I've posted several times here about the shelf life of regualar canned goods.  Contrary to some beliefs, my own research has shown that canned goods offer good intermediate term storage (5 years) for most foods.  That is just taste and texture; actually, the food itself has an almost indefinate shelf life.



Well, a few days ago I decided to test my research and opened up a can of Tuna from 2003 that I had bought when I first started prepping.  Being a cautious soul, I first made sure the can was intact and the smell and appearance were good, which they were.  So, I took a few small bites and you know what...it was fine.  There was a slight breakdown in the firmness of the tuna, ever so slight and certainly not enough to make it anything less than a decent can of tuna.



I also drank some EnSure that was 4 years old, and it was fine too.  A little clumping near the top, and a slight degradation in taste, but still well within the definition of good and edible.



All items were stored in my basement.  Temp was between 65-70degF year round.  Humidity between 50-70%.



Now I know I should be rotating, but the problem is i'm a prepper and my wife thinks I'm nuts.  So, we basically have two pantrys...her day to day one and my basebent SHTF one.  Never the twain do meet.  We agree on most else, esp. Jesus!

I opened a can of tuna last month that expired in 2005. It had a slightly metalic taste, but that was easily covered with pepper, mayonaise, relish, and eggs.

As as been said here before by some (including myself), the shelf life of canned goods has a lot to do with the conditions it was stored in, as well as how well it was canned.

I rotate stock. But it doesn't give me any pause knowing that I have canned goods that are five years old and getting older. When the time comes that I need to eat it, I'll pop the top and do the smell/sight test. If it seems fine, then most-like it is fine. To my knowledge, if canned food tastes, looks, and smells fine... most of the time it is. Especially after it's cooked.

i got a massage using a tube of expired in 2003 icy-hot last night and it was great.

I recently rotated my cabinets and found a can of Progresso Minestrone that expired in 2007

It smelled good and looked good but after a few spoonfuls I remember why that can had been sitting there for so long.

I don't like Minestrone!  

Still, I plan to use up my emergency stockpile before it expires or donate it to food banks.

I've found pasta in just it's normal supermarket cardboard box has a very long shelf life as well.

I've been eating ziti from 2003 the last couple days, and it boils up as good as new boxed pasta.  I did nothing special, just stored it on the shelf.  I'm guessing it'd last many years without degradation in a dry cabinet.

For the most part the only thing that degrades with time is the nutritional content. e.g. vitamins.

I have had mixed results with canned Raviloli...I had found the meat a bit dried out is stuff that is 2 and 3 years old. It doesn't tast all that shit hot either. I would eat it if need be.

We tend to go through our summer produce (green beans & salsa) around this time of year.  I don't think we have ever went over 1 year with canned food from the garden.


THE BEST green bean recipe is to find a hambone (honeybaked ham preferred) chop up some yellow onion sparingly and dump the green beans in it.


A lot of our winter cooking is done indoors as the heat from the stove helps heat the house.  We always tend to warm things back up every day till the meal is gone.  Beats grilling in 4* weather.

i ate some walmart brand spam from 99 a few months ago, it was yummy

ewwww Spam

I have been prepping for several years.  I have never eaten Spam, and unless I am starving to death, I will never eat Spam.  Now, once I have been eating MRE's for a couple months and it's been months since I have had a good meal, Spam may be more appetizing.  But I expect to be dead before I get to that point.


Please, let me be dead before I want to eat Spam!

AMEN!

Glad I found this thread, am a bit new to the prepping game... gonna hit a wholesaler in the next few weeks and canned goods, beans and honey are the first on the list to acquire.

Good on you guys for sharin the info.  Much appreciated.

As long as can hasn't let air in and the lining of the can is intact , should be safe. Nutrition values will be lower but not as low as tree bark...

I have used expired canned goods, they were all fine. We now are working together and rotating food. Oh and the pantry o larger, like 3Xs.

Wish I could get it through my wife's head that first in is 1st out...

Great post ..canned goods have a good shelf life just remember rotate,rotate...i concur pasta seems to have a almost indefinite shelf life. thats why my preps have plenty of it. Its a no fail prep item. Just recently went to the buckets and mylars for bulk goods..rice,beans dry milk,cornmeal and flour. got a big problem with weevils getting to the stuff stored in the paper bags. i will open within a year and reseal to check how they hold up.    

