Abstract: Measuring the consumption of combat ration packs (CRP) in a military field environment provides two important types of information: an individual’s food consumption and hence their nutritional intake, and the consumption of food items at individual and system level (product performance data), which is important for optimizing CRP consumption and reducing wastage. Established methods to determine nutritional intake or product performance in other settings are not well suited to such field work; firstly due to practical reasons associated with working in a military field environment, and secondly because they typically provide only one type of information sought. A ration tracker system (RTS) was thus developed to accurately track the consumption of CRP items during military field trials providing simultaneously the two types of information sought. The challenges in developing such a system are identified, results from the first trial of the RTS presented and future development opportunities discussed. A field trial of the prototype RTS demonstrated how the use of CRP can be better monitored. This information can then be used for continual product improvement (CPI) of CRP to meet the nutritional requirements of personnel and to ensure the CRP system is effective, efficient and economical.