Taste test: Panel tries 12 new items for MREs - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Taste test: Panel tries 12 new items for MREs

Connoisseurs of combat cuisine, get ready for change. Meals, Ready-to-Eat will soon have 12 new items for you to taste, trade and mix together.

And three other items — beef pot roast with vegetables, Sloppy Joe filling and cornbread stuffing — have been canned.

Here’s what you can expect to see:

• Jalapeno pepper jack beef patty

• Beef taco filling

• White-wheat snack bread

• Oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie

• Chocolate-filled chocolate pound cake

• Barbecue almonds

• Ketchup

• Mustard

• Lemon iced tea in an ergonomically designed, zip-featured drink pouch

• Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry banana-flavored trans-fat-free dairy shakes.

But keep your taste buds in check. Troops won’t see the new items for more than a year, said Jeremy Whitsitt, a technology integration analyst for the Defense Department’s Combat Feeding Directorate. Suppliers need that time to do production studies and retool equipment.

Army Times took samples of the new items to the Pentagon for a multiservice taste test. Members of all four services tried the new items and rated them. The beef taco filling proved to be a big hit, and many said they would trade to get it. The white-wheat snack bread, which testers described as “tasty” and “moist” also scored high, as did the oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie.

“It has really good-sized chocolate chips in it,” said Army Staff Sgt. Denises Veitia, a chaplain’s assistant and confessed chocoholic. Army Sgt. Joseph Bills, who is headed to the 101st Airborne Division, said he would have preferred white chocolate macadamias, but he is not holding his breath.

Maj. Richelle Dowdell, an Air Force public affairs officer, would have preferred the cookie be a little more moist, but said it had a “good, sweet flavor.”

The team also applauded the inclusion of ketchup and mustard — as long as they don’t replace Tabasco sauce.

“Those are fighting words,” Bills said.

Testers were moderate in their reviews of the jalapeno pepper jack beef patty. Most said it tasted like jalapeno cheese and would be a good covering for other food. Capt. Ian Phillips, an Air Force media affairs officer, was the exception. He gave it a top score and gladly ate what the other testers had set aside.

The chocolate-filled chocolate pound cake proved to be a letdown. Most gave the moist cake a top rating when they saw it, but the head shakes and shrugs that followed told a different story.

“It left a bad aftertaste in my mouth,” said Yeoman 2nd Class Robert Perry, who is assigned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. “It tasted like stale chocolate.”

The filling was the culprit, the testers said, adding that the cake had a “decent taste.”

Lance Cpl. John Baxley was not as kind.

“I would eat this in the field, but nowhere else on earth,” the administrative clerk said.

The milkshakes were met with hesitation. The packages require six ounces of water, aided by a fill line on the package. A resealable closure enabled a thorough mixture. When it was time to take the plunge, the panel expressed a love-hate relationship. They loved the chocolate and hated the vanilla.

The chocolate shake had a good taste, no aftertaste and a consistency similar to a good protein shake, the testers said. Phillips was the lone dissenter but only because he would prefer water. Baxley was moderate in his review, noting that the shake had 47 grams of sugar and 17 grams of protein, which he called “ridiculous.”

Vanilla, on the other hand, scored lower than any other item. Bills described the taste as “sweet paste.” Baxley asked for a canteen to wash the taste out of his mouth. Veitia was a step ahead of him and was already chugging water.

The panel was indifferent on the addition of barbecue almonds, although most said they would have preferred regular almonds.

Go, Sloppy Joe

The testers agreed with the removal of two out of the three items.

For starters, they didn’t care that the cornbread stuffing was removed because only Perry could remember ever eating it. And he was happy to see it go because “it caused everyone to hit the bathroom at the same time.”

The group was also happy to see the Sloppy Joe filling go — an item Bills said was so bad that he avoided it based solely on what others told him.

But the removal of the beef pot roast with vegetables did not sit well among the group.

“You got meat, veggies and gravy — that thing had it all,” an upset Bills said.

“I never traded that one,” Veitia said. “I was thrilled if I pulled that in a grab-and-go.”

Phillips and Perry called it “one of the best,” describing it as a hearty meal that filled you up.

Even Baxley, who is now a vegetarian, said this was a bad move.

“I ate it before becoming a vegetarian. It was a good evening meal, as close to home as you could get,” he said.

The panelists offered a few suggestions: Get rid of the “dreaded omelet” and provide more variety in the vegetarian meals. And in recognition of the age-old mantra of the “Meals, Refusing to Exit,” Baxley asked that the directorate add fiber pills, a suggestion that received immediate support.

“Absolutely,” Bills said. “I mean, it’s like things are going on strike down there every time I eat.”