Qualitative Study of Soldier Perceptions of the Relative Importance of MRE Portion Size and Variety

摘要

Several focus groups and interviews were conducted with 95 military subjects from Ft. Bliss, Biggs Army Airfield, and Fort Leonard Wood during 1997 to understand how soldiers perceive Meal, Ready-to-Eat portion size and MRE variety and to begin to determine what types of trade offs soldiers are willing to make between these two MRE characteristics. This study was carried out as part of a larger project whose overall goal is to reduce the cost of and the waste associated with MREs. One approach to accomplishing this was to manipulate both the portion size and variety of the MRE. Based on previous data, it was hypothesized that soldiers would want greater variety in the MRE; therefore, portion sizes might be decreased. The current findings suggest something quite different.