JIG Exclusive: Kosher MRE Taste Test

One of the most popular topics among Jews in the military is kashrut and more specifically, kosher rations. Here at Jews in Green, we regularly receive several hits a week from people searching for kosher MREs on Google. I wrote a brief article on kosher MREs as one of the first stories on Jews in Green, but I’ve come to realize that a much more thorough discussion was required. So the staff here at Jews in Green (with the help of some active duty taste testers) put the two main offerings for kosher MREs to the test. Read the full article to see how they matched up, and details on how you can obtain the meals. A great deal of work went into arranging kosher rations for the military, so I’m going to take a little time to spotlight the efforts and challenges faced in doing so. If you just want to see the taste test results, click here. Article contents:

• About the Companies
• The Taste Test
• In Summary
• Ordering Info
• Kashrut Information

About the Companies

My Own Meals During Desert Storm, several food companies were asked to prepare kosher rations for the US military. The only one to step up to the plate was MyOwnMeals (MoM). When the war ended quickly, the military cancelled its request, but MoM pursued it stating that just because the war was over, the need did not dissipate. Mary Anne Jackson, the president and founder of MoM, spent the next 5 years personally fighting with the military daily to get the program in place and approved. Then from 1995 to 1996 she again fought for the right to bid on the program they created. MoM spent about a million dollars creating and testing meals just to get the program in place, not knowing if the military would ever order even one case! The program took a change in law from Congress, the rallying of Jewish organizations, the involvement of Jewish servicemen and chaplains and the unanimous agreement of 7 military agencies to agree to try a new logistics and product approach. So, on January 16, 1996, in Washington, all 7 agencies agreed.

One of our conditions was that it does not matter if there is one Jew in the military or thousands. We would ship as few as one case to as many as needed to make sure that one soldier would get his/her kosher meals or as many as needed. We have never missed or been late for one delivery. The military required that ALL US Surgeon General Nutritional requirements be met for an active soldier’s use and that they had to pass many taste tests, field tests, etc. all which cost us money.

Mary Anne regularly emails and meets with procurement officers – even overseas, like the commander of the 5th fleet at a meeting in Abu Dhabi. She retired last year after 8 years on the Board of Directors and Chairwoman of the Research & Development Associates – an industry and military organization of all companies and military personnel involved in logistics or food preparation for military everywhere. In October 2003, the military presented her with the highest award and medal for Patriotic Service for civilians. The company was also recognized with an award for outstanding performance during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi freedom. Click here to see a letter published in Jewish Week related to MoM’s effort to assure about 200 soldiers had Passover meals this year.

There is a lot of personal history in this program. But with every meal we sell to the government to send to a soldier, we feel great accomplishment in its very existence. All of us here have been in the food industry and executives doing huge deals, but all these accomplishments pale compared to what we accomplished in this program.

The meals offered by MoM are: My Kind of Chicken, Chicken Mediterranean, Chicken & Noodles, Chicken & black Beans, Beef Stew, Old World Stew, Pasta with Garden Vegetables, Vegetarian Stew, Cheese Tortellini, and Florentine Lasagna. La Briute La Briute (which means to your health), a relative newcomer to kosher rations for the military, has been making kosher meals for “busy-moms, lazy-dads, travelers, vacationers, and desk-lunchers” for a little over 2 years years (although, their parent company has been making meals for 10+ years). Their raison d’tre is the belief that the Kosher consumer is no less entitled to the latest opportunities and conveniences available to the broader consumer market. For close to a decade, Euro-Cut has integrated contemporary innovations in food production, packaging and preparation technologies into the Kosher food sector. Although they do not have a contract with the military, La Briute has shipped thousands of meals to service members across the U.S. and overseas. The meals are currently available to military personnel at a “substantially subsidized” cost through the Jewish Soldier Foundation for “as long as we reasonably can,” said Meyer Futersak director of marketing for Labriute Meals. He is also currently pursuing various efforts to have La Briute meals distributed more widely and regularly to military bases worldwide. La Briute meals are the ration of choice for The Jewish Soldier Foundation and have received numerous letters recognizing their service to the military. Since La Briute meals must be privately purchased, there must be a reason that some people would choose them over the standard issued rations. The opinion from the fans of the meals seem to be that the taste is the deciding factor. CPT Moshe Scheinfeld wrote a very flattering email in support of La Briute:

I have had my share of La Briute meals since being deployed to Iraq. My mother and several friends have sent them to me and they have been a godsend. They are much, much tastier than the Kosher MRE meals that the Army provides (and which I’ve not be able to get). As I send, La Briute has been a godsend. The meals are so tasty that I would eat them (the meatballs and spaghetti) when I get back to the U.S. and I can have any food I want. That’s how good this meal is.

You can read the full email here The meals offered by La Briute are: Beef Stew Vegetables, Chicken Primavera with Noodles,Turkeyand Mashed Potatoes and gravy, Cheese Ravioli in Italion Tomato Sauce, Meatballs and Spaghetti, and Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage in sweet raisin tomato sauce. There’s only one way to find out if the rations live up to the hype. So we decided to put the meals to the test and see what options are the best for you!

