MRE legitimacy?

So I know there are many MRE's. From what I hear, some are civilian version that don't have the same calorie count and standards that the military ones do. How can you tell the difference?

Just from a quick search on eBay I found these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MRE-B-CASE-INSP...omain_0&hash=item2eb2e709c6#ht_500wt_922

Here is the search for MRE's:
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5039.m570.l1313&_nkw=MRE&_sacat=See-All-Categories

i'm going to be buying a bunch soon

bump

Your first link looks like commercial packaging of the old style box that held the older style MREs in order to use the same size box as the old C Ration.

The last Army MREs I've seen came in this type of packaging:

http://cgi.ebay.com/MRE-cases-genui...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0d78d355

I think the standards are going to be there, but calorie count varies. My last couple NG units went with a few "alternate suppliers" for prepack meals which were similar to but not quite the same as regular .gov MREs. They cost the government less and a few had storage issues but better food. Our command took stock of MREs pretty regularly and did some thumbnail surveys of what the troops actually ate and wanted. Thus a lot of the cheaper MRE types simply eliminated some of the stuff which the troops appeared to not want much of anyway.

There is a whole series of meals from Jimmy Dean (the sausage company) which require refrigeration (and can sustain longer when frozen) which I think are more commonly issued by the Navy and Air force. They are microwave heatable and are edible out of the packaging, just not that good unless the main courses are nuked.