat Assault Ration. The service said existing individual rations, including MREs, were too bulky for small units expected to operate for days with limited resupply.
Developers worked to reduce the new ration’s size and weight while retaining its nutrients. It became available for military units to order in 2025.
The designers of the meals also wanted to see if troops would eat the food. In the field, soldiers who ate the contents of the new ration ate more calories and had less energy deficit than those who had prior compact options. Researchers attributed the difference to the new ration’s greater energy density and ease of consumption.
“We have a long-standing saying in the food world that it’s not nutrition if it’s not eaten,” Erin Gaffney-Stomberg, chief of the Army’s Combat Feeding Division, said in the service’s announcement.
This is the central problem that is behind MREs. These shortfalls are apparent. The label describes what the military provides; it doesn’t actually tell commanders what the troops are actually eating or how much energy is burned during the day.
An MRE is still a substantial and carefully designed meal. Keeping troops fueled in the field is a multifactor problem. Matching rations to the mission, supplying extra food when demands rise and making sure there is time to eat what they carry are just a few problems that continually need to be addressed.
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