Features:

  • Plastic cookie wrap
  • Emergency food
  • 3600 + calories per package
  • 5 year shelf life
  • Us coast guard approved
  • Made in U.S.A.
Fresh Stock Emergency Rations - at least mine were Jan 2017.

Factory Fresh, not old stock . I ordered mine Jan 2017, these were made Dec 2016. One month between the oven and my door. Awesome. As other knowledgeable people have written. These are EMERGENCY & SURVIVAL rations. To keep you alive. To give you calories. To eat when there is nothing else to eat. Nothing. Period. You eat these just prior to eating your own foot or dirt. They don't taste terrible or even bad, but read other reviews. You do NOT want to stockpile these and nothing but these and live off of them. Stockpile other foods, a good variety for your home, work, or shelter. Buy these for if you have to leave *that* good yummy food behind. I keep these in our vehicles and in my "OH NO! Gotta Go!" bag. I used to keep 3 packs at work. I Highly recommend having some of these or other US Coast Guard approved ration bars. Not more than 1 or 2 packs for hiking/camping because they are brick heavy. One brick, 3 days calories (1200 calories a day). Find a flavor you like. Go with it. If you want to prep NOW, buy a lot of them. If you aren't in a panic, buy ONE pack and when it comes, eat it. Taste it, see if you like it. If you are hardcore but new to these, try eat nothing but 3 bars a day for 3 days. Because that is what you will be doing in an actual emergency. If you a not so hardcore, eat one bar then share the other 8 bars with family and friends that you plan to have at your emergency. If you like the taste, then buy as many as you need. As of this writing, from this link, your choices are cinnamon or coconut. I'm not a huge cinnamon fan, so I picked coconut. Would have preferred vanilla. And I suggest, if nothing else pack some hardtack - salty - along with these for a little variety. These bars are slightly sweet. Think dense cake. These rations are for IF you NEED them, and I hope you never do. I hope you buy some, taste some, pack them away for "in case" and when they expire - throw them away as soon as you buy a new fresh batch. These are Insurance food. Like first aid kits. Hope you never ever need them, but you will be beyond happy to have them if you do need them. I worked disaster preparedness for the military for a bit. I have these now and I had them then (another brand) and am a verified buyer. Hope this review helps.

reasonably tasty, calorie rich, and tightly sealed

Package is tightly sealed - possibly vacuum sealed but not sure. Expiration date on the packages was about 5 years from the time of this writing. I opened one of the packages and all the bars were intact, without any tears or broken bars. I found them to be tasty, perhaps not as a regular chocolate bar, but that is to be expected. Each bar contains about 400 calories which is about double a bar of snickers and they also contain 6 gram of protein. I'd say that as a durable, portable, and long lasting dense energy food they do great. Whether for emergency cases or if going on long hiking trips.

Almost as good as Mainstays.

Here are the pros: 1. Individually wrapped, so it will stay fresher, and be more portable. 2. Less sweet, and pleasant after taste. 3. Reminds me of a sugar cookie, but less sugary. Cons 1. Harder than a Mainstay to chew on. I would recommend soaking in a beverage to see if that helps. 2. Would be nice if the bars were scored into smaller sections. It would help you ration better, in a situation you aren't thinking clearly. 3. Coconut (for me this is an allergy so it might not be a downside for others). Overall, worth having. I prefer Mainstay by a lot. While these are more like a sugar cookie, the Mainstay is closer to a lemon cookie. But like both. :)

Serves its purpose.

I just wanted something to throw in a backpack in case of emergencies. I wasn’t expecting some superior nutrition profile from a caloric dense emergency food bar. If I need calories, I’m probably not worried about making sure I’m taking in kosher super vegan organic whole foods. Calories that don’t taste like complete crap is what this is. These taste somewhat like Christmas cookies, and they don’t completely destroy my stomach. Technically, you may be able to get just as many calories from peanut butter, but that doesn’t exactly fill me up.

Calorie dense

Took these on a long remote trip. They taste like a slightly bland peanut butter cookie. Found that they were a great way to get some calories down when energy was getting low. They also make you very thirsty, so helps in hydration as well. As an experiment, I bought some more, cut into smaller pieces and coated with chocolate. Excellent. Packaging: There are 9 individually wrapped bars in the package. Each bar is wrapped in thin cellophane, but not sealed. In other words, once the larger package is opened, all of the bars should probably be consumed within a few days.

I ate them all.

