I’m not, nor have I ever been, in the military. But I can tell you, with complete certainty, that one of the things I would miss the most about having to subside on MREs for months would be a nice slice of pepperoni pizza.

Apparently, we’re closer than ever to giving our soldiers just that – MRE pizza.

The AP reports that a military lab in Massachusetts is “closing in” on the recipe that would allow pizza to be stored, in 80+ degree temperatures, for up to three years.

Three year pizza.

The science behind this focuses a lot on moisture–mainly preventing water from the sauce and cheese from making its way to the dough and forming perfect breeding grounds for mold and bacteria. Food scientists have apparently been able stop moisture from getting into the dough with a binder called a humectant. They’ve also altered much of the composition of the cheese and sauce to make it less susceptible to spoiling.

Of course, this is all still being tested and is not quite ready to ship out to troops. Although, the troops will be super excited if and when it does–apparently pizza has been the most-requested MRE for years.

As far as the taste, well, it tastes like pizza. At least that’s what they say.

“I was a little skeptical at first,” Paul DellaRocca, program integrator at the Defense Department’s Combat Feeding Directorate, told Stars and Stripes. “I come from an Italian family and I’d be lying if I said my mother wouldn’t be disappointed if she heard that a pizza would last for three years. But it tasted like—what do you know—pizza!”

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