We primarily eat fresh veggies and meat, so I have been torn on keeping canned goods, whether home canned or store bought.  I have some, like green beans, tomatoes, etc., but we just don't use them or often like the diced canned tomatoes.  We don't have a garden to can from, the ground at my house and the location is not supportive, I have tried with little to no success.  

Any approaches or thoughts on this as I like having these items to augment the long term items?  Maybe there isn't, but thought I would check with the experts!

Canned food is never going to be as good as fresh food. But.. hungry people dont seem to mind. Canned goods are easy to store, portable, and are good on a cool shelf for years. It fills a niche for being prepared.

My advice? Pinch your nose, and stock up on canned proteins and fruits at the very least, veggies too if you want. Tuna, chicken... soups, stews, hash... and rotate your preps every few years donating what you wont eat. If the time comes when you need it, it will be there and worth its weight in gold.

As an aside, growing up poor, I can tell you that I was raised on 10-20 year old C rations that were not as good as modern canned foods. Its not that bad. Modern canned beans, soups like chunky, stews, tuna's... are excellent.

Basically what has been said, but also be aware that high acidity foods like tomato based stuff, tomatoes, pineapple, etc will have a tendency to have a shorter shelf life in cans. Given time, they'll destroy the can, so rotate them more frequently. I keep about a one year stock of them, nothing more.

Corn is my go to. It tastes the closest to the fresh stuff IMO. You can get it in mixes or medleys too for a ready made side dish.

Lentils and chickpeas and olives are others I stock up. Mushrooms are okay. I have some carrots, peas, and green beans but they’re for emergencies only, I can’t stand their taste.

Anyway, while it’s better to stock stuff you use so you can rotate it, as BDA says, canned food storage isn’t really about flavor.

Dehydrated food doesn't taste as good as fresh, either, but when you're storing food, you store it in a form that will last.  Having food is more important than having fresh food.

Canned chicken and some of that dried soup mix is a great way to make a meal as long as you have a way to boil water.

We canned chicken last night.


We can chili.


We can pork.


We even can ground beef.

We took the time today to make Blackberry and Red Raspberry preserves.

I don't store any serious amount of canned goods but do have some on hand.  Probably a few dozen various vegetables, tomatoes, and SpaghettiOs and meatballs.  Wife just ordered a 24 pack of canned chicken.  We pack back just enough to use on occasion and not be wasting money on stuff we don't use.  We keep our canned stuff in rotation in our regular kitchen cupboards.  I see zero reason to put back more than we can keep track of on a regular basis.  Stuff I don't worry about keeping track of is dried, freeze dried, and number 10 cans with a year written on them.

Stuff I recommend is a few types of vegetables, tomatoes, protein, and chef Boyardee variants.  Don't go crazy.  Its not hard to work most of that into fresh food cooking.  I actually like chef Boyardee stuff as a treat so YMMV with that

How long does canned chili last?

I’ve seen lots of store bought cans of chili but they suck compared to homemade. If I made a couple batches and canned them in mason jars how long would it keep?

We don't eat that much canned stuff but we keep some for the immediate need if it ever arises. The canned stuff we get every few years gets used at a gathering and or donated before it goes bad.
We used to can our own stuff or store bought veggies. Green beans and corn is about all I like.  Canned chicken is the worst IMO, has the smell and kind of tuna consistency. The wife just did some mixed veggies with chicken last week to give it a try because we wasted too much chicken last time, ended up feeding it to the dogs.

I've pretty much moved mostly into freeze dried meats and veggies, it's more expensive, but we don't have to rotate it as often since we just don't eat much canned foods. I still have several boxes of MRE's for on the move situations too without having to pack as much water. I have loads of rice as well with o2 absorbers in 5 gallon food grade buckets with gamma seals and vacuum sealed pastas.

Canned food tastes bad because you're just not really hungry enough.

Same situation here, there are very few canned items I actually buy to use but I do keep it on hand for emergencies.   Most stuff I'll use well past the date on the package but things like tomatoes I'll give to my folks before it hits the date on the can.  I've gotten into the habit of reading labels on everything I buy and trying to avoid MSG or presevatives but even still I usually rinse whatever it is if possible.  I don't like salty foods and most canned stuff has way too much salt plus whatever chemicals I'd rather not eat.

I’m not sure.  We are still working on that batch in the photo, it was made in October 2023.

True, but it makes it hard to store a lot and rotate it without much waste.

My family doesn’t use much canned food from the grocery store and use mostly fresh as well.  But we have become accustomed to canning food as a sort of pre cooked/planned meal.  We can chili, bean/pea soups, stews, beef and chicken stock.  We like fresh green beans cooked with real butter and bacon, so we dry pack that as well.  These home canned versions of recipes that we like taste remarkably close to what they would taste like fresh off the stove.  Doing this you would have a decent stash of shelf stable food that your family is already used to eating.

I'm not big on canned veggies either.  I don't know if it's "shrinkflation" but there seems to be more liquid than veggie in them these days.  I do have a substantial stash of bags of frozen veggies instead.

The canned goods I stash are more along the lines of refried beans, corned beef hash, sweetened condensed milk, pumpkin... foods without a bunch of added liquids.

Look at it like insurance.   If it's not used it's an acceptable loss.

Donate what you don't use.    Note.... some charities do not want cans past the best by date.   Check in advance.

I got tired of canned food so bought a freeze dryer and and I am trying to put up 24 pounds of meat a week.
Mostly in the form of a chili that formulated to be 1500 calories a pound. I form it into bars that can be consumed dry or reconstituted.
Slowly opening old cans and if they taste ok freeze drying that as well if it seems off feeding it to chickens.

Fresh vegetables?

All you need is a mason jar and some cheese cloth, or any one of the commercially available sprouting jars or trays.

We dont use hardly any commercially canned foods. I think the one that we use the most would be refried beans and that isnt very often either. We usually do the fresh vegetable and fruit route or frozen at the least. Al though I do love canned corn especially canned cream corn. We do home can quite a bit but dont even eat that stuff very often.

But I am also on the philosophy that when it comes time to have to eat that stuff, its going to taste absolutely delicious or it means we arent hungry enough. We have way more freeze dried stuff than canned stuff and that stuff tastes worse than canned. But again, if I have to dip into it, im going to be so thankful to have it, it wont matter what it tastes like. Buy it, store it, and use it if you have to.

Another thing that might work to supplement the canned stuff is to do your own gardening. I know you said your soil wasnt good for it, but you can always to raised bed gardens or container gardens outside. Ive done both and both have worked for me. I also have invested in some of the indoor aerogardens. I have a handful of the large systems, medium systems, and the herb ones. Im not the biggest fans of them when compared to an outside garden, but if I had to use them, I would be happy to do so.

That is how we are, things that would get used in our normal cooking.  I think I might just need to have some and donate near expiration and then buy more.  

If we are hungry,  would definitely eat or use in an emergency type situation,  but just not a part of our daily use.  Fresh is definitely better tasting and healthier,  but something is better than not having when things go south.

We did try the raised beds for gardening but drainage was still problematic given the soil type (clay where the only feasible place is) that coupled with large oak trees blocking sun is just too much for proper growth.

Sounds like a lot of you do not eat store bought canned food.

However, can rollers do a good job for storage if you decide to stock up.  There are much better ones than these, but these are ok.  I should have bought the roller shelves were you put the newest can on top and they roll down with oldest at the bottom.

Lots of options on Amazon of course.

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@AlaskaJohn - Side note, I'm assuming you've done some research on sulforapahne?  If not you may find it interesting, especially as health care declines (and will certainly be difficult if not impossible to get, especially advanced care, if we're reduced to eating emergency stores) and certain diseases increase.  

Not a recommendation, medical advice or anything else, just an interesting aside based on the picture posted.  


Raised beds can be constructed with drainage in mind.  One of the families I know in AZ who live in an area with poor growing conditions constructed raised beds with liners that allow excess water that drains through the soil they had to bring in to be collected and reused instead of just flowing across the hard, rocky ground.  Last I talked to them they were trying to incorporate some aquaponics into the system but I kind of lost touch with them and don't know what's up these days.  A freind of a relative is doing something similar in rocky western NC where he lives.  Last I talked to him he was experimenting with several types of fish to see what worked best for his area; you need to ensure that these are closed systems so that non-native species can't possibly escape into local waterways.

Plenty of plans online for various styles of can rotation systems- one thing to watch for is that a lot of the DIY systems use commonly available materials which make the contraption overly large and cumbersome and use up more space (which is often at a premium, especially in say a closet or when you're trying to store larger quantities.  You may need 2x4s if you're planning to store a rack of heavy #10 cans, but it waste a lot of space if you can use a smaller/narrower system.  8020 costs more up front but the versatility may make up for it for many folks.  Just thinking about one of the setups that was posted on here years ago that the poster had built and while it stored a lot of food, he could have increased his storage capacity by probably a third by spending a bit of money instead of trying to use all free/repurposed/scavenged materials.  Also think about the weight capacity of your floors; at my last house I had to add support under the 80yr old house for my gun safe (and it's just a standard safe, nothing heavy duty or oversized) just due to the way the house was built back then and had been added on to over the years prior to my ownership.

We’ve canned our red chili and pork and green chili and pork. We eat it all the time, but have used it as far as two years out. Open up our can and it smells and taste just as fresh as it did the day I put it in. I have never had a seal leak or the vacuum seal stop working.

