Tested! We have tested this product - see details below.

Our food ration packs are purpose designed for survival situations and produced by a specialist Survival food manufacturer in the USA. This product is called Mainstay 3600 and has a 5 year shelf life. It provides 3 days of emergency food rations for one person and contains all the nutrients required for survival. We have tested this product for both taste and how it may fulfil hunger pangs if no other food is available. See the full test results at the bottom of this page.

Mainstay 3600 attributes

• 5 year shelf life (from date of manufacture)
• Non-thirst provoking
• Withstands temperatures -40 F to 300 F(-40 C to 149 C)
• Ready to Eat: Each package contains 9 pre-measured 400 calorie meals.
• Individualized Portions eliminate the messy breaking-up that occurs with other bars
• Allows for on-land emergency consumption in a high-stress active situation.
• Contains no cholesterol or tropical oils.
• Meets the US Coast Guard standards (160.046/23/0). Its new modern packaging even meets the stringent guidelines set by the Department of Defence (SOLAS 74/83).
• Enriched with vitamins and minerals exceeding the RDA requirements.
• Pleasant lemon flavour which appeals to everyone.
• Mainstay is Kosher and it meets the dictates for Halal
• Test results

The first thing to remember about these ration packs is that they are for serious survival situations. That means that you and your family have found yourselves in a serious emergency situation where you have no access to any other food source.

Questions we are often asked is "What does it taste like?",  "Are you left feeling hungry?" and "Is it a real meal?"
Well we decided to do a test and ONLY eat the food rations for 24 hours and only drink water (not any sugary drinks etc).

This is what was found:-
On opening the 3 day ration pack one is presented with 9 cubes that each represent a meal. Each cube looks like a very dense biscuit and is about 5 cm x 4.5 cm x 2.5 cm.
I was feeling hungry and was wondering if one of these cubes would keep me going until the next one. I was very impressed by what I found.
The ration bar smelled and tasted slightly lemony, it was like eating a shortbread biscuit. It was also fairly rich and I found that it was best eaten over a period of 10-15 minutes (this is a good survival tactic, if you don't have a lot of food, eat slowly). Because the ration  bar is fairly dense and rich I soon found that my feeling of hunger subsided. I ate the bar and drank some water with it over a period of 15 minutes. After this "breakfast" I was fully satisfied and did not feel hungry again for 5 hours! This was very impressive. The same happened on subsequent "meals", I felt good all day and did not crave for anything else.

The company who produces these ration bars state that only 2 cubes per day are needed in marine (liferaft) situations and 3 per day on land. The reason for this is the amount of calories you will be burning. If you are sitting around and not using much energy you will not need the full calorie intake.

Conclusion

These emergency food rations are excellent for what they have been designed for, which means they are an excellent option for your own emergency kit. They tasted good and removed any feeling of hunger whilst providing all the nutrients I needed. They are very compact and easy to store or carry in your grab-and-go kit. You don't have to worry about storing a huge volume of tinned food etc which has a very limited (normally 1 year max) shelf life. These ration packs are also in a sealed foil packet which appears to make them waterproof. I believe that this product is one of the best available on the market to provide a compact emergency food supply for emergency kits.

During the 24 hour test period I drank just under 3 litres of water. I was not doing physical exercise and it was winter. In the summer, or if doing exercise more water would probably be required.

Tested by Rod Hall, Director, Survive-it Limited.