From Military.com:
“The Incredible Shrinking MRE:
New Tech Zaps Rations into a Third Their Normal Size”
Soldiers of the future may be
eating bacon and egg breakfasts via tiny food bars, due to a new technology
that shrinks meals to a fraction of their normal size. Think sous vide, but for
tactical quiches that may end up in your next Meal, Ready to Eat. One dish
begins with bacon, egg, cheese and heavy cream. The ingredients are inserted
into a vacuum microwave dryer for 80 minutes of shrinkage. The result: a bar
that's smaller than a Snicker's candy bar but with twice as many calories --
and much more nutrition. "A complete meal in a bar, that's my goal,"
said Tom Yang, senior food technologist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier
Research, Development, and Engineering Center. Yang and other food scientists
at Natick are researching the Army's new generation of portable rations. On the
menu of the future are MRE pizzas, portable fruit, and a light-weight ration
for soldiers on the go. Yang's bars may soon be found in the new Close Combat
Assault Ration (CCAR), which is supposed to contain three times the nutrition
of a normal MRE while being lighter and smaller. Prototypes for the new ration
are about one-third the weight of similar MREs, an Army statement said. The
military is trying to figure out how to feed small, isolated units who may go
up to a week without resupply, Yang said. Currently, a soldier would need 21
MREs to survive that week. "No one wants to carry that much MREs,"
Yang said. "The No. 1 feedback from the field: We need to be able to
reduce the weight." The secret for losing weight -- for food, if not the
people who eat it -- may be a technology known as vacuum-microwave drying. This
method involves placing food into a dryer, sucking all the air out of the
container and then dehydrating the food until it shrinks. In a vacuum, water
boils at a much lower temperature than normal. While different in many ways to
the increasingly popular sous vide method of cooking, the two techniques both
use vacuum sealing to give cooks more control over the process and cook at
lower temperatures. In vacuum-microwave drying, the food is cooked at 30
degrees Celsius, or essentially room temperature, which means less exposure to
harsh temperatures that could make everything tough or powdery. The mildness of
the drying also means the food does not lose as much nutrition. The goal, Yang said,
is to create MRE bacon that is springy like a raisin, not dry like beef jerky. The
Army believes the new technology will result in rations with fresher-tasting
fruits and vegetables. A vacuumed microwaved banana is about a third of its
original size while still being springy and pliable -- not hard like a fully
dehydrated banana chip, according to a military press release. It listed other
items in the new rations, including a tart cherry nut bar, cheddar cheese bar,
mocha dessert bar, vacuum-dried strawberries, fruit and nut trail mix, Korean
barbeque stir fry, spinach quiche and French toast. Yang said he recently
shrunk cheesecake into portable bar form, which made him happy. He noted that
while the technology has been around for decades, the shrinking machines used
to be too large and bulky. But as the dryers have shrunk, their utility has
grown. The new, lighter rations may prove incredibly useful in wars
increasingly fought by small, highly mobile units, said Anastacia Marx de
Salcedo, author of "Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the
Way You Eat." "Every ounce counts in a backpack you'll be carrying
for three or more days," she said. Marx de Salcedo keeps up with military
food innovation and the ways the technology and foods reach the public. She
noted the Army has tried other forms of shrinking food in the past, sometimes
to not so great results. "It reminds me of another feeding system the Army
thought was going to be a big hit back in the 1950s and 60s: freeze
dehydration, which removes almost all water. Boy, were they wrong," she
said. The new vacuum-dried rations may prove more edible, but Marx de Salcedo
pointed out that the new CCAR hasn't been field tested yet. Usually, it takes
about three to five years for a prototype to leave Natick and end up in the
hands (and bellies) of soldiers in the field, Yang said. So far, taste tests
have given high marks among volunteers, he said, although formal evaluations
have not begun. Scientists are still testing whether the new bars will be able
to stay fresh for a required three years. The Close Combat Assault Rations will
not be replacing MREs, Yang said. Instead, the new rations are a successor to
the First Strike Ration, an attempt from 2009 to provide lightweight nutrition
for soldiers fighting in the field. While famed for their caffeinated beef
jerky, Zapplesauce and Ranger Bars, low demand for the First Strike Ration in
comparison with the MRE led the Defense Logistics Agency to halt procurement,
Yang said. The Close Combat Assault Ration, and the exotic shrunken bars
contained within them, represent another attempt by Army food scientists at
creating lightweight and hopefully edible nutrition. "My concern,"
Yang said, "is to find any good tech with sound scientific ways that will
benefit soldiers."
^ This could be a real
game-changer in the field if it withstands the taste test. ^
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