If you’ve ever gone on a long hike, you know how important packing the right food can be. You need sustenance that is not only nutritious, lightweight and sufficient to last the trip, but also doesn’t taste like cardboard — or worse. For those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, meeting that culinary criteria is of critical importance — potentially a matter of life and death. To meet the vital food needs of modern service members, the Department of Defense — with help from the food industry and academia — have taken the task of feeding troops down to an exact science.