Does anyone have experience with *both* the Mainstay Rations and the Mayday food bar? I'm looking for a "head to head" comparision.

The Mainstay Rations are available here for $12.40 for 3600 calorie package.

http://www.survivalmetrics.com/cgi-bin/ ... E:cat_food

The Mayday Bars are availalbe here for $4.50 for 3600 calories package.

http://www.raytechcatalog.com/index/food-7.htm


Since they are almost 1/3 the price, I'm probably going to go with the Mayday Bars, unless someone has a good reason to go with the more expensive Mainstay product instead.

That price seemed high for Mainstay Rations so I did a quick search and found this:

Mainstay Rations

Thanks. $6.95 for the 3600 calorie Mainstay ration is a better price then what I had found.

The Mayday 3600 at $4.50 is still a better price overall. I'm just wondering if the Mainstay is really better than the Maydays or not.

How many are you looking to buy? If it's a whole case it would probably be worth it to buy one of each and test them out yourself. Tastiness of food is pretty subjective.

I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but I just did a review of the Mayday rations in the eats and drinks section...

http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/view ... hp?t=16680

I like the taste of the Mayday rations better than the Mainstay rations, and they are cheaper, so I will be going with the Mayday rations in the future...one difference worth considering is that Mainstay rations have a much wider safe temperature range...

nfa

Nice review. I hadn't seen that and it answers some of my questions.

Did you find a cheaper source for the Mayday rations then the source I listed? If so, please post it.

I'm probaly only going to order 2 or 3 of the 3600 bags. One for each of hte cars and one for the house.

The cheapest ones that I could find, including delivery costs was:

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/foodbars_lifetabs.htm

They have the 2400 bars at $100 per case of 24 delivered ($4.17), and the 3600 bars at $100 for a case of 20 delivered ($5.00).

By my math, the case of 3600 calorie bars is a better deal in terms of ounces of ration per buck than the 2400 (5.4 vs 4.32)...

I might be buying some of the 3600 cal bars as well as the 2400 ones...

nfa

I ususally keep my BOB in the trunk of my car, but I am worried that the Texas heat is going to destroy my MRE's. One of these options might be a better alternative. Does anyone have a guess what the temperature might be in a car trunk in a Texas summer?

nfa, -29F = -33C, not -6C. For some reason I can't respond in your thread, it takes me back to the main forum page when I hit reply.

Well in excess of 130-150

That's weird...I copied the info off of the package...I'll check and fix...thanks!

nfa

That is where I got my Mainstay Rations from...
They are good to do business with...

BTW, I love the taste of the Mainstay Rations...
If they were not expensive and have SO many calories, I could easily see myself keeping them around for snacks... They have a 'feel' something like a heavy 'sandy', with the taste of a not too sweet sugar cookie...

I guess I'll need a couple of Mainstays then or my atrificially flavored sawdust might start to taste bad.

I have some OPENED 3 year old(they were OPENED three year ago) Mainstay Rations that I found in the car(Texas summer heat for two summers!!!)... I have been afraid to taste them, but they LOOK like new... I had put them in one of those semi-disposable Tupperware-like containers, and forgot about them...
If anyone wants to put their life on the line to test them, I can mail them to you... I have them in my garage now...

You first...

What do the rations consist of? Is it just like energy bars or what?

The mainstay rations are not at ALL like an energy bar...
More like a 'grainy' block of fudge, but without the chocolate...
VAGUE lemony taste...
I have heard that some of the others have a coconut taste, which I do NOT like, so I have not tried any of them...

P.S. Nice Cthulhu avatar you have there... That IS the Big C there isn't it???

Most of the ones I tried have more of a "crumbly butter cookie" kind of taste.

how long can you eat these before your body says screw off? what about the protein level of these? are they enough to keep you going?

Yeah, in Lake Hali

SOS Survival Rations. More flavors. And come individually packed.
http://emprep.com/sos%20rations%20energy%20bars.htm

Anyone have experience with SOS? They also have the emergency water packets.

Well, it doesn't have nearly the nutritional or storage information on the website of the other options above, so I'm thinking it probably doesn't measure up. I could be wrong, but usually if the information is good they paste it up everywhere.

Hey, I remember Mayday bars. Hell, when I was a little kid my dad used to buy me the stuff every time we went to an Airshow. What probably brought back the memory was a photo of me by a then-new B-2 Bomber, right next to a mean-looking USAF dude.

I used to have loads of it, but now I cannot seem to find it anywhere besides the internet.

From the page of the flavored bars:
"Formulated and packaged for endurance of temperature extremes and
extended shelf life of up to Five Years !"
NUTRITION FACTS:Calories 409 Kcal, Protein 8g, Carbohydrates 5g,
Fat 19g, Sodium 0.05mg, Cholesterol 0.
INGREDIENTS; Wheat Flour, Vegetable shortening, Cane and Corn Sugars,
Dried Coconut, Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Natural Flavors.
Additives: Ascorbyl Palmitate and Lecithin as antioxidant; Calcium Propionate as
antimycotic; Citric Acid, Gaur Gum and salt as Formulation Aids:
Multi-Vitamin Mix
Vitamins; A 15%, C 15%, Thiamine 25%, Riboflavin 15%, Niacin 15%
Based on US recommended values based 2000 calorie diet

From the same site, page of the regular survival rations:
"Safely stored up to FIVE YEARS!
all climatic conditions - ranging from desert to arctic."

They have a separate page for the design criteria:
http://emprep.com/sos%20food%20labs.html

They seem to be at par with Mayday or Mainstay. I'm just wondering if anybody has had any personal experience with this brand.