Re:US Army goes green-ish, wants soldiers munching on plant ...
by ChicknNuggt on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @11:08PM
(#48117339)
I would think that the animal protein sucked cause of the number of processes that it went through to be able to last years without spoiling. And seems like they aren't focus on taste on the new protein either.
Re:US Army goes green-ish, wants soldiers munching on plant ...
by tocs3 on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @11:51PM
(#48117582)
I am sure there are great arguments for the plant based food but I suspect there will be some contracts handed out to friends. It is not likely to be complained about at high levels.
Re:US Army goes green-ish, wants soldiers munching on plant ...
by aziaziazi on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @05:02AM
(#48119479)
Non-meat MRE are already tastier that meat ones (see also [0]):
> Not only did they replace military mystery MRE meat with something more appealing to eat out of an envelope, but they were actually tasty
They seems to take the processing route indeed, which is usually more appreciated if you only account for taste: most people prefer cakes than wholemeal wheat.
> Gel/semi-solid formats, dry powder mixes, [and] sauce-style components [...] gel packs stuffed with fermented mushroom protein and other nutrients
However that's a preparation choice and not a (high-prot plant-based) necessity:
- tempeh is already delicious and nutritive with two steps: cook + ferment
- patties can be made with whole seeds like hemp or pumpkin
- brewer yeast is cheap, tasty and it's just the leftover of the beer creation process.
Moreover I doubt meat-based MRE contains only meat: lack of fibers would lead to constipation which is not great on the battelfield.
Re:US Army goes green-ish, wants soldiers munching on plant ...
by jerlam on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @08:07PM
(#48129401)
> there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc
Hand wringing? Giving your army palatable and tasty food is important, when soldiers don't eat it, they perform worse at fighting. That's why the US spends so much effort on changing their menus and trying to make their heavily processed food into something that looks appetizing, like the MRE pizza that somehow lasts three years:
> The four or so vegetarian options in the overall MRE lineup were always the first to go when I was in.
> Most weren’t choosing the veggie MREs for alignment with their personal ethics so much as that they wanted a meal that didn’t suck.
there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc
* stuff/goo/extract/product/substance
> Not only did they replace military mystery MRE meat with something more appealing to eat out of an envelope, but they were actually tasty
They seems to take the processing route indeed, which is usually more appreciated if you only account for taste: most people prefer cakes than wholemeal wheat.
> Gel/semi-solid formats, dry powder mixes, [and] sauce-style components [...] gel packs stuffed with fermented mushroom protein and other nutrients
However that's a preparation choice and not a (high-prot plant-based) necessity: - tempeh is already delicious and nutritive with two steps: cook + ferment - patties can be made with whole seeds like hemp or pumpkin - brewer yeast is cheap, tasty and it's just the leftover of the beer creation process.
Moreover I doubt meat-based MRE contains only meat: lack of fibers would lead to constipation which is not great on the battelfield.
0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119293
Hand wringing? Giving your army palatable and tasty food is important, when soldiers don't eat it, they perform worse at fighting. That's why the US spends so much effort on changing their menus and trying to make their heavily processed food into something that looks appetizing, like the MRE pizza that somehow lasts three years:
https://www.tastingtable.com/2058307/how-military-mre-pizza-...