Posted: 1/24/2012 4:49:34 PM EDT
Ok, maybe "exploding" isn't the best word to use, but the lids keep blowing off my cans. First it was a can of oranges, I opened the pantry to find orange shit covering everything. The lid was off, the can was on its side, and the contents were everywhere. 
Today, I noticed something strange. On closer inspection the lid was off of a can of pineapple, the contents of the can had mold growing on them. The bottom of the can was bulged out. The lid was in perfect condition sitting next to the can. I'm guessing that somehow the cans weren't sealed properly or leaked. Once bacteria started growing in there, gasses built up and eventually blew the lid (the weak point in the can) off. I guess. I don't run the heat or a/c much, but it's not like my pantry is an extreme environment temperature-wise. What the hell is happening to my cans? Are some brands of canned goods better than others? Why am I storing this crap if it's just going to blow open on me before I need it?
|
|
Quoted:
Ok, maybe "exploding" isn't the best word to use, but the lids keep blowing off my cans. First it was a can of oranges, I opened the pantry to find orange shit covering everything. The lid was off, the can was on its side, and the contents were everywhere.
Today, I noticed something strange. On closer inspection the lid was off of a can of pineapple, the contents of the can had mold growing on them. The bottom of the can was bulged out. The lid was in perfect condition sitting next to the can. I'm guessing that somehow the cans weren't sealed properly or leaked. Once bacteria started growing in there, gasses built up and eventually blew the lid (the weak point in the can) off. I guess. I don't run the heat or a/c much, but it's not like my pantry is an extreme environment temperature-wise. What the hell is happening to my cans? Are some brands of canned goods better than others? Why am I storing this crap if it's just going to blow open on me before I need it? Looks like you called the problem right there. You've got a problem with your canning process. Only other thing it could be is that oranges and pineapples are acidic and might have corroded the lids, but if you're using new high quality lids I doubt this. How long ago were these cans put up? |
|
what's happening is, you didn't can them properly. They MUST go into properly sterilized containers, and they MUST be sealed while at a high temperature. What you are seeing is what happens when mold or bacteria are allowed to grow in a sealed environment.
The seal was OK, but the food or the containers were contaminated by mold or bacteria. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Sorry, I should have clarified something: these were store-bought canned goods. ETA: they haven't been in there long. Maybe 2 years max. My tomato juice was store bought too. Am I just unlucky? Are there different tiers of canned goods manufacturers? 
It's not like I have 87,000 cans and 2 went bad. I have maybe 2-3 dozen cans total in the pantry. |
|
wow.... In twenty years of using canned goods (and we have 'em stacked by the damn case) I've never had a single can 'explode'. I'm talking commercially processed tins. For that matter, I'v never had a can that even bulged for no apparent reason. I have have maybe two cans that bulged, but both had been severely dented.
If your cans are bulging, and they are not dented or corroded, then there is only one possible reason: The canned goods in question were not properly sterilized, sealed and processed. This is an "at the manufacturing plant" failure of huge proportions. I know we hve never had an issue, but I will also state this: We arevery careful with regards to what we buy. We flat out refuse to buy any food manufactured or processed in China. Period. It does not have to be USA, but it had better not be chinese. I am rally quite curious as to the countr of origin on those cans that exploded. For what its worth I've used cans many years out of date. No problems. Frozenny |
|
Just looked at an identical can to the one that blew today. Kroger brand, says "product of Thailand" in the small print.
The oranges were a while back and I don't have any more, so not sure where they came from - probably Kroger, but no idea where they were canned. |
|
Quoted:
wow.... In twenty years of using canned goods (and we have 'em stacked by the damn case) I've never had a single can 'explode'. I'm talking commercially processed tins. For that matter, I'v never had a can that even bulged for no apparent reason. I have have maybe two cans that bulged, but both had been severely dented. If your cans are bulging, and they are not dented or corroded, then there is only one possible reason: The canned goods in question were not properly sterilized, sealed and processed. This is an "at the manufacturing plant" failure of huge proportions. I know we hve never had an issue, but I will also state this: We arevery careful with regards to what we buy. We flat out refuse to buy any food manufactured or processed in China. Period. It does not have to be USA, but it had better not be chinese. I am rally quite curious as to the countr of origin on those cans that exploded. For what its worth I've used cans many years out of date. No problems. Frozenny I misunderstood. I thought