I am eating home canned green beans from 1999.  I still have about 20 quart jars of '99 left.  Then time to start on the 2000 crop.

Not just Spam, but decade old, Walmart brand spam! The rejected, leftover stuff Hormel refused to put their name on!

I hate to admit it but I actually like grilled Spam-n-cheese sammiches.

if you don't like that kind of sammich...you are either a communist or you've never had it cooked right....but most likely ur a commie and you don't like babies or puppies

Well I hate to say this but her pantry and yours need to meet and merge. One of the worst things in life one can do is waste food and that is what you are setting yourself up for. So try to merge the two pantrys for everyones sake.

I mark the outside of my canned goods with a sharpie with the date of when I purchased them. Then I rotate all the goods as I use them...I don't buy food that I would never intend on eating.

So far I have not gotten to the point where I have had to try expired food since we eat it before it gets to that point.

I am glad to know that SPAM-like food products carry such a long half-life

As a kid ,we ate canned goods regularly that were 15-20years old.
Some,who knows!
My folks grew up during the Depression and NOTHING got thrown out!
Also, had LOTS of canned goods under the house.
(there is STILL homemade hooch down there my Dad made right after he got back from WWII-that I AIN'T trying)
I'm still kicking,so canned goods must've been alright.

One day in 1985, my best friend from High School and I were hungry, he had just gotten back from his 4 year hitch in the army (he ended up soldiering along a full 20 in the NG), and we opened a can of C rat fruitcake, packed in 1968, according to the can.

It was yummy, and I lived to tell the tale. Good thing it wasn't Ham n' Lima's....

"Best by" doesn't mean it's no good the day after the expiration date. I don't remember where I saw it, but I read an article recently that talked quite a bit about expiration dates and there's evidently quite a bit of cushion before even the flavor would be affected.

I've gotten in the habit of looking at the best by dates over the past few months and it's kind of interesting how much longer some things last than others. Soup and canned fruit seem to be some of the longest at around 2+ years. One that kind of surprised me is canned salmon is good for 5 years. Dry noodles are good for several years. Sugar supposedly lasts forever.

Someone mentioned cooking it even if it smells bad. That's wrong. Botulism produces a heat stable toxin that isn't affected by cooking. Very nasty stuff. If it smells bad or if the can is bloated, don't eat it.

Canned goods will last for quite awhile if stored in a cool area.  The only thing to worry about is if the can is bugling on one end or both.  If it is then throw the stuff away.  Also if you see some form of leakage around the seams.  If you buying in bulk then double check the cans, dented ones should not be used as well.  Dented cans could have the seal broken.

I noticed that several years ago and now I've got a pretty good amount of it. Just bought some cans the other day that had an exp date of 2014! Wonder why they give it so long?

BTW... what's up with these posts not liking Spam and similar canned meats? I LOVE a good grilled spam sammich on buttered toast with mustard! I could just about live on that type of stuff (though it's pretty salty). I just cracked a can of vienna sausage the other day for a snack. That must really gross some posters out.  

All I have to say is "YUMMAY!" to canned meats. I'd skip the canned veggies and just do the meats if it were up to my tastes.

Guess some of you guys wouldn't like the special at Mcdonalds in Hawaii.....  Spam and eggs breakfest platter with a side of cube pineapple.   It is delicious!!!!

Chef Boyardee Ravioli 2.5 yrs old - an AAR

There was a thread recently about having Ravioli in your preps so I thought I'd sacrifice myself IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE (echo-echo-echo).  I knew I had some ravioli from a while back so I thought I'd give it a shot eating it and see how it was.

This ravioli I purchased in May of 2006 (I mark my cans with a sharpie when I buy them with the month/year) is the kind with the 'easy open' top and has a 'best used by' date of DEC082007.  Upon further inspection the cans are not bulged, rusty, or dented.

Opening the can I detect no foul or iffy odors.  It smells mildly "tinny" but I expected that.  Color of the ravioli is a bit faded and doesn't look very appetizing but I'm not seeing any real signs of it being bad.

I try eating it cold, in case that in an emergency situation I don't have any way to heat it.  It has a very mild tinny taste and is a little "tougher" than normal but seems to be fine otherwise.  I heat the rest in a bowl and try it, not bad at all.  The mild tinny taste seems to be mostly gone and it's actually pretty good with a little parmesan cheese on it.

