Army researchers are working to perfect a system by which microwave ovens would sterilize meals ready-to-eat (MREs) and other battlefield food. The new technology involves larger processors than those found in the comparatively smaller ovens used in homes. The larger ovens reduce the time it takes to make MREs and other foods shelf-stable to about eight minutes, down from three hours. The result is better-tasting food, said Tom Yang, the project’s director, at the Combat Feeding Directorate at Natick (Mass.) Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. For soldiers in the field, the process could mean that two former MRE favorites – macaroni and cheese and Mexican macaroni and cheese – could return. “Both of them have been dropped from MREs. Microwave sterilization can really revive these kinds of dishes. If you retort macaroni and cheese, the detrimental effects of the retort process result in a product that is like a lump — a rubbery, tasteless lump,” Yang said. “If you use the microwave process on mac and cheese, it’s going to be very bright yellow. It has a pleasant cheese aroma. So it’s a big difference.”
