Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

Self-Heating "Kitchen-in-a-Carton" for Remote Feeding Situations
For anyone who's never been there, it's difficult to imagine what it's like to spend weeks in the field, in a foreign and even hostile place, far from the comforts we are accustomed to. It's a little easier to imagine how much a seemingly simple-but surprisingly difficult-thing like a hot meal shared with comrades could lift a soldier's spirits and boost a unit's morale.
The Unitized Group Ration-Express (UGR-E), an R&D Magazine 2007 Top 100 Technology, is a breakthrough development that allows soldiers in the field to enjoy hot group meals even when they don't have access to food-service equipment, fuel, power, or a cook. All they need is the "Kitchen-in-a-Carton," as it's affectionately known.
The Natick Soldier Center teamed with businesses like The Wornick Company; TrueTech, Inc.; TransForm Plastics; Heritage Packaging; and Southern Imperial to devise this innovative way of providing hot meals to the warfighter in the field. Each single-use, self-heating UGR-E contains a main entrée, vegetable, starch, and dessert in quantities that feed up to 18 soldiers. Activating the magnesium-based chemical heaters is simple, and food gets piping hot in 30 to 45 minutes. The 45-pound UGR-E can be prepositioned, air-dropped, or transported with the unit, as the UGR-E is shelf-stable and needs no refrigeration.
Besides providing a tremendous morale boost and a nutritional asset for troops, these hot meals-available on-demand, under even austere conditions-are spectacularly cost-efficient. UGR-Es cost 84% less compared to trucking meals forward from a rear kitchen and 90% less than operating a field kitchen. Because the UGR-E eliminates the need for kitchen-based remote food service and sanitation operations, an estimated 5 gallons of fuel per remote group, per meal period is saved.