We've eaten 3 cans of this lot so far and have experience NO ill effects whatsoever.  I noticed that the ravioli did taste different from can to can but that's not a huge surprise because I believe that the 'easy open' tops shorten the shelf life somewhat.

I bought new ravioli and am in the process of rotating the old out.  In my opinion it's perfectly fine to eat after this long, but I wouldn't keep it very much longer.  

I know this isn't canned goods, but two days ago i ate bacon from costco that had a use by date of sep 19.    It didn't taste as good as fresher bacon, but it wasn't moldy and i didn't get sick.    the package was opened in my fridge, so the end pieces were dried out.    I didn't eat those.   fried em up real good, they were ok.

Dibs when you die!!

I'm fine-   i did get a little bit of stomach gas from it, nothing real bad.    I'd do it again, but i hope to manage my culture growing box in the kitchen a little better so I DON'T have to.  

The way I look at canned goods is I have my Stash and I have my regular items we use regularly , When it comes around to mid 2010 to 2011 I will start rotating out the stuff in the stash and replacing it...... I dont know about eating OLD stuff unless I have to, then its a different story

I once ate an MRE in 1997 that has M&Ms in it from the 1984 or 1988 olympic games in it..... that did not go over so well.... probably due to the way it was stored.... Thats when I was still at Drum....

Spam from 1999 was consumed 3 months ago with no ill effects.  I have had some cans of other food go bad, but surprisingly, they were vegetables.  I found canned salmon in the store with an expiration of 2012, so it looks to be a safe bet for adding to the stocks.  I also bought a few cans of B&M brown bread with raisins in the can.  Not bad tasting, and almost makes for a meal in itself.  Stocking up with the need to feed 4 adults for indeterminate period.  

FWIW, what do you folks think about the survival bars, like the mayday, or datrex 3600 cal packs?

I know that I have ranted about this in other threads in prior times... But, the "best by date" is only that..

We have routinely opened cans of food that are well beyond their stamped date with no ill effects. Yes, there is some degredation in flavor and texture, but it is still perfectly edible. Nutrition is still one that is up to debate since I'm not an expert, it still made a turd (kinda like airplane food)

If the cans have not rusted or bulged over time, its probably safe. Just use common sense and do the smell test first. Canned goods (both steel cans and jars) have been around for a long time before they were date stamped, humanity as a whole lived through it just fine using their senses to tell them when something has "gone over" or is no longer safe to eat.

I almost think that the "best by" date is nothing more than a marketing ploy to get folks to throw away perfectly good food and replace it with newly purchased goods...

Just my $.02... YMMV

c0
____________________________
Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
http://Tpass.org

Semi-hijack here.  

Under the category of "shelf life".

I cleaned out some Y2K stuff in my garage last fall.  Most of the following had been stored for at least ten years, some probably closer to 12-15.  Here are the results that I found... uh, "interesting".

Dawn dish soap:  Good old Dawn.  My GF saw the container a while back and said, "Wow!  A trip back in time."  It was the "green" stuff - the original Dawn.  Worked just like usual and the smell, color, etc. were all just like I remember it back when I purchased it.

Suave Shampoo:  This was an OLD white plastic container of "coconut" blend Suave Shampoo.  At least 15 years old.  It came out of an old "grab box" that had been stored in the heat and cold in my garage attic for many of those years.  I cleaned that box and several others out after reading Shane Steinkamp's Listening to Katrina and condensed them into a single box.  But anyway, back to the AAR.  The scent was no longer a pleasant coconut smell... it was, well, funky with a weird, almost unpleasant "twang" to it.  The color was a light brown, very much different from the usual "creme" color one normally associates with coconut scented shampoos.  As for as cleaning the hair, I've got oily hair and it did a fine job getting things squeaky clean and didn't leave any noticeable funky smells and it didn't give me dandruff flakes or scabies and it sure as hell didn't reverse my receding hairline.  It just smelled kind of nasty lathering it up.  I threw out the stuff after a few uses.  I couldn't stand it anymore.  Life's too short to use crap-smelling shampoo.

Sun Light dish soap:  After killing the Dawn bottle a couple of weeks back, I dove into another ancient bottle of dish soap.  Sun Light in lemon scent.  Smell was no longer lemon, although the color was about right.  I have to use two- to three-times as much as normal to get the stuff to act like it's making any suds or for it to actually remove greasy residue from plates and pots and pans.

