As part of rotating my get home bag, I've swapped out the 4 year old (but not expired) lifeboat rations. This package has been in the car for several years now so it's gone through hundreds of heat/cold cycles, been frozen, been 'cooked' to whatever temp cars get to in the summer, etc. Figured I should know if it's at all edible after that.
The package was still nicely sealed, no drama there. Opened it up and took the brick out:
Had a faint smell of vanilla, like a really really old powerbar. When I went to cut it into pieces it was very crumbly:
I tried a bit of it, and honestly it was 'fine', as long as you had some water to go with it. It says "non-thirst provoking", but they lie. If you were hungry, this would not be difficult to eat at all (again, provided you had a beverage).
I took some of it to the club and got two other people to try it. One normal person and one who likes putting bayonets on things. Both of them agreed that it was edible in a pinch. So far, none of us have died, but we only ate a bite each.
Anyway, it passed the edible test after those years, so I'll refresh with new now and know that I have actual food in my bag and not just a brick of bait.
The package was still nicely sealed, no drama there. Opened it up and took the brick out:
Had a faint smell of vanilla, like a really really old powerbar. When I went to cut it into pieces it was very crumbly:
I tried a bit of it, and honestly it was 'fine', as long as you had some water to go with it. It says "non-thirst provoking", but they lie. If you were hungry, this would not be difficult to eat at all (again, provided you had a beverage).
I took some of it to the club and got two other people to try it. One normal person and one who likes putting bayonets on things. Both of them agreed that it was edible in a pinch. So far, none of us have died, but we only ate a bite each.
Anyway, it passed the edible test after those years, so I'll refresh with new now and know that I have actual food in my bag and not just a brick of bait.
