The shelf life on these is good enough for what you're making them for. When they start to get to the point where things are expiring in a few years, what I do is I hand them out to the homeless, and then take a tax deduction, and make fresh ones. Keep your receipts of course.



If you're smart, A LOT of prepping can be done like this and used for tax deductions for homeless shelters and what not. Take in your can goods and they'll give you a receipt for taxes, and you always come out better than when you started. If you have a bunch of real MRE's you bought several years ago, instead of trying to eat them all, hand them out to the homeless or take them to a homeless shelter and explain your idea of handing them out, and again, get a receipt and buy new fresh MRE's.



Once these shelters get to know you, they can become a REAL asset. Back in the 90's I took things in all the time, and then when Y2k came around and nothing happened, the shelters were flooded with literally 1,000's of cans of freeze dried food that people no longer wanted. The shelter could not use them, but they knew I would take them, and they called me, and I forgot how many pick up truck loads of freeze dried cans of food I was given for free. I of course returned the favor by going out and buying a lot of fresh food that they could use.



It's all about developing working relationships with people.



Back to the topic here, another thing I do when I make mine is, I wrap things up in paper towels so sharp edges don't poke holes in anything, and the towels can be used while eating as well as TP later on. The other thing I pack is a wet wipe.



I also place inside each MRE is my use by date, and a list of items inside since some may be wrapped in paper towels, and the label is visible after sealing.

