MREuse by dates

[bungee]

Hey there.
I got a big bag of MRE's for Christmas from a friend who brought them cheap from someone with a surplus.
They generally have a use by date of Aug 2017 on them. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of storing them and how long they will last past this date? Should I treat them as I would any other packaged food and assume they will prob be ok for a few months after the date or can they last longer cos of how they're packaged?

[featherstick]

"months"?

I've used commercially-produced tins YEARS after their BBE date without ill effect. I think MREs will remain as "edible" as they ever were for long after the BBE.

[ForgeCorvus]

I flexed my Google.

This help?
http://www.mreinfo.com/mres/mre-shelf-life/

[sniper 55]

I've used some years past the date, but a lot will depend on the MRE, some makes fare better than others, Eastern block rat packs tend to have a lot of crackers in them, these usually go soft (frequently inside the use dates) and some of the meals contain a lot of fat sort of stuff that can get dodgy. Freeze dried should keep ageas past the date. British ready to eat stuff I've eaten about 3 years after date, still tasted good. I remember one lot of British rations were left over from the Suez crise in 1956, we had them back in the 1970's (issued) the tinned stuff was ok in those, and the biscuits if I remember rightly.

[bungee]

These are all ready to eat / heat up type meals. British I think. Choc sponge pud, pasta meatballs, all day breakfast etc.