Speed Stick:  Contrary to my assumptions, the stuff goes bad.  I had to throw out numerous sticks of the Speed Stick Antiperspirant of pre-Y2K vintage because the stuff was so dry that it just fell apart when you tried to apply it, leaving a messy, almost sand-like residue.  I think three to five years might be the outside envelope for storage of Speed Stick.

The good news:  The toilet paper from 1996 works just fine.  And as an added bonus you get more sheets per roll than today.

I haven't sampled my Y2K barter booze, which includes Jack, Jim, Stoli, and a few other favorites.  I'm almost afraid of what I'll find.  Jose got drunk a long time ago and was just fine.

Hope these reviews help you in your storage plans.

John

nvm....im alive

There is some good info in this thread, and some not so good, and a little bad science.  I'm a practicing "Food Scientist" working for a major food company so here are some hints.

1.  Dates on food packages do two things.  (1) they ensure that stores sell the freshest product possible, and (2) they give the food company and store some amount of protection from those who don't know much about food and nutrition, but like to complain!

2.  Food, especially canned food, can be good well past it's "date".  The length of time is variable.  Food stored below 70°F, perhaps well below (45-60°F) may store for a few years past the date.  Food stored above 70°F will not last as long and food stored at 90-100°F or higher may not even last as long as the date.  Food quality is a time-temperature relationship – the higher the temperature, the shorter the time.  Package dates are based on 70°F storage.

3.  The nutrition in food (vitamins, minerals, fat, protein, carbohydrates) change very little over time in a can.  What degradation occured during the heat treatment in the factory is about all that will occur over time.  You can generally expect the Nutrition Facts panel on the back to be valid, even over time.

4.  There are two things that can happen to the food over time.  (1) it can spoil in one of two ways.  First, anarobic bacteria in the can, not killed during the thermal processing in the factory, can grow, produce toxin – sometimes lethal toxin – and/or organoleptic changes (gas, odor, etc.).  Two, chemical changes may occur in that chemical reactions like the acid in tomato containing products may eat their way through the special lining inside the can and prodce gas and metalic taste when contacting the steel in the can itself.  Never eat anything from a can with s bulged top or bottom, or both!  Another chemical change is the change in fats and proteins over time that produce bad odors and flavors.  These may not be dangerous but since the presence of pathogenic bacteria are often accompanied by bad odors and flavors, don't eat food that doesn't smell normal, and for heaven's sake don't taste it!

From 1978 to 1982 I was an Army Officer serving in Germany.  The wall was still up and we were prepared to stem the tide of the Russian hordes if they came over the border!  I had staff responsibility for enough MREs to feed an entire Corps (think 60-70,000 soldiers in southern Germany) for ten days, three meals a day (70,000 X 3 meals per day X 10 days / 12 meals per case = 175,000 cases – an impressive sight to see).  MREs are "retort pouches" – think "flexible cans".  They were stored at 50-60°F and were supposed to last 3 years.  In fact, at those temperatures they lasted 5-6 years.  They would have lasted longer but we had a rotation policy where they were pulled and issued to troops during field exercises, replaced, and continually rotated.  Cans are like that except the manufacturers won't put a three year shelf like on them because they can't trust you and me to use them up in a timely fashion.  Lots of people would keep them ten or more years without rotating them – all the while eating the stuff they just bought from the grocery store!

I hope this helps.

Is there any impact to the canning method to the shelf life of canned goods.  What I am asking about is the difference between easy open pull tabs on soups and some canned goods as opposed to traditionally sealed cans.

  Yes this helps immensely, thank you support six.

I just used a canned ham from 1998 and could not tell the difference from when it was new.

Here is a tip, either dip your cans in wax or use a clear spray sealant to coat you cans that will help prevent rust on the cans.

What about the shelf life of Ramen Noodles?  Because I have tons of the noodles. They don't expire any time soon, but I'm just curious how long I can keep them. Plus they're so cheap to buy if they last long they would be a good thing to stock.

FWIW, Steve from MREDepot posted some interesting facts on another board.

For those who don't know, his firm not only distributes but also had a cannery that does their canned meats and bacon. He's pretty conversant with the process and requirements. He stated the following: "There is no Best By or Expiration Date on the meats because the USDA doesn’t require it if you can prove through an accelerated shelf life study (University) that the shelf life is longer than 5 years, which we did at our expense. But they do require a Date of Manufacture to be printed on the can."

In a further statement:: "Now, the less conservative estimation from the U.S. Cannery Association, and I quote them directly; “Canned food has a shelf life of at least two years from the date of processing. Canned food retains its safety and nutritional value well beyond two years, but it may have some variation in quality, such as a change of color and texture. Canning is a high-heat process that renders the food commercially sterile. Food safety is not an issue in products kept on the shelf or in the pantry for long periods of time. In fact, canned food has an almost indefinite shelf life at moderate temperatures (75° F and below). Canned food as old as 100 years has been found in sunken ships and it is still microbiologically safe! We don't recommend keeping canned food for 100 years, but if the can is intact, not dented or bulging, it is edible.”"

Some good links on can dating are
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/food_product_dating/index.asp
http://www.mealtime.org/content.aspx?id=160
http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftjan05.htm

+1     I was under the impression it was the nutrients in the food that went first.  It might taste like tuna but it has all the nutritional value of a paper sack.

Im keeping the old stuff for people that mock me for prepping

This is incorrect.  The nutritional value of food consists of protein, fat, carbohydrate, water, vitamins, and minerals.  These things don't just disappear in a can over time.  Minerals are usually metals or other small compounds.  Where do they go?  How can you get rid of a basic element on the periodic table like iron?  Some vitamins are more complex and can break down but the heating process (called retorting) in the manufacturing plant is more responsible for vitamin degredation than time.  The nutritional statement on the label takes in to account the heating process so what you read is what you get.  Fats and proteins can break down into smaller components but their basic building blocks are still there.  This is what your body does anyway in metabolism.  However, these basic building blocks of fats and proteins can "crosslink" with each other producing some interesting compounds that don't taste or smell very good (think of rancid, oxidized, polymerized fat) but your body can still metabolize most of that.  So "tuna to paper sack" is absolutely wrong.  The loss of nutrition in an old can of food is based more on the fact a person will not eat the food if it doesn't taste or smell fresh!

Excuse my ignorance, how to goods in jars go? I'm presuming it's a very similar process (if not the same) to home canning? Home canning is very rare over here though so I don't know the ins and outs of it. I'm building up a bit of a stash of pasta sauces and what not, just wanting to make sure it'll be ok for a while. Obviously kept out of sunlight and heat, vacuum seals still intact.

Very similar process, very hot food placed into a jar, or food placed into a jar and then heated and then sealed. The nice thing about pasta sauce is that tomatoes generally have a low pH so they tend to fare better than other canned goods with higher pHs. The low pH inhibits Clostridium Botulinum from growing FYI.

Kept out of the light and in cool temps the jars should last for years.

The one Achilles heal of all canned goods is the fact that they rely 100% upon their seal. A good smack to the lid or jar can disrupt this seal and unknowingly contaminate your food. Earthquakes, transportation, and generally handling can all do this. This is 1 reason I am a huge fan of dehydrating vs canning. Dehydrating produces a longer shelf life, safer food, smaller storage space, and a huge weight savings.

I like to buy the pasta sauce powder packets and dehydrate tomatoes or tomato paste and then I can make my own sauce when the time comes whether it is in 1 year from now or 10 years.

I feel stupid right now. I now know why canning is so rare over here. It's called bottling. We're busy sorting through all my grandma's stuff after she moved out of her house, found a book on bottling. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier. Sadly the equipment is long gone, but it turns out there's still a manufacturer in town. I should of known to ask someone who lived through rationing in Britain during the war about such things.

Back on the subject, we also found a few cans of tomatoes in the garage. My granddad has written June 1996 on them, which I guess is the purchase date, possibly the best before date. Two are dented badly around the rim, the others are fine. If I stop posting suddenly it's probably not a good to eat from cans that have been sitting around too long.

How can humidity affect canned goods... explain please..

Well first you have to look at what material your container is made out of; steel, aluminum, tin, plastic, glass etc.

Now if we are talking about plain metal cans or canning jars with metal lids then they have a common weak point, their metal components will oxidize with time. Now inorder to oxidize there has to be two things, water and oxygen. High humidity provided the water and the atmosphere provides the oxygen. Over time the metal can degrade and eventually disrupt your normally sound seals. There are several methods for preserving your canned goods in the presence of high humidity that many use. #1 Clear Coat, #2 Waxing, #3 Spray Silicone.