Mainstay Emergency Food Rations. One Pack.

I ordered this lifeboat ration - emergency food ration - to sample. Tasted OK, crumbly texture that mostly held together while eating, a little on the sweet side. Actually, it is exactly what I was expecting after reading online reviews. Package was easy to open and had a zip lock seal for left overs. My only minor issue is the lot number and manufacture date were too worn to read. Since this was a sample to pass around to family, that did not matter. It would be a problem if intended for long term storage. For the same size and price as one MRE, you can have three days of food. MRE's should be stored at reasonable temperatures. I intend to put this type of ration in my car trunk as part of my 72 hour bag. Not a problem with this food product.

Purchased from bigflysports. Shipped promptly. Item is exactly what it is. Very happy with the shelf life, I purchased 2 packs and both were manufactured 3/14, expiry 3/19, so I received a very fresh product with a lot of shelf life remaining. I had no problem with the seal being broken.Tasted the same product in an old 2400 calorie pack that expired. Tastes like lemon sugar cookies. I like it but your preference may differ.While most emergency rations offer comparable price, calorie count and density, I chose this specific emergency ration due to having more vitamins and nutrients from my research.

When most people buy these they put them in their pack or car and never taste them as they're meant to be opened only in emergencies or perhaps at the end of their shelf life.I was in a position to taste these as unfortunately the order came in the same box as 2 heavy pans and the integrity of the vacuum seal was compromised. This is a critical thing to verify- the package should be strongly adhering to the contents and outlining their shape with no movement at all. If there's any play in the foil the package seal has been compromised.I opened the package and tasted part of one brick. Despite having a sweetner they are pretty bland- they taste mostly like very dense flour and just a slight hint of sweetness. No real flavor. In colder weather you may have to break them up with your hand as biting them can be tough.They are what they are and good to have in your car or hiking pack for an emergency. Just make sure you get a vacuum sealed pack when they arrive.I think the 3 pack which is 1200 calories is more practical for hiking as it's pretty small and easy to stuff somewhere.

It has a sweet taste similar to that of a sugar cookie. It is very dense and crumbles but not as bad as other similar products.

I'm an old boy scout, heart and soul. My motto is "be prepared". Emergencies are just that- something unforeseen that "emerges" upon us when we least expect it. Better to have something and not need it, than to need something and not have it. You can't always take a pantry of canned food with you everywhere you go, and the case of MRE's in your truck may be a long way down the trail when the SHTF. But you can throw this in a daypack and have a 3-day emergency food ration for a much smaller space than 6 MRE's.I carry this in a Camelbak M.U.L.E. with some Polar Pure water purification crystals, an Aquamira emergency filter straw, a lockback knife, compass, Mag-lite, Swedish Firesteel, Tinder-quik, and a AMK heatsheets bivvy. There's still room for some extras and a compact packable rain jacket.That's food, water and shelter for a good 3-7 days if you know what you're doing.This product may taste like lemony sheet-rock, but it will keep you alive and moving if need be. If you're a LOTR fan, just pretend it's Lembas. Religious folks can pretend it's manna. Time comes to use it, you'll think it's heavenly.

In the case of the product I received, it was obvious the package labeling has been intentionally tampered with.These items have a 5-year shelf life. The area on the package where the manufacturing date is supposed to be listed had been marked out with a black marker and covered over with a permanent-stick barcode instead. There is no way to determine when these were produced... or the expiration date.These facts tell me these are out-of-date packages being sold for brand-new price. 1 star on both product and merchant.*I contacted Amazon and was assured this is not how they conduct business (a sentiment with which I totally agree; Amazon rocks) and a refund immediately issued, along with assurance they'd check into the matter. I have no doubt of it.* Further on the product:Because of the circumstance and weight of item I was not required to return it. Amazon told me to "do whatever I wished with it". So I held on to it for a couple of weeks and just forgot it for the time being. When I returned to examine the item, as others have reported I noticed the vacuum seal had failed. The item appeared to be filled with air and no longer secure. Apparently the mylar covering on this isn't all that strong, which was somewhat surprising. So I opened the package to examine it out of curiosity. Here's what I found:Being primarily flour, sugar and shortening it was still "good" as far as edibility. Rather than "cookies" the package contained nine 2x2" cubes which resembled and tasted like very dense cornbread. As others report, it's palatable (even relatively "tasty") but I honestly would not wish to try to survive on this for three days or more. It would get old (as in tiring) very fast. Agreed it's supposedly "emergency" rations... but I can assure that after living on this for three days one would not be in "good" condition. Aside from the flour, this consisting of large amounts of sugar and hydrogenated fat would cause relatively serious metabolism problems. The sugar would provide some quick energy, but the majority of it would metabolize into fat. The shortening would be largely non-digestible and have very little (if any) "food" value. The flour being enriched would not provide the nutritional value of whole wheat. So very honestly speaking, this would be like living for 3 days on high-fat sugar cookies.In comparison I bought a package of quality trail mix that had a "use-by" date of some 2 years (after all, it's primarily nuts, roasted soy beans and dehydrated fruit). I found I could do very well on a small amount of trail mix (which is why it's called trail mix in the first place; it's meant to munch while hiking). One could actually eat a small handful of trail mix every hour or two and be fairly satisfied nutritionally, even for three days or more. Supplement that with some beef or turkey jerky (which last ages) and one would have fairly light-weight and nutritional emergency rations.So having compared these "emergency rations" with other options, I find the other options greatly preferable. The supposed "5 year shelf life" on these packets are highly questionable. These aren't "C rations"; they strike me as basically being mass-marketed and questionably-presented junk food (well, considering the amount of hydrogenated fat... worse than junk food).This is one of those cases of "let the buyer beware". I recommend both reading the nutrition labels... and then try buying some trail mix and jerky and see how well it does in a test situation. I think one will find the alternatives far more appetizing and satisfying. This product not only failed to impress... it lost on all counts of examination (shelf life, vacuum seal, extended-use desirability, reliable longevity and nutrition).Let's be totally honest here: I wouldn't want to rely on this stuff for nourishment unless I was starving and there were no rats to hunt. ;)I don't often give products only one star. This is a DEFINITE one star, both in product quality (or lack thereof) and merchant deceptive practice.(And no... I'm not "competition" dissing a product... as my numerous other reviews will prove. Legitimate review and legitimate findings. This is just a plain ol' bad product.)