What's In Your Ration Pack?

10 March 2009

By Captain Nicola Martin, Army Dietitian

We all know that food is essential to provide us with the energy and nutrients we need every day. During training and on operations, what you eat and how frequently you eat becomes even more important to help optimise your physical and mental performance. It is also well known that food has a significant impact on morale. So during the latest tender round for products in the operational ration packs (ORPs) a real effort was made to meet both the nutrition and soldier satisfaction requirements of the ‘rat packs’.

A small study was conducted with soldiers to provide feedback about what food items are consumed most and how the ORPs may be improved. From this study we found that the most popular components of the ORPs are the main retort meals, the biscuits and the chocolate bars (no surprises there). The least popular retort meal was the Lamb and Mint Gravy.

To enhance the variety and appeal of ration packs there have been a number of changes to the main retort meals, such as flavours and size. The new flavours are: Chicken Jambalaya, Moroccan Lamb, Vegetable Tagine, Thai Chicken and Chicken Satay. Some of the main meals are now supplied by Kaweka®, a new and innovative NZ food company, based in Hawkes Bay. Their range of ‘heat & eat’ meals are available from your local supermarket and were already being bought as popular ‘jack rats’. The increased meal size from 250g to 300g was due to popular demand but has also allowed us to improve the nutrition composition of the meals by increasing the complex carbohydrate content and reducing the saturated fat.

Other improvements to the ORPs include the addition of Horleys® Replace Hydration sports drink powder (as seen in sports stores and supermarkets); Recaldent chewing gum to help prevent tooth decay; chocolate chip biscuits; scroggin mix; hand wipes; a full ingredient list with allergen statements and nutrition information; and several changes to packaging and sizes. After overwhelming requests from soldiers, cheese in a can is back to replace the soft cheese in a sachet. Initial feedback from soldiers about the recent changes has been really positive.

Recent Changes to Operational Ration Packs (ORPS)

Updated Ration Packs	Old Ration Packs	Reason for Change
Retort meal size 300g	Retort meal size 250g	Soldiers request, Enhance carbohydrate profile
New retort meals - Chicken Jambalaya, Thai Chicken, Moroccan Lamb, Vegetable Tagine, Chicken Satay	Retort meals: Beef Satay, Lamb & Mint Gravy, Vegetable Curry, Tikka Beef Masala, Chicken Curry	Provide change
Retort meals higher in carbohydrate and lower in saturated fat	Retort meals low in carbohydrate and high in saturated fat	Improve nutrition
Horleys® Replace Hydration sports drink powder	Cordial powder	Provides energy and electrolytes quickly to optimise performance
Cheese in a can (with tear-tab)	Cheese sachet	Soldiers request
Anzac and Chocolate Chip biscuits	Anzac and Ginger Nut biscuits	Provide change
Peanuts and raisins in all ORPs	Sultanas in only 1 x ORP	Provide change
Glucose sweets in all ORPs	Glucose sweets only in Menu A	Improve energy value
Recaldent chewing gum	No chewing gum	The dental gum cleans teeth and contains calcium which helps repair teeth and prevent tooth decay
2 x 13g jam sachets, 2 flavours	1 x 26g jam tube	Sharp tube corners damaged other products, Food safety improved with single serve sachets
1 x 15g Marmite sachets	1 x 15g Marmite tube
Jam and Marmite in 2 x ORPs each	Jam in 3 x ORPs, Marmite in 1	Improve variety
Onion flakes in all ORPs	Onion flakes in only 1 x ORP	Standardise condiments
Salt 2 x 1g, Pepper 2 x 1g	Salt 1x 7g, Pepper 1x 1g	User friendly, single-serve sachets
Sugar 6 x 7g	Sugar 7 x 14g	Provide room in ORPs for sports drink powder, Less wastage
6 x towelettes	No hand wipes	Improve hand hygiene pre and post meals
Full ingredient list and nutrition information panel	Nothing	Inform soldiers

Up and Coming Changes

If you are a frequent user of the ration packs you can look forward to more regular changes than there have been in the past, particularly increasing the variety of the main retort meals. New flavours may include: Thai Lamb and Potato Curry, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Smoked Salmon Risotto and Venison and Mushroom Casserole.

Potential new products currently being developed include stewed fruit and creamed rice in retort pouches.

Catering for vegetarians is difficult with the small number of ORPs we produce; however, we are currently looking at how we can provide more vegetarian main retort meals (without upsetting all the carnivores out there).

Where Do They Come From and Who Eats Them?

The ORPs are managed under contract for the NZDF by SPEL. Each individual component is hand packed at the ration store in Linton. In 2008 the NZDF purchased 57,000 ration packs and 336,000 individual hexamine tablets. This equates to 3,990,000 individual components packed into 24hr ORPs. Although the ORPs are used by all three services, Army consumed 94% of the total ORPs purchased in 2008, Air Force 4% and Navy 2%.