FR79 ~ UK 24-hour General Pack ORP 2022

Menu 2 from the UK 24 Hour GP Ration Pack P70 batch as packed in October 2022 and issued in August 2023 [© Bob Morrison]

This UK 24-hour General Pack ORP (Operational Ration Pack ) was packed in October 2022 and issued this year to troops on exercise in Germany, writes Bob Morrison.

In late August my colleague Carl Schulze covered the 1 Royal Welsh Battlegroup in training at the German Army’s GÜZ-H (Gefechts Übungs Zentrum – Heer) urban complex during Exercise IRON STORM 1/2023, where he was gifted this late production example from the four-year Operational Ration Packs 2019 procurement contract. On 07 August of this year Leidos Supply Ltd, on behalf of the UK MoD, issued the 5+2-year Supply of Operational Ration Packs 2023 or ORP23 contract, worth £109 million plus VAT, to Vestey Foods UK Ltd of Coulsdon and initial production and packing of the next generation of UK individual rations is now underway.

The ORP featured here was from the batch issued to British Army troops on Ex IRON SRORM 1/2023 at GÜZ-H in Germany [© Carl Schulze]

It is not my intention to bore regular readers of this section by repeating previously covered information, but as there are minor content differences between April 2021 (see FR67 ~ UK 24-hour General Pack ORP of 2021) and October 2022 production batches I suspect some of the ration pack aficionados will be interested. Both the after-effects of COVID-19 and the B-word (i.e. UK withdrawal from the EU) impacted the international food supply chain and UK & European ration pack content suppliers quite markedly during 2021/22, which probably explains the minor tweaks.

Contents carefully tipped out of the bag ~ the resealable bag on top of the stack held most of the hot drinks pack [©BM]

Main Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner items are supplied in ‘boil-in-the-bag’ retort pouches but could be eaten cold if necessary [©BM]

The ORP seen here is a Menu 2 from the 24 Hour GP Ration Pack P70 batch and as its main components contains: 300g (480kcal) Chicken Sausage and Beans in Tomato Sauce; 300g (426kcal) Rajma Masala; 160g (269kcal) Cooked Rice; 300g (459kcal) Chilli Con Carne; and 85g (334kcal) Cinnamon Cake. The Chicken Sausage and Beans, which on the P70 menu sheet (see below for all ten menus) lists this as being Pork Sausage and Beans; the contents of this pouch were imported to the EU by Vestey Foods Nordic in Copenhagen and then packed in the UK by Vestey Foods. The Rajma Masala pouch, containing a traditional kidney beans and onion vegetarian meal popular in Nepal and Northern India, was packed in India. The Cooked Long Grain Rice pouch was also packed in India. The Chilli Con Carne was imported by Vestey Foods Nordic and then packed by Vestey Foods UK. The Cinnamon Cake is (not was as I’m holding onto this one for my next assignment because it’s my favourite) baked by Jomipsa in Spain.

Cinnamon Cake, Cheddar Cheese Flavour Spread, Salted Peanuts, Exotic Fruits Nougat Bar, Spicy Red Chilli Sauce, and Cheese Oat Biscuits [©BM]

Drinks Powders ~ Grapefruit Flavour, Pear Flavour, Hot Chocolate Flavour, Fortified Peach Iced Tea, and Lime Energy [©BM]

2x Wipes, Dental Gum, Spork, 2x Coffee, Tissues, 2x Tea; Purification Tablets; 4x Whitener; 4x Sugar and Matches with Striker [©BM]

Snacks included in my Menu 2 were: 50g (224kcal) Cheese Oat Biscuits; 30g (123kcal) Exotic Fruits Nougat Bar; 50g (317kcal) Salted Peanuts; and 48g (209kcal) Cheddar Cheese Flavour Spread. The five loose-packed Drinks Powders included were: Grapefruit Flavour; Pear Flavour; Hot Chocolate Flavour; Fortified Peach Iced Tea; and Lime Energy. Inside the zip-lock reusable rubbish bag were: 2x Alcohol Free Moist Wipes; 6pcs Dental Gum; 2x Instant Coffee; 10x Tissues; 2x Tea Bags; 4x Whitener; 4x Sugar; 5x Windproof / Waterproof Matches; and a Plastic Spork (with poorly formed tines). There was also a pack of 6x Water Purification Tablets and a 4.5g sachet of Spicy Red Chilli Sauce (packed in The Netherlands) loose-packed with the main contents. On checking the individual packs, the Tea Bags were from Sri Lanka and the Coffee, Sugar and Whitener were all packed in China.

Chicken Sausage and Beans seemed a bit bland ~ the Chinese-packed coffee powder, drunk black, tasted a little unusual but I liked it [©BM]

Ideally I should have liked some rice with the Rajma Masala but as there was no practical way of resealing the pack for later and I wanted to keep some for the chilli I ate it without [©BM]

The Chilli Con Carne, served here with the Rice, had a bit of a kick which was just as well as I had previously used the SAMBAL sauce to spice up my Rajma Masala [©BM]

The (crumbly) Oatmeal Biscuits were cheesy enough but as the Cheddar Spread had to be eaten I squeezed it onto them [©BM]

The Vestey Team did not have a stand at DSEI 2023 (indeed it is many years since I last saw the company at a major UK defence expo) but they were in attendance at MSPO 2023 in Poland the previous week. The Operational Ration Packs on display at Kielce were just representational mock-ups so they asked me not to photograph them for this column, but they did promise to let us have a 2023 production batch sample for review once the packing line was up to full speed. I am looking forward to this, but not expecting any drastic changes as the latest MoD requirement is very similar to the ORP 2019 specification.

The Vestey stand at MSPO 2023 in Poland in early September ~ individual components displayed were from previous packs but the ORP outer bags were merely mock-ups as the newly ordered UK packs were not yet in production [©BM]

~$~

The 2022 outer pack (left) is a distinctly darker shade than those seen previously [©BM]

GP Ration Pack P70 Menus 1 – 10 Main Contents

Menu 1: Pork Sausage & Beans in Tomato Sauce; Meatballs and Pasta (Beef); Pindi Chana Aloo; Chocolate Brownie.
Menu 2: Pork Sausage & Beans in Tomato Sauce; Rajma Masala; Cooked Rice; Cinnamon Cake.
Menu 3: Raspberry Toasted Muesli with Milk; Steak Vegetables and Dumplings; Beef Burrito Style Filling with Rice; Cinnamon Cake.
Menu 4: All Day Breakfast (Pork); Chicken Curry with Potato and Rice; Pasta Bolognese (Pork); Vanilla Flavour Cake.
Menu 5: Fruitful Muesli with Milk; Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice; Pasta Bolognese (Pork); Chocolate Pudding in Chocolate Sauce.
Menu 6: All Day Breakfast (Pork); Pasta Bolognese (Pork); Indonesian Style Spicy Rice with Pork; Vanilla Flavour Cake.
Menu 7: Vegetarian All Day Breakfast; Vegetable and Chick Pea Biryani; Rajma Masala; Chocolate Flavour Cake.
Menu 8: All Day Breakfast (Pork); Spicy Sausage and Potato Wedges (Pork); Beef Burrito Style Filling with Rice; Orange Flavour Cake.
Menu 9: Fruitful Muesli with Milk; Sausage Casserole (Pork); Pindi Chana Aloo; Chocolate Pudding in Chocolate Sauce.
Menu 10: Instant Porridge; Beef Burrito Style Filling with Rice; Hunters Chicken; Chocolate Marble Cake.