I have some military MREs and they don't have an expiration date. After some research, I learned there's a time/temp indicator on the boxes that you can use to figure out whether they're still good https://www.mreinfo.com/mres/mre-shelf-life/

It’s all about storage.

Ideally MRE are made, stored a few and then used. In the military it’s a known quantity so they cycle that shit out often. Get new ones in - have some poor sailor, marine, soldier eat them. I think Air Force has a different version of a cross between hot meal and mid term storage type of food.

But back to your question. High long term exposure to heat will shorten the “edible” duration of an MRE. Stored in cool dry place... decades if you don’t mind parts of it going bad.

There are a few YouTube folks that will actually eat old MREs to let you know if it’s edible.

1992 Ham slices



But it’s all relative and based on how it has been stored and exposed to temp.

Just curious, you guys think most are still buying MRE's or most have switched to freeze dried?

Storage is key. You should be able to tell by the condition of the box and there is the indicator on most modern boxes. If you have a picture, I could tell you the generation and maybe hint at the quality. Expiration dates don’t exist and most will pass the reinspection but due to logistics most never make it there. Units throw away good MREs all the time because of this.

I like MRE's for the car, but freeze dried (Thrive) for the house.