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The prototype of the military rations of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) appeared in the period of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950 – 1953).
During the war, the officers and soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) mainly ate simple solid foods including fried rice, parched flour and fried bean.
After that, the logistic supply departments produced a batch of compressed biscuits so as to provide better food support for CPV's tactical operations, forming the earliest prototype of the PLA's standard military rations.
The PLA's first-generation military rations in the real sense appeared in 1970s.
At that time, the military rations consisted of three staple foods, namely the No. 761 compressed solid food, dehydrated steamed rice and dehydrated noodle, and three auxiliary foods, namely three kinds of canned foods.
The No. 761 compressed solid food was the PLA's first-generation standard personal combat rations. And the PLA soldiers depended on the 761 compressed solid food for energy supplement during a self-defense war in 1979.
In 1980s, the PLA's second-generation military rations began to appear, namely using the No. 90 compressed solid food to replace the No. 761 compressed solid food.
In addition, the complete-set foods also appeared to make up for the deficiency of the compressed biscuit.
During the Battle of LaoShan in the self-defense war in 1979, a kind of soft-package food, which was especially made for the PLA troops patrolling along the plateau borders in China, was provided for the scouting forces.
This kind of soft-package food contained three kinds of foods in its plastic bag, namely a bag of meat, vegetable and rice, a bag of compressed solid food and a bag of pear in syrup, and the meat, vegetable and rice can be heated in boiling water before eating.