Bought these to try, wanted to know if they would be satisfactory for emergency use. Opened them up from the very vacuumed pouch to find nine individually packaged bars. opened one to taste, much like shortcake but doesn't make you very thirsty like I would expect. Pretty sweet though. Gave a bar each to a couple friends to try, they liked them too. There are nine bars for three days, so you eat three times a day. Only thing is, there are only 410 calories per bar, so maybe some other food or double up on the store. Now that they are gone because I ate them all, I ordered two more for myself and one for my friend that liked them too. These will go with me on the skiff and when I get up into the back country. Good waterproof packaging, looks to be pretty tough too. Alaska has a tendency toward harsh conditions, so getting stuck somewhere is always a concern, and I think I can trust these to hold up.

A fine, cost- and space-efficient tool for short- and mid-term emergency preparedness

There are quite a few older reviews complaining about packaging. For what it's worth, I purchased several boxes in January 2017, and all arrived with seals intact. This is more than I can say about my earlier purchases of Datrex or ER bars, all of which had 1-2 busted packs per box. With that out of the way: I tried quite a few products when deciding on how to stockpile some cost- and space-efficient emergency food (we live in a region very prone to earthquakes). S.O.S. bars are probably my top pick. They are not as dry as ER or Datrex; they are also not as sweet and not as heavily flavored as Millennium energy bars. They basically have the taste and texture of low grade shortbread cookies. I think that flavor-wise, Datrex is the only real competitor. If you want a sweeter cookie, go with S.O.S.; if you want less sugar, order Datrex and call it a day. Some other reviewers are pooh-poohing the ingredients or the nutritional value, which seems like a weird thing to do given that it's a bottom-dollar, calorie-dense, ready-to-eat emergency food that will likely last a decade or so. Yep, most of the calories are from vegetable shortening, and there are better ways to eat during a disaster if you are willing to spend a lot more or want to bank on being able to cook. But the rations are not poison, and you could likely survive months eating just this if you had to. It is vitamin- and mineral-enriched and packs a good amount of protein, and so forth.

Happy with these.

These taste good and store easily. Don't expect anything extraordinary, in terms of flavor - these are for emergencies, not snacking. Even so, I like them and have no qualms about eating them. My primary use is for emergency vehicle kits/bailout kits. While there are other foods I might opt for first if given the choice, these fit the bill nicely for emergency food that will stand up to temperature fluctuations that will happen inside a vehicle. If the seal has failed, it is easy to see. They are cheap to replace. Calorie-dense All-in-all, I think these are a good option - especially if you're using them as a back-up plan in conjunction with your regular food stores.

5 year shelf life is no lie.

*Reading the reviews, I noticed some users complained of receiving items that were already a year or two into their expiration. I had no such issue here. Purchased in early/mid January 2019, manufacture date was one month prior in December 2018, with an expiration of December 2023. I have not inspected the entire case, but from what I have seen the foil packaging is sturdy and in good condition. **Please note that if you buy a case, you will get 20 foil sealed packs, each pack contains a 3 day supply of food for one (9 individual cellophane wrapped bars). Or simply put, one case will feed a person for 60 days which is not bad for the price. Although, realistically in the absence of an emergency would I want to eat these bars for 60 days straight? No. First off, I bought these due to their utilitarian nature. I am a fan of MRE's, and have always used them in emergency/survival kits. The SOS Ration can't touch an MRE when it comes to variety and taste, but where the SOS Rations absolutely shines is in it's size. For those of you just starting to get into the world of emergency preparations, or re-valuating your current kit - efficient use of space is EVERYTHING when it comes to a survival kit. I'm going to break this down in bullet point format to prove two facts: - One foil sealed pack os SOS rations contains 3 days worth of food (9 meals). - The 3 day ration pack is approximately 2/3 the dimensional size of an MRE which contains only 1 meal. Yes you sacrifice the succulent taste of Salisbury steak, noodles, crackers, and cheese spread - but you can store 3 days worth of food in the same dimensional area that previously only held one meal. That is about as efficient as you can get, minus the "survival tabs". With regards to taste and texture, the bar is good considering it has a 5 year shelf life. The bar is slightly hard to bite on, crunchy to a point but not excessive. This is likely attributed to it's compressed nature. The bar has coconut in it, but it's not an overbearing flavor. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised with these as they taste much better than I thought they would.

Not gourmet food but far better than the alternative.

It tastes like a walmart sugar cookie with a bit of cinnamon. It’s not bad. It’s a bit sweet for my tastes but if I were in a survival siutation, i’d like a bit of extra sweetness. It doesn’t feel thirst provoking which is nice. It’s suprisingly satisfying. It’s just a bar the size of a snickers bar and even with just one, i’m a bit hungry but fine otherwise. Is the taste great? No but it’s somewhat like the quality of canned food. It’s not great and i’d rather eat something else but it is far far better than eating a snake raw or a handful of beetles. I’d much rather eat a cinnamon sugar cookie for a week than eat raw meat. Eating sugar cookies for a week is really not at all a concern if you’re going to be using this for survival.

Full Reviews