page_title: Field ration
section_title: Greece
hierarchical_section_title: Field ration / Europe / Greece
caption_attribution_description: English: MRE Pack
context_page_description: A field ration is a canned or pre-packaged meal, easily prepared and consumed by military troops. They are distinguished from regular military garrison rations by virtue of being designed for minimal preparation in the field, using canned, vacuum-sealed, pre-cooked or freeze-dried foods, powdered beverage mixes and concentrated food bars, as well as for long shelf life. Most field rations typically contains meat as one of its main course. The iron ration is a soldier's dry emergency rations.
  Such meals also prove invaluable for disaster relief operations, where large stocks of these can be ferried and distributed easily, and provide basic nutritional support to victims before kitchens can be set up to produce fresh food. Rations intended for emergency or disaster relief are often referred to as survival rations.
  Most armed forces in the world today now field some form of pre-packaged combat ration, often suitably tailored to meet national, regional or ethnic tastes.
  Traditionally hexamine has been the preferred solid fuel for cooking rations. An alternative is gelatinised ethanol.
context_section_description: The primary operational ration used in Greece is the so-called "Merida Eidikon Dynameon" (Special Forces' Ration, also known as a 4B-ration), a 24-hour ration pack inside a cardboard box measuring 240 x 140 x 130 mm & weighing 1 kg.  Most items are commercially procured, with the main meals in round pull-ring cans. Typical contents include: a 200 g canned meat ("SPAM"); 280 g can of meat with vegetables (beef and potatoes, etc.) (termed Prepared Food With Meat or ΠΦΜΚ); a 280 g can of cooked vegetables (green peas, etc.) (Prepared Food Without Meat or ΠΦΑΚ); an 85 g can of cheese; 6 hard biscuits; 40 g honey; three 50 g packages of raisins or chocolate; 30 g sugar; 1.5 g black tea, 2 g instant coffee; 19 g instant milk powder; two small packets of salt; a multivitamin tablet; 4 water purification tablets; a pack of tissues; a disposable ration heater with 5 fuel tablets; and a box of matches. In wartime, packs of locally commandeered cigarettes may also be issued.
caption: Greek combat ration
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