New ration packs provide variety for troops

A batch of 300,000 new, 24-hour, multi-climate ration packs are winging their way to Afghanistan to be trialled by troops currently in theatre. Classics such as 'biscuits brown' and pâté have been replaced by healthier and more suitable choices for the 50C temperatures the soldiers endure.

The choice of menus has increased from ten to twenty and now includes six new offerings for the Halal, Vegetarian and Sikh/Hindu ranges which have been influenced by feedback direct from the personnel serving in theatre.

The transformation of the menus and the decisions of what to subtract and what to include has taken 18 months of hard work and research.

Lieutenant Commander Neil Horwood, project manager of the menu overhaul, said:

"You start with the current product. We looked at it and it was great. It did the job it was designed to do but it wasn't suitable for the environment in which today's soldier finds himself; operating in Iraq and Afghanistan eating an ORP [Operational Ration Pack] for prolonged periods and then coming back 12-18 months later to eat it again.

"We sat down as a team and said we need to do something better and we came up with the idea of going from ten menus to twenty. This time last year it was still an idea and today the rations are leaving here on their way to Afghanistan which is just amazing."

The new ration pack is comprised roughly of a third of the favourites from the old ration pack such as chocolate sponge, bacon, sausage and beans. But, as Lieutenant Commander Horwood continued:

"We had to come up with different things; no-one wants to eat baked beans every day for breakfast for four months so why should a soldier who is putting himself in harm's way."

The content of the new packs has been partly developed by those that will be eating them. Troops on the front line filled out questionnaires about what they would like to see in their ration packs and soldiers from the Household Cavalry who have served in Afghanistan recently were also asked about what items they did or did not like:

"Whilst this is a trial, the risk the soldiers will ditch everything out of this ration pack as soon as they get it is low, this is what they want," said Lt Cdr Horwood.

What the research team found was that the tastes of a British soldier have changed quite significantly since the Second World War and that these changes had to be catered for to keep morale and energy levels up. Lt Cdr Horwood said:

"Biscuits brown, biscuits fruit, pâté, corned beef hash - this is not what an 18-year-old wants to eat for breakfast. My prime customer is aged 18 to 25 years old and I have had to address it and tailor it to that. Whereas anyone who is 30 and over was brought up fairly traditionally on English food and their parents might have been a bit adventurous and had a bit of pasta or lasagne or something, that was seen as really new. Today's 18-year-old eats Chinese, Indian, Thai, Jamaican Jerk."

In the new packs therefore there's Thai chicken curry, sweet salmon pasta, mixed bean salad, paella, beef and casava. Biscuits brown and fruit are gone, replaced by Oreo cookies, Shrewsbury biscuits and stem ginger biscuits:

"We've halved the number of hot drinks as one of the big things that came out of the questionnaires was the guys are throwing away most of their tea- and coffee-making facilities because the young soldiers don't drink it now," added Lt Cdr Horwood.

The nutritional value of each menu has been carefully researched and approved by those in the know:

"In terms of the five-a-day," said Lt Cdr Horwood, "one of the muselis has raisins in, most of the pasta pouches have mixed beans or peppers and we also pack in fruit cocktail, apple, pineapple, all as separates, so whilst they won't be getting them all in every day, there is an element of it and, in terms of the whole ration, it is nutritionally balanced and has been endorsed by the Surgeon General's office.

"A soldier who's eating a wide range of items is more effective and is able to deliver more to the commander on the ground. I would challenge anyone who says that one of those soldiers on the front line doesn't deserve that variety."

And variety in the choice of menu is important in making sure the soldier gets his nutrients, as Lt Cdr Horwood explained:

"If you were served a chilli every night for your tea, after five or six days you'd be eating half the amount you first had and after ten days you'd probably just stop eating it. When soldiers start to do that they're not only a danger to themselves, they could potentially compromise the missions they're being asked to deliver, so it's absolutely vital that we have soldiers eating as much as they can."

Warrant Officer Class 1 Paul Carpenter, Brigade Catering Warrant Officer for 16 Air Assault Brigade, was involved in the research process and helped to gauge the reactions and needs of the British soldiers in theatre. He said:

"The soldiers go from being at home to Afghanistan so they want to see what they eat at home out there. They're very brand orientated sometimes and what they see in their local supermarket is now appearing in this ration pack.

"They came out to Afghanistan to see what the soldiers actually want in the ration packs and they're now getting what they actually asked for."

The new packs also provide the variety necccesary for the changing ethnic mix of the armed forces, as WO1 Carpenter explained:

"The Services employ a diverse range of religions and people and we have to cater for all soldiers. We always have had them and we've got the standard ration, but we have all these religions joining the Service now and they need to have the options and not be channelled to one option and again that's been catered for. That is key; diversity in the Army is big."

Ultimately though the development of the new ration packs is all about the impact what a soldier eats has on his productivity in theatre as well as on his desire to be in the Services:

"The old saying 'the army marches on its stomach' has always been there. If they get good food then that lifts morale, incorporated with their mail and everything else. It makes them a more happy soldier to do their task which is the key thing," said WO1 Carpenter.

"If you don't give them what they want, you're going to lose those good quality soldiers. In the field they aren't going to be effective as they're not getting the right nutrients and the right products inside them so you give them what they want, they're going to carry on doing the tasks that they've been set to do. A happy soldier is a better soldier."

The in-theatre trials for the new ration packs will help inform the long- term future of the menus for hot climates for summer 2010 and beyond as part of the continuing process to improve operational rations.