An army may march on its stomach, but the British Army has been struggling through the heat of southern Afghanistan on baked beans, lamb curry and sticky toffee pudding.

No longer. The stodgy food of the 24-hour ration pack that troops endure in isolated forward operating bases is to be replaced by a range of menus considered more appropriate for the climate, including pasta salad and tomato and basil soup.

The so-called multiclimate ration pack to be distributed to troops in Afghanistan next year will consist of 26 menus including halal, vegetarian and Sikh/Hindu variants.

Out go chocolate bars - because they melt - the thick, plain “biscuit browns” and hot custard-based desserts. In come sliced fruit, flapjacks, Jammie Dodgers and Tracker bars, chocolate chip cookies and cranberry energy bars. Breakfast will be toasted muesli and strawberry porridge.

Times Archive, 1916: Sausages and rabbits for the New Army

Obviously venison is not an article which would be universally popular

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Captain Paul Cunningham, project leader at the Defence Food Services, said: “We’re not going to please everyone - some people like the biscuit browns - but we have found that generally the younger ones want this more varied food, and they like the brand names. Sometimes it’s just too hot for curry.”

Troops at the main British bases in Camp Bastion and Lashkar Gah enjoy the efforts of well-trained chefs who produce a variety of menus that would impress even Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay, but many of the British contingent are having to spend almost their entire six-month tour of duty in the sweltering outposts. With no access to fresh food, they are having to live on the 24-hour ration pack of boil-in-the-bag baked beans, burgers and corn beef and the infamous biscuit brown, eaten with tinned pâté or cheese spread.

These troops are hunting the Tale-ban in intense heat and the thought of food at the end of a five-hour patrol in full body armour and helmet helps to keep them going. But boil-in-the-bag curry - again - can put a dampener on returning to base. Soldiers love curry but not every day, and often the boil-in-the-bag meal is eaten unboiled - cold and on the hoof.

No wonder that Prince Harry made a point of complaining about the “rat-packs” after serving most of his ten weeks in Helmand in remote outposts. The Army calls it menu fatigue.

“Rations are miserable,” Prince Harry said. “I’ve been on rations now for, I can’t remember how long. The guys here have been on rations even longer than I have. They’re fed up with it.”

Consuming biscuit browns was memorably described on the Army Rumour Service website: “Consists of six slices of compressed cardboard, occasionally supplied with dogs*** in a can to spread over said cardboard.”

The 24-hour ration packs were not devised with hot climates in mind and the Ministry of Defence has been receiving more and more complaints from troops serving in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) in Helmand. The ministry responded by asking volunteers from Prince Harry’s regiment, the Household Cavalry, to sample some new menu ideas in a pilot scheme, and yesterday the results were presented at a defence vehicles exhibition at Millbrook, Bedfordshire.

Trooper Danny Skinner was one to give the change a cautious welcome. “I think the new ration packs will help,” he said. “When you’re out there you get a lot of the same food all the time.”

Certainly the packs have come a long way since the First World War, when soldiers were fed sausages, rabbit and venison. Frozen rabbits were imported from Australia and fish from Canada. Venison was given only to “certain troops” because, as The Times archives report, “it is not an article which would be universally popular”.

Putting the ratpack to the test

Taste: Giles Coren

Wow. Menu fatigue. Who knew? As a restaurant critic, I know this only too well, so in the spirit of solidarity with Our Boys I tried their new summer rations. The tuna chilli pasta looked like something cooked by a drunk student and tasted like it had been passed at least once through a dog. It was big on spice and empty of salt, so no flavour, only pain. This was washed down with a glucose drink that coated my tongue with something reminiscent of Junior Disprin, and pudding was a Go bar that was like being smacked in the mouth with a sweetie cupboard.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of keeping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, they certainly are not in it for the free lunch.

Nutrition: Amanda Ursell

The isotonic drinks will ensure rapid rehydration, which is vital when doing strenuous work in such a hot climate, and the orange and cranberry will ward off urinary tract infections.

Strawberry porridge, tuna pasta and mixed bean pasta all have a good mix of body-building protein and slow-releasing energy, while cakes and cookies give a quick energy hit before, during and after bursts of activity.

The tomato and basil soup is good for antioxidants and will help to protect the skin from the sun from the inside out.

The soup and the dried sliced apples and peaches, with their super-nutrients, all count towards the ideal of five pieces of fruit and vegetable a day, which is obviously hard to achieve in ration packs.

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