The Test

We obtained three meals (one meat, one dairy, and one parve) from each supplier. The meals from La Briute are the exact same entrees that you could order from their website or a third party supplier. The meals from My Own Meals are identical to the ones available through supply, except for minor packaging differences and a 2oz size difference in the main entree (the issued meals are larger). The meals also did not ship with a heating pouch. The reason for the minor discrepancy is due to their shipping policies. However, I did not feel it was enough to make a significant difference in the test. Five people participated in the taste testing. Three of us Marines, who have had more than our share of MREs to compare them to, and two civilians (our spouses) to act as “uninitiated” subjects. We rated each meal by taste, texture, and overall satisfaction on a scale from 1(bad) to 5(great). In addition, each company was given an overall rating in the same categories as well as rated on presentation and packaging. We tested the the parve and dairy meals for lunch and the meat meals for dinner the same day. Dairy Meal

My Own MealsFlorentine Lasagna	La BriuteCheese Ravioli in Italian Tomato Sauce
Taste: 4	Taste: 4
Texture: 5	Texture: 3
Overall: 4	Overall: 4

Comments: The lasagna tasted similar to Spagettios, or other similar canned Italian food, but the texture of the pasta was as good as something cooked in a pot at home. The cheese ravioli had a particularly sweet taste, and the texture of the cheese filling could have been a little better.

Parve Meal

My Own MealsPasta With Garden Vegetables	La BriuteVegetarian Stuffed Cabbage
Taste: 4	Taste: 4
Texture: 5	Texture: 4
Overall: 4	Overall: 4

 

Comments: The pasta meal was similar to the lasagna with a vegetable-soup-like sauce. The stuffed cabbage had a nice texture (for soy meat substitute) with a pleasant sweet sauce. Both of the parve meals seemed to fare pretty well. There were some differences in opinion on the stuffed cabbage meal, but that was probably due more to preconceived ideas about stuffed cabbage than anything else. One tester wrote, “The vegetarian stuffed cabbage is pretty good, but perhaps too austere for your average warrior. However, the field will make one eat things one normally wouldn’t consider.” Meat Meal

My Own MealsChicken Mediterranean	La BriuteMeatballs & Spaghetti
Taste: 2	Taste: 5
Texture: 2	Texture: 5
Overall: 2	Overall: 5

Comments: The meat meal was a slam dunk for La Briute. While the chicken was a little stringy, and the chickpeas a bit too firm, the spaghetti and meatballs were good enough to eat on a regular basis. One tester wrote, “. Labriute runs away with this category. The meatballs are good enough for weekly consumption and the overall presentation would be a morale booster at meal time.”

Overall Comparison

My Own Meals	La Briute
Taste: 4	Taste: 4
Texture: 4	Texture: 4
Overall: 4	Overall: 4
Presentation/Packaging: 4	Presentation/Packaging: 4

 

Comments: Both outfits produce quality products that offer more palatable selections than their non-kosher counterparts. It’s hard to really compare the packaging, since the MoM meals are shipped to troops in different packaging, so we mainly rated the presentation rather than the packaging. The La Briute meals are packaged very nicely and each come with cookies, salt water (for the heating element), a wetnap, and a soup packet (which must be heated on its own). It is a very nice little package, although it might be a little more difficult to “field strip” than foil packets. It should be noted that MoM has 10 different meals, and La Briute has 6 different meals.

In Summary

In the end it really did come out to be a tie. It is clear that both companies produce an excellent product. After a decade of eating MREs (mostly non-kosher) I can confidently say that both brands are FAR better than any standard issue MRE. All three of the military testers agreed on this point. One of the non-Jewish testers even joked about converting for the better food! Each company has its plusses though. It’s hard to beat the free option from My Own Meals (if ordered through your supply system). If you are on a year-long deployment, out of pocket expenses could get high with La Briute meals. However, Labriute’s meat meals are clearly ahead of MoM when it comes to taste and texture, and it is nice to have soup and a snack included in the meals. Since there is NEVER such a thing as too much variety when it comes to field rations, supplementing your issued rations with meals from La Briute would seem to be a good idea. If you need to purchase meals with your own money, La Briute is the way to go. MoM may be a little better suited for larger orders, but the only way to get the field rations (with heater and accessory pack) is to order it through the supply system. La Briute meals can be purchased for about $7 each, and MoM meals (main meal only) start at $8 and can get as low as $6.67 if you order 30 cases or more (of 12 meals each). Any orders less than a case must be ordered through a third party supplier. Again, I have to stress that the best way to order MoM meals is through the supply system.

Ordering Info

La Briute meals can be ordered directly from the manufacturer HERE. My Own Meals can also be ordered from the manufacturer by the case HERE, or individually at Kosherbyte.com. The exact procedure to order MoM meals through the supply system is unique to each service, but we can provide you with some general information to get the ball rolling. The NSN for the Kosher Ration is 8970-01-424-1996. Always check the DLA website for the most up to date information though.

The point of contact at the DLA is 215-737-3688 (DSN: 444-3688).

Kashrut Information*

My Own Meals Hashgacha: Organization of Orthodox Kashruth Supervision, Established 1957. Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik, ztl, founding Halalchic Authority. Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik Mashgiach timidi actively participate in cooking process. Meat is always glatt. Beef (Agri-Processors-Rabashkin) is Broyers (KAJ), Margareten or Lubavitch. Chicken (Vineland Kosher Poultry) is O-U. Grains used follow the laws of Chodosh . La Briute Complementing our supervision by the nationally acclaimed Kof-K certifying agency, our production carries the personal hashgocha of Rabbi Shiya Katz , and is always Bishul Yisroel -Bais Yoseph . Rabbi Katz, the respected Magreve Rav is a senior member of the Central Rabbinical Congress (Hisachdus) and his kosher supervision is highly regarded and revered amongst the most uncompromising consumers. All Meats are all Glatt and of Chassidishe Shechita, and all leafy greens or other possibly infested produce are meticulously inspected. * According to the companies’ websites.