The Contents of a typical German EPA Ration Pack

I've seen a few of these over the years, and found them to be good replacements for British GP ration packs (follow this link for more info); Like the British, Germans do like their rationed food to be of an acceptable quality, with a reasonable quantity, in order to keep the soldier fed for 24 hours at a time.

I'm not aware if there are different versions for cold and hot climates, or Religeous/ethnic variations, so if you know of any, I'd sure like to hear about them. Therefore, at this time, I'm going on the one I actually took the time to photograph, and check out.

So what's in the box?

Box, brown cardboard. Italian Noodles in sauce (basically, Spagghetti Bolegnase, in a foil tin). German Sausage stew (in a foil tin). Chocolate bar. Wet tissue/napkin in foil wrapper, and matches, again in a foil wrapper. Menu sheet (written in German, big surprise!). Water purification tablets, two strips of 4 each. Fruit Salad in a foil-sealed plastic container. Pork Paté in a sealed foil container. Powdered fruit drink, 2 x 30 gram sachets. Chewing gum. Processed cheese in a foil-sealed plastic container. Liver paté in a sealed foil container. Blackberry preserve (spread) in a foil-sealed plastic container. Stawberry preserve (spread) in a foil-sealed plastic container. Sugar, in transparent plastic sachets, 4 x 12.5 gram sachets. Biscuits, hard, 2 packs x LOADS! Coffee whitener (non-dairy creamer), 2 x 3 gram sachets. Instant coffee, 2 x 3.5 gram sachets. Tea, instant, black, 2 x 3 gram sachets. (Shown under the menu sheet) General Purpose paper (toilet paper!) (NOT SHOWN) salt, 1 x 3 gram sachet.

So how do they rate for taste?

Not too shabbily, actually, and the salt helped the sausage stew, too, but let's not forget, this ration pack was designed by Germans, for Germans, so national eating habits and preferences show heavily, here. The biscuits are designed for use as both breakfast and a snack, and the two foil tinned meal packs are for lunch and dinner. The Fruit salad wasn't bad, although I've had better out of the supermarket (can you say Del Monté?).

Personally, I think a lot of thought went into the design of these ration packs. The meals are well thought out, balanced, and reasonably plentiful in terms of contents - they supply loads of biscuits, and with the four packs of spreads (two paté and two fruit preserves) they go a reasonably long way to help fill you up when you're hungry.

It should be noted that the instant tea is definately black; you'll need to use the coffee whitener in those, rather than use it in the coffee, if you don't like black tea (), but aside from that, it's fine.

Although there isn't as much drink mix (both hot and cold) as you'll find in a typical British GP 24-hour ration pack, by and large, the German EPA 24-hour ration packs are well worth getting, if you cannot find GP packs.

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