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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,

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Speaker 1: what is an m R E? M R E stands

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Speaker 1: for meal ready to eat and m R E comes

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Speaker 1: in a plastic pouch called retort packaging. The packaging is

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Speaker 1: made of aluminum foil and plastic layer together. An m

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Speaker 1: r E pouch contains normal food. It might contain chili

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Speaker 1: or beef stew. The food is pre cooked, put into

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Speaker 1: the pouch, and the pouches sealed. The pouch and the

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Speaker 1: food it contains are then heated to sterilize the contents.

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Speaker 1: Since the pouch is sealed, the food stays fresh for

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Speaker 1: a long time, years at a time. This is no

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Speaker 1: different from metal or glass canning. The food in the

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Speaker 1: can is sterilized by heat in a sealed container so

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Speaker 1: bacteria can't get in and spoil it. Think of retort

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Speaker 1: packaging as a flexible can. The food tastes no different

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Speaker 1: from canned earlier beef stew. Retort packaging is also used

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Speaker 1: for a variety of drinks. The drinks that come into

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Speaker 1: flexible pouch are usually made using the same technology used

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Speaker 1: to create m R E s Do you have any

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Speaker 1: ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send

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Speaker 1: me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

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Speaker 1: to how stuff works dot com