War is full of logistical challenges, one of the major concerns — in conflicts both ancient and modern — being how to feed the armies doing the fighting. Whether it’s Roman legionaries, British Redcoats, or modern infantry, soldiers have always needed a reliable supply of food to maintain both their energy levels and morale. As the old saying goes, “An army marches on its stomach.”
Military rations have existed since at least the time of ancient Rome, when soldiers received 2 pounds of bread a day, sometimes with meat, olive oil, and wine. Today, U.S. troops are provided with MREs — “Meals, Ready-to-Eat” — which are carefully tested, formulated, and packaged rations designed to sustain soldiers during training and military operations. These MREs have a shelf life of three years and can survive being dropped from an aircraft. But not every soldier is a fan of these pouches of food, which they sometimes refer to as “Meals, Rarely Edible” or “Meals Rejected by the Enemy.”
While modern MREs don’t often come with glowing reviews, some foods created specifically for soldiers — or adopted and popularized by the military — have become beloved by the civilian population. Here are six foods that managed to find their way from the ration pack to supermarket shelves across America.
M&Ms
In the 1930s, Forrest Mars Sr. (the son of Mars founder Franklin Clarence Mars) was traveling in Europe. According to confectionary legend, it was during this time that Forrest Mars observed soldiers eating chocolate pellets surrounded by a sugar shell during the Spanish Civil War. Inspired, he took the concept back to the United States where, in 1941, M&Ms were born.
With World War II already underway, M&Ms were initially made specifically for the U.S. military, providing an ideal way for soldiers to carry energy-rich chocolate in tropical climates without it melting. In 1947, the candy was made available to the public, and its popularity has never waned since.
Cheetos
Cheesy puff snacks and the chaos of warfare may seem diametrically opposed, but it’s the military we must thank for the former’s existence — including the top-selling brand, Cheetos. Their origin can be traced back to the Natick Soldier Systems Center, a U.S. Army research complex responsible for the development of the U.S. military’s food, clothing, and shelters.
One of the items to come out of the research complex was processed and powdered cheese, which was created for military use in World War II. According to Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, author of Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat, by the end of the war “a whole little industry had sprung up to support this dehydrated cheese.” And one of the very first products to use the cheesy powder was the now-ubiquitous Cheetos.