ARMY INVENTS PIZZA THAT LASTS THREE YEARS

The U.S. Army has developed a special type of pizza that can last for up to three years in harsh conditions. The U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center has spent the past five years developing the MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) pizza. It’s a fully assembled and baked piece of pizza in one package. The biggest challenge, according to food technologist Lauren Oleksyk, was in figuring out how to stop bacteria from growing on the pizza dough and sauce, which needs water for taste, but is also a breeding ground for mold. The solution came in the form of a method known as Hurdle technology which creates “barriers” that stop bacteria from forming on the pizza over the years. The end result is a pizza that has a shelf life of three years. Oleksyk describes it as tasting like, “day after pizza, or the kind you’d find in a school cafeteria.”
* Well, there go the Army enlistment projections right out the window.
* It tastes like something from the school cafeteria? Sorry, but you’ll have to sell it better than that.
* I’m thinking of a lot of words right now to describe the pizza but “Yummy” is not one of them.
* One bite and your stomach says: “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
* It has a shelf life of three years, which is also how long it takes the pizza to get through your digestive tract.
* The way they keep the bacteria from growing is called Hurdle Technology? Oh, at first I thought it said, “Hurl.”
* So basically they’re saying the pizza is so crappy, even bacteria won’t eat it.
* The good news is the pizza can also be used under a tire for traction if your military vehicle gets stuck in the sand.
* I just wonder what happens to the pizza the day after the three years goes by.
* Next up for the Army: The ten-year taco.