FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Soldiers of 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, field tested Unitized Group Rations, option A, at the Red Devil Training Area from Aug. 24-Sept. 1.
"The Fielded Group Ration Improvement Project is a continuous content improvement program, part of which is the annual feed test," said Susan Harrington, a food technologist with the Combat Feeding Directorate of the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center, in Natick, Mass.
The project occurs anywhere there is organized feeding with a field kitchen of some type, said Harrington. The UGR-A, which has been in use since 1998, is just one type of ration overseen by the CFD. The UGR-As are commercial components assembled into modules for 50 people. They are then frozen until it's time to be prepared.
Harrington said that the Soldiers would be served 14 breakfast menus and 14 dinner menus. Seven of the dinner and breakfast menus were control menus, which are meals that are currently being served in the Army. The other seven are new menus were tested to see how well liked they are.
If successful, the meals tested here will become available in fiscal year 2012, said Harrington. Some of the new meals were Tuscan Pork Loin, Chili Pepper Beef, Chicken Adobo, and Jambalaya.
The CFD chooses the units to participate in the testing by looking at the overall Army picture as determined by the Army Times: which units are deploying, which are returning, and which have a high-operation tempo, said Christopher King, an equipment specialist with the Operation Force Interface Group of the U.S. Army Natick RSDE. It also uses the contacts of its employees, many of whom are military retirees, to find units willing to participate. They don't perform any of their operations in a classified manner.
The CFD tries to impact the unit as little as possible, but it does put some pressure on food service personnel, said King. The cooks must ensure that the same volunteers eat every day and fill out a survey rating the food.
One of the benefits to the participating unit is that the CFD pays for all the food used in the testing, said King.
UGR-As are much better than the old Army rations because they are more efficient, said Staff Sgt. Maurice Paez, a senior food operation management noncommissioned officer with Company D, 1st Sqdn., 10th Cav. Reg., who has been an Army cook for 18 years.
"We are really enjoying the testing because we are influencing the future of cooking," said Paez.
The testing seems to help, as food has improved since he joined, said Spc. Anthony Freeman, a communication specialist with Company D, 1st Sqdn, 10th Cav. Reg.
"We've had really good support out here," said Harrington. "The cooks were really great."
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