- The US military has devised a way to ensure its troops
in battle need never go hungry - with dried food that can by rehydrated
using dirty water or urine.
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- The meal comes in a pouch that filters out 99.9% of bacteria
and most toxic chemicals, says New Scientist magazine.
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- The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need
to carry.
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- The firm behind it says soldiers should only use urine
as last resort - as the membrane can not filter out urea, which in the
long term causes kidney damage.
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- "The pouch - containing chicken and rice - relies
on osmosis to filter the water or urine," the New Scientist Magazine
reported.
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- The liquid passes through a membrane, thin sheets of
a cellulose-based plastic with gaps just 0.5 nanometres wide.
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- It means only clean water can reach the food, and the
bacteria is left behind.
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- 'Indestructible sandwich'
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- The idea has come from the Combat Feeding Directorate,
part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.
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- The organisation is also the brains behind the "indestructible
sandwich", which can stay fresh for three years.
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- A spokeswoman said the dehydrated pouches would reduce
the current weight of 3.5kg for a day's food supply of three meals, to
0.4kg.
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- But Hydration Technology Inc, in Albany, Oregon, which
made the membrane, warned it is too coarse to filter out urea so soldiers
should only use urine in an absolute emergency.
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- Engineer Ed Beaudry was quoted by the New Scientist as
saying that the body would not find using urine to rehydrate food toxic
in the short term, but in the long term it would cause kidney damage.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3915659.stm
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