Purpose: The IMP’s purpose is to sustain the nourishment needs of military personnel for one meal a day. It is easy to heat, consumable without heating, resistant to damage during transportation, but not expected to be used for more than 30 consecutive days.
Preparation and cooking: For IMPs from 2019 and beforehand, the main entrée and the dessert portion are contained in pouches, which are then packaged in cardboard boxes. As of 2020 new packaging was created to help with usability and edibility. A single IMP contains food for one meal — breakfast, lunch, or dinner — for one person. It is packaged to make it compact and lightweight. The main courses can be eaten cold or hot by placing the pouches in boiling pot or pressure cooker.
Each meal pack comes with one main entree, a dessert, several types of beverages, a hard candy, and a package of cookies or a chocolate bar. The package may also include such accessories as instant soup mix, instant mashed potatoes, or instant rice.
IMP Entrees: Some IMP entrees are produced by a company called “Freddy Chef” while others are produced by the American MRE manufacturer “The Wornick Company”.
History: The IMPs appeared in the Canadian Forces in the 1980s, replacing early canned rations (Individual Ration Pack (IRP), Canadian Army Mess Tin Ration, Compo rations). The main menu items of the IMP are “boil in a bag”. The average cost of a ration pack is $7.50 with1.5 million packaged annually.