Because he wasn't speaking through his colon. Perishables like fresh veg and dairy are renewed every 10-14 days. Normally. Along with tinned and other items with long shelf life (rice, pasta, flour, sugar and so forth) frozen goods held in reefers (massive refrigeration units) . Generally, the reefers would hold 30-45 days of ingredients of meals. They are resupplied on-the-go with general rotation so the sailors, marines, and aviators on board don't suffer from a thing called "menu fatigue"- having the same thing for weeks at a time. This is done both throughout the normal refrigeration cycle (I can't remember if the menu rotated every two or three weeks) and things get changed up around holidays and religious periods like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Assuming a minimum complement of 5,000 personnel: That's 5,000 personnel x three meals a day x number of days. 5000*3*30 = 450,000 to 5000*3*45 = 675,000 meals. If the supply chain is disrupted over an extended period caused by something like, I don't know destroying the resupply base and having all the other bases in the region under immediate threat then the supply chain is lengthened. In this case, according to publicly available reports, Diego Garcia was the main supply base, 2,200 miles away. Any fresh fruit or veg loaded at DG would be halfway through its shelf life by the time it got to the Persian Gulf after a five journey and an additional; day for loading onto the various ships in the carrier group. Supply vessels containing fuel or replacement ordnance do not suffer this issue as they are not perishable. But the humans those on the ships require sustenance. The USS George Washington is going to have the same issue.
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