NATICK, Mass. — They call it the holy grail of ready-to-eat meals for soldiers: a pizza that can stay on the shelf for as long as three years and still remain good to consume.
Soldiers have been asking for pizza since lightweight individual field rations — known as meals ready to eat, or MREs — replaced canned food in 1981 for soldiers in combat zones or areas where field kitchens can’t be set up.
Researchers at a U.S. military lab in Massachusetts are closing in on a recipe that doesn’t require any refrigeration or freezing.
“You can basically take the pizza, leave it on the counter, packaged, for three years and it’d still be edible,” said Michelle Richardson, a food scientist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.
Pizza is one of the most requested items when soldiers are asked every year what they’d like to see in their rations, said Richardson, who has spent nearly two years developing the recipe.
How does it taste? Jill Bates, who runs the taste lab, said she was happy after tasting the latest prototype batch of pepperoni. She describes it as a pan pizza, with a crust that’s a little moist.
