Over the next few articles in this section I plan to cover the Norwegian Field Ration 2000 (FR 2000) and successors issued from around 2004 to the present, writes Bob Morrison.
In an Arctic environment where water is usually abundant, lighter and less bulky freeze-dried meals are usually issued in combat ration packs instead of ‘wet’ retort pouch or canned main meal courses. Back in the middle of the last decade, where I’m starting this part of the story, both Norwegian and Swedish field ration packs were built around freeze-dried meal components produced by Drytech AS in Troms in Norway, with essentially only language markings differentiating.
Drytech AS has now been in business for close on thirty years and is well-known in the expedition world for its REAL Turmat (outside Scandinavia, REAL Expedition Meals) range of, mostly freeze-dried, prepared meals; I will look at their current offerings at the end of this mini-series. When in early 2009 I first looked in depth at the ration pack featured here, their bagged meal range was centred on high quality casseroles containing mostly Norwegian meat and primary ingredients, frozen to give them a five year shelf life while maintaining as much of the natural taste, aroma, appearance and nutritional values as possible. On the military side, their green bag products were known as REAL Field Meals, available in either 3500kcal or 4500kcal versions; the latter being the higher calorific extreme cold weather variant for troops on Arctic operations in winter and for elite forces like Rangers who have less chance of heating all meals due to the sometimes covert nature of their deployment.
Developed in close cooperation with the Norwegian Army, Drytech’s FR2000 field ration packs were assembled to meet the dietary and nutritional requirements of the combat soldier over long periods. All meals could be prepared in five minutes or less if hot water was available, though if only cold water was used the proper rehydration of a pouch could take up to half an hour; carrying it next to the body during this period, I find close to the armpits is best, to put some warmth into it would make sense.
Unlike the other ration packs we have covered to date, which were either issued in cardboard cartons or stout MRE-type plastic pouches, the Norwegian rations came in a set of translucent green airtight recyclable plastic bags. The reasoning behind not using cardboard is logical, in that that cartons could quickly become saturated in a snowy environment. A complete FR2000 24-hour pack consisted of three separate bags – clearly marked Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner – linked together but perforated so that they could be separated by the recipient into individual meals. Some air was removed from the bags during packing to reduce volume, but there was still enough air inside to allow the contents to be loosely moved around a little for easier packing in pouch or pocket.
Curiously, in the BBE 09/2006 FR2000 pack the Norwegians did not get any sugar or whitener for their tea or coffee, though there was plenty of sugar content in the rations as a whole. Neither toilet tissue (though of course there are three moist freshener tissues) nor matches were included either, though most armies supply those to their troops in the field inside their ration pack. There was also no field cooker included in the pack, though presumably this was separately issued along with fuel.
Appreciation of combat rations is always very much down to personal taste and national palate, so what one solder will love, another may well abhor. Personally, the Norwegian rations strike me as very palatable and more appealing than many – just so long as they are properly reconstituted. I do not believe that freeze-dried, even when high quality like this, can fully compete with high quality tinned or boil-in-the-bag retort pouch meals on the taste and texture front, but they can offer very substantial weight and volume savings so definitely have their uses. As far as freeze-dried foods go, however, Drytech is in my opinion up there with the very best.