We also can, beef, chicken, pork, meatloaf, jellies, as well as veggies. Asparagus, zucchini, beets, and other veggies. Oh yeah, we also pickle eggs. Never had a problem with any of them.

I'm eating canned fruit that "expired" in 2012/13, no issues so far.

Can't tell much of a difference from that to new production.

For your raised beds or even growing in pots, you can use a combination of coconut coir and perlite with your compost/soil mix. You can play with the mixtures to suit your plants needs. I am currently using this method because all I have is sand where I live.

Canned food is fine when you are hungry-but beware that it doesn’t last forever, especially high acidity foods like tomato based products and things like canned pineapple. The cans leak in a few years.


For that reason, it sounds like you and your family are poor candidates for a stash of canned food because you won’t consume it regularly enough to rotate thru it. What you can do is stock up on bulk dry goods, buy a grain mill for making flour for bread, etc. The Mormon canneries are a great asset if you have one nearby-they carry a lot of dry goods and were very helpful for us-most of their goods are useful for soups and stews as well as bulk filler foods… understand when it comes to things like beans and rice, wheat etc. that there is a difference between being “fed” and “not being hungry”…

Once you have your dry goods, put back a god supply of cooking oil. Yes, it will only last a year or two before going rancid-but fat is one of the two hardest things to replace in a diet (protein is the other)  and without oil you are limited to boiling or baking food. When it spoils, look at the rotation cost as paying on an insurance policy.

Canned meats are a fairly safe bet and last a while, consider those before your last step: freeze dried. Some amount of freeze dried can go a long way when mixed with cheap filler….. as package of  Mountain House Chili Mac can feed a whole family if you boil up a cup of rice and mix it in…. Rolled oats for oatmeal for breakfast is also a great option and cheap enough you can afford to have a lot of it (or make it out of wheat berries) and eat a lot of it guilt free when SHTF…..

I try to be pragmatic about food preps. I spent a fair bit on mine because I figure that if I am ever reduced to a point where I am eating it, i will be doing a lot more manual labor to get thru my day and the meals would be the high point of the day.

Honestly, if you are going to do this right, it means constantly being on the lookout for deals on survival food and sniffing out leads…. I remember one time I bought a can of freeze dried steaks from a guy on EBay and they had an odd label…. I knew they were made by Mountain House and were likely overstocked .mil contract overruns so I asked if he had more than the one can I bought… Turned out he had 7 cases and I bought all of it for $100 a case…. That $700 would be $4900 today if you could find them..

Consider a freeze drier-I had use of one for almost 2 years before my house fire and it made a huge dent in my food preps. I can’t say enough about that, and if you like to cook you just make a double batch and set one aside for the machine. Almost everything rehydrates to a 90% facsimile of what the fresh food was, sometimes better. Chicken on sale today is much cheaper than regular price 20 years from now…. Hell, I was buying cases of 60 eggs for $5.21 two years ago…. Look at the price now…. They will last forever freeze dried, I can see a time in retirement where a dozen eggs might be $10, I’ll likely never pay that myself for all of them I put back.

True, but hardly anyone buys dehydrated food now that freeze dried is relatively plentiful, if expensive.

Actually am Mormon and have a cannery nearby and use to even go there when you could still Actually can your own items.  I probably have year supply and regularly add to it.   I have freezers of meat and some canned, need to do more of that.

Cooking oil is good too, I have oil several years past the date, but it's  stored in a cool and dark basement and lasts much longer.

I just don't see a freeze drier in the near future,  a time and cost issue.  Really focusing on paying off the house.  I  can definitely keep us from being hungry  already and to eat decently.

Try some freeze dried meals and see if they would work for you.  Sure, they cost more than canned food if rotated, but if that's not an option, try something else.  

Go to your local place that sells sporting goods and get a few of the pouches.  Wait until you and your family are hungry (preferably after some exertion), and the boiling water, and see how it goes.  You could also try some of the dry soup mixes which are easy to get the grocery store.    

Freeze dried food isn't as cost effective as canned, but it does last a lot longer.

THIS is the type of canning OP should get/do.  There are so many additives or garbage in commerically canned good.  We call the canned food section of the supermarket the Masoleum of Dead Food.

Having a paid off house is a huge leg up in preparedness and between a choice of having a freeze drier and paying off a house, there’s no question for me-do what you can to ditch the house payment and secure your family’s future. I’m terrified of what might happen if David Allen Webb is right in his recent E-book with what is going to happen with paper assets held by banks that are being forced to acquire toxic debt…. My own house will be paid off in the next few weeks most likely. It’s just a matter of whether I do it out of pocket or wait for a little more insurance money from the fire to come in.

Debt free is the only way to be if you can swing it.