Emergency Food Ration Bars for Disaster or Survival, 2400 Calories per Pack of 12 Bars

NOTE: THE MOTO SPORTS SELLER SAYS THEIR RATIONS ARE TWO YEARS OLD BUT THEY WERE NEARLY EXPIRED (5 YEARS OLD) when I received them. Do not order these from them. Also, Closeout 123 seller did not ship until a couple weeks after ordering. Don't order from that seller either. I'm just a customer. No ties to any vendors.I ordered these and was happy to see that they had the date they were made and the expiration date printed on each package. They were not more than a week old when I received them and they are good for 5 years. I shopped around here on amazon, thought this was the best buy for rations, and am pleased with the order.OK, here is the post-trial review:I opened the package (1 of 30), it was sealed tight via air vaccum (like the coffee bags you buy at the store). It is easy to open, so you won't need a knife, etc. to do so. Inside, there are 12 bars each wrapped in a thin clear plastic. This plastic is somewhat more difficult to open. I found that when I tried to open it by hand, the ration would begin to crumble (they are quite fragile). Use a knife and the problem is solved. 12 x 30 = 360 bars per case.The bars are approx. 1" x 2" (maybe a little larger than that). They have a sandy color. They taste like a lemon cookie. Pretty good actually. I noticed an oily tasteless residue in my mouth afterwards.I noticed that they don't induce thurst as much as eating other foods. I didn't have anything to drink for another couple of hours (working outdoors and was already kinda thirsty) when I started munching on em'. I did get a little thirsty but it was much less than would be expected from eating a bag of chips (I ate about 3 bars in a two hour span). This would be good for water conservation.I ate one bar when I was pretty hungry (ya know, the working on an empty stomach and kinda shaky feeling). It did help the hunger quite a bit, but I never really felt "full." It is enough to carry on with moderate physical labor though. But don't expect to feel like you ate a full meal.Now to the nutrients listed on the package:Serving size = 1bar, so 12 servings per package (1 of 30)Per bar:200 calories3g protein27g carbohydrate.18% sodium9g total fat2g sat. fat6g mono-unsat. (I suppose this is a kind of unsaturated fat)1g poly-unsat. (another kind of unsaturated fat? these three fats add up to the total of 9 g listed as "total fat")1g cholesterolPercentage U.S. RDA for adults:Protein 7%Vitamin A 1%Vitamin C 1%Thiamine 8%Riboflavin 5%Niacin 4%For longer term food storage, I went to the LDS cannery (not a morman, but they have GREAT prices). Got a bunch of canned wheat, rice, beans, etc. Highly recommended. providentliving.orgMay God be with you my brothers, as you walk in integrity,Jason Kerrigan

I opened a package and tried some. Mildly sweet and crumbly. Kinda pairs well with coffee.

It comes vacuumed sealed in a durable packaging that's easy to open without the use of scissors or a knife. With indicators on where to open, I like this compared to other products that are easy to open that have a pre-cut notch on the side (which if mishandled, one could accidentally tear it open. This happens rarely though.)Also, the ration has 12 individually wrapped bars in it, this I very much like. For me means it's easier to keep clean, to divide and share with others.(Note: some of the bars are not wrapped perfectly, I inspected and found 4 bars partially wrapped. This I believe is normal and cannot be helped, either way it is in a vacuumed sealed package until opened.Taste is bland but it isn't bad and is bearable. The texture is 50-50 solid and brittle, so eat with care as to not drop and waste a substantial amount.No indications telling to take with water but my opinion is to eat with small amounts of water due to its nature. With this said I believe these rations are not recommended on board small boats unless one has a water filtration system or an abundance of clean drinking water.Pros:-Vacuum sealed-Durable packaging-Easy-to-Open (no tools required)-Compact and easy to store-Indiviually wrapped bars-Can be shared with others-Legible Exp. Date and Manufacture DateCons:-Bland taste-Pair with water-Not ideal on boats or out in the ocean where clean drinking water is limited/scarce.I'll be purchasing these for our van/cars in an emergency food box for long field trips on the road paired with water.

Disclaimer: I have never eaten these in a survival situation. If I do and this website survives the whole thing I'll come back and update. Because whether DATRX looks, tastes, and feels great going down is going to depend on whether you are eating your 1st or your 101st.The experts and common sense tell me you should try out survival food before you ever get around to needing it, so you'll know at least a tiny facet of what it's like to eat and eat and eat the stuff you've so responsibly stowed. A little sample won't get you the context of foraging for moose and edible evergreens in arctic winter and coming across a discarded pack of unexpired DATREX. In that context they might taste as good as a steak -- and not a moose steak, either.But I did try a few in the comfort of my own home. Honestly? Dry: no moisture there to be lugging around in your backpack or to accelerate the ingredients' decomposition while sealed in the very snug, heavyweight wrappers they're factory-packaged in. A little sweet, nothing like a dry cracker; they say it's got a little tropical flavor there, but I can't vouch for that. I want to say texture-wise, they're nothing like a granola bar -- there are very few sizable chunks of anything in them. Instead they're powdery, and hygroscopic (drying to the mouth). Supposedly you don't need water to choke one down but I have yet to demonstrate past a bite #5.If your idea of a "survival bar" has a line of tappers and a bunch of rowdy locals to rub elbows with, you clicked on the wrong website. OTOH if you want a time-tested product that's been trusted for years, stow a bunch of these, check the expiration, and set your googly calendar (or your calendar towel, in case everything goes to heck and we're back to pre-IBM days) to re-order every few years. Rotate stock every couple of years: this isn't one of those things that lasts 25 years (though even fresh out of the pack some would say it tastes like it's been around that long).I sincerely appreciate that a company has made the trade-off between taste, texture, and all those comforts against the practicalities of survival, even going to the trouble to print clear instructions about food survival and water consumption on every pack of their product. Unequivocally 5 stars for the product, price, light weight, packaging, and lucid encouragement in aggregate.