No one joins the Army for the food, but even career soldiers can get a little sick of carrying around bulky, tasteless Meals-Ready-To-Eat (MREs) like "Spaghetti with Meat Sauce." So Army food officials decided to create a new food for soldiers, something that can stay shelf-stable for years on end and be at least somewhat palatable. Their solution? A sandwich. A sandwich that can stay fresh for two freaking years.
The BBQ chicken sandwich is made with ingredients (like honey and salt) that help trap water—and therefore moisture, which causes decay—in the food itself, and packaged in a mainly airtight bag that's filled with a little packet of iron shavings, aka "oxygen scavengers," to soak up leftover moisture and oxygen. It's called the tough-sounding "First Strike Ration," and here's a video explaining how it gets made in more detail, in which one taste-tester soldier describes it as "the best two-year-old sandwich I've ever had. And better than a lot of new ones, too." But still not as good as this four-year-old McDonald's cheeseburger.
