The US military has devised a way to ensure its troops in battle need never go hungry - with dried food that can by rehydrated using dirty water or urine.
The meal comes in a pouch that filters out 99.9% of bacteria and most toxic chemicals, says New Scientist magazine.
The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry.
The firm behind it says soldiers should only use urine as last resort - as the membrane can not filter out urea, which in the long term causes kidney damage.
"The pouch - containing chicken and rice - relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine," the New Scientist Magazine reported.
The liquid passes through a membrane, thin sheets of a cellulose-based plastic with gaps just 0.5 nanometres wide.
It means only clean water can reach the food, and the bacteria is left behind.
'Indestructible sandwich'
The idea has come from the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.
The organisation is also the brains behind the "indestructible sandwich", which can stay fresh for three years.
A spokeswoman said the dehydrated pouches would reduce the current weight of 3.5kg for a day's food supply of three meals, to 0.4kg.
But Hydration Technology Inc, in Albany, Oregon, which made the membrane, warned it is too coarse to filter out urea so soldiers should only use urine in an absolute emergency.
Engineer Ed Beaudry was quoted by the New Scientist as saying that the body would not find using urine to rehydrate food toxic in the short term, but in the long term it would cause kidney damage.
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But Hydration Technology Inc, in Albany, Oregon, which made the membrane, warned it is too coarse to filter out urea so soldiers should only use urine in an absolute emergency.
Somehow I doubt the military will have a problem with people using urine when other water sources are available.
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If you mean "supposed to be", then yes. However, the anatomy is not sterile, especially when you've been out in the field long enough that you're worried about preparing food with your own urine.
Probably an acquired taste. I bet the "watersports" crowd love it though.
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IIRC, US MREs are 100% hydrated, rather than dehydrated, because
WHAT IF you are pinned under fire and can't reach water?
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IIRC, US MREs are 100% hydrated, rather than dehydrated, because
WHAT IF you are pinned under fire and can't reach water?
You are going to be reaching for your MRE instead of your machine gun while you are being pinned under fire?
Yeah, MRE IIRC are hydrated. Unfortunately, that means they are heavy. 3kg plus of weight savings per day of food is a real potential plus, assuming you are in a place where freshwater is available, so you aren't just carrying that 3kg in extra water supplies.
IIRC a M16 magazine is about 1 pound. So that's about 6 more mags there, with 180 more chances to kill the enemy. Or you can just carry 200+ rounds without the mag.
Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote:You are going to be reaching for your MRE instead of your machine gun while you are being pinned under fire?
*sighs*
What if your unit is trapped by enemy fire, and cannot reach a water
source? You're going to appreciate the hydrated food that each
MRE is when you get hungry comes.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote:You are going to be reaching for your MRE instead of your machine gun while you are being pinned under fire?
*sighs*
What if your unit is trapped by enemy fire, and cannot reach a water
source? You're going to appreciate the hydrated food that each
MRE is when you get hungry comes.
I knew what you really meant. I was just half-joking at your choice of words.
Anyway, if I'm beseiged, and I have no water, and no real hope of rescue coming anytime soon, lack of edible food would be the least of my problems.
Tribun wrote:Why don't they drink thier own piss? It would lower the costs for drinks.
But now serious, if there is a way to make Soldiers angy, it is such bullshit.
Notice that the designers repeatedly stress that hydrating with urine is specifically set off to be a last resort if you can't get any other water supply for it. The idea is to make sure you have edible food no matter what, not to encourage soldiers to pee on their food.
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Iceberg wrote:Notice that the designers repeatedly stress that hydrating with urine is specifically set off to be a last resort if you can't get any other water supply for it. The idea is to make sure you have edible food no matter what, not to encourage soldiers to pee on their food.
Though it would no doubt be a really nasty prank to play on the newbies.
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Alyrium Denryle wrote:From a scientific standpoint this is actually pretty damn cool. Hell, the menbrane itself could be used to filter drinking water in a pinch.
Except it doesn't filter Urea.
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That's it, I'm switching to the Air Force, where the expectation for absolute worst case scenarios is having bottled water with your catered meal, rather than Champagne.
Seriously, the MRE already loses its appeal after about the second one of any given flavor(and that's the tasty meals, there's meal selections which would probably have me cutting bits off of our KIAs in the field), I can't imagine how pissing on it is going to make resorting to cannibalism seem like the less attractive option.
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IIRC, US MREs are 100% hydrated, rather than dehydrated, because
WHAT IF you are pinned under fire and can't reach water?
they are hydrated, except there was one or two meals that came with dehydrated fruit, but to me that always tasted better dry, it was more like candy then.
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