The typical shelf life of an MRE is around 5 years at 75° F (23° C).

Ambient temperature at the storage location greatly impacts how long they last.
MREs kept in temperatures of 120° F (48° C) or greater can spoil in as little as a
month whereas keeping MREs in a cool location of 50° F (10° C) can prolong
their lifespan to a decade or more.

However, if you keep your MREs in a decidedly cool location where temperatures
hover around 50°, they could last in excess of 10 years while remaining completely
safe to eat. Not bad.

A friend gave me three boxes of MREs when he left the military. I would say they are about 10 years old and they have been stored in my workshop the whole time in usual Hawaii weather so 85 degrees +/-.
As I understand it they have a shelf life of about 5 years, maybe a little longer in cooler temperatures, so I am wondering what I should do with them. They were emergency food supplies but I am wondering if I should throw them out or maybe give them to the food bank. I have bought some freeze dried food with longer shelf life as emergency food in more recent years.

I have eaten enough MREs in high school ROTC that I am not really going to start eating them for the taste but I hate to waste food. Even for camping I haven't brought them.
So to those with more experience, what do you guys recommend? I have read that they don't go bad in the sense of food poisoning but they may go rancid and taste terrible.

Grind one and let us know !   

A friend gave me three boxes of MREs when he left the military. I would say they are about 10 years old and they have been stored in my workshop the whole time in usual Hawaii weather so 85 degrees +/-.
As I understand it they have a shelf life of about 5 years, maybe a little longer in cooler temperatures, so I am wondering what I should do with them. They were emergency food supplies but I am wondering if I should throw them out or maybe give them to the food bank. I have bought some freeze dried food with longer shelf life as emergency food in more recent years.

I have eaten enough MREs in high school ROTC that I am not really going to start eating them for the taste but I hate to waste food. Even for camping I haven't brought them.
So to those with more experience, what do you guys recommend? I have read that they don't go bad in the sense of food poisoning but they may go rancid and taste terrible.

i'll take them and compost them if you are that concerned about wasting it...

Not all MREs are created equal.  However , ...
https://www.survivalsullivan.com/mre-shelf-life/

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I did read that before but I was looking for more personal experiences.

I do have past memorize of things going bad, specifically I think the crackers smelled rancid. Other things like stew which isn't going to have much air shouldn't get much oxidization, just like canned foods, I was thinking but I don't know if that is that accurate.

I did have some freeze dried food go bad, it went rancid and was really bad tasting. I think the company hadn't learned to expel/replace/absorb the oxygen in the pouches and went rancid.

Thats actually not a bad idea, open and throw them into the green bin.

food (other than vegetables) does not go into the green bin...

i practice "no rules compost", so i compost "anything that was once alive"

food (other than vegetables) does not go into the green bin...

i practice "no rules compost", so i compost "anything that was once alive"

No protein

no rules = protein is ok

only works if you have a really big pile, or a tumbler...

My understanding is the reason not to compost animal protein is attracting scavengers like rats, mice, flies, hyenas etc . . .

focus
"only works if you have a really big pile, or a tumbler..."

focus
"only works if you have a really big pile, or a tumbler..."

My response was justifying your response. It is okay to compost animal protien if you can deal with rats, hyenas, flies and mice.

heads