1. They have a long shelf life.
2. The high calorie content provides sufficient energy.
3. Most are ready to eat and can be eaten cold.
4. The pouches take up less space than canned food.

I prefer the British Army 24 hour ration pack, as it has everything you need for a day in the one box. While with the American MRE’s I like the accessories that come with them but I have found that some menus do not sit so well with me, so I avoid them as the last thing you would need in an emergency or survival situation would be to feel sick because of something you have eaten.

You can get them from some army surplus stores or online at sites like http://www.armyrations.co.uk/ you can also find civilian branded meals such like Wayfayer, Look what we found and Mountain House in good outdoor retailers or online.

Everyone should have one of these kits and if you shop around you can put one together for very little cost, you may even have the items already at home that you could put into use either as part of a kit for your home or for your travels.

What should go in your bag at home?

• Torch
• Battery radio
• Toiletries / first aid kit
• Long-life food and bottles of water
• Important documents (eg. insurance policy)
• List of emergency contact numbers
• Spare keys to your home / car
• Pencil, paper, penknife and whistle.

What should go in your travel bag?

• Torch
• Battery radio
• Mobile phone
• Cash and credit cards
• List of emergency contact numbers
• Winter boots, warm clothing and waterproofs
• Ready-to-eat food, bottled water and warm drink in flask.

Items that I would recommend include:

• Victorinox Swiss Army Knife
• Leatherman multi tool
• LED Mini MagLite
• Petzl e+LITE headtorch
• Adventure Medical Kit Bivvy
• Rite in the Rain notepad
• Wayfayrer ready meals
• Water Purification Tablet

More information and advice about travelling in winter conditions from the British Red Cross can be found here

Remember stay safe and if you do venture out be prepared for the worst while hoping for the best.

I do wish Gerber would specify the type of high carbon stainless steel that the drop point blade is made from as they do not mention it on the specification online. I would also like to see fine edged versions of the folding sheath and scout versions of the knife.

I am also concerned about the two pieces of metal that sit just inside the sheath, after removing the knife and placing it back in the sheath 10 times I noticed it was gouging as it did on my original knife.

So I removed them to prevent the edge being damaged, just as well that the sheath includes a diamond sharpener.

As with the original the fire steel throws a good spark and you can purchase a replacement  one for $5 should you wear it out or lose it, to prevent you losing the fire steel you could attach the whistle to it and wrap the cord around the sheath so that should the fire steel move from its stored location it would still be attached to the sheath.

I will add some cord to the sheath of the fine edged version and relocate the whistle from the pommel to the fire steel in the future as I felt the whistle affected my grip on the handle.

It’s nice to know that Gerber do listen to the feedback of their users and I would like to see a mollie sheath available not to make it a tactical knife, but to increase the options of carrying the knife and additional extras you could carry to improve your odds in a survival situation.

It also concerns me that with the larger kit being named Ultimate Survival Kit it does not have the means to carry or purify water, which is a basic survival requirement. Both kits require some tweaking before I would want to rely on them in a situation, out of 10 I would give them both a 7. They are a good albeit slightly expensive starting point, but there are better items out there which are ready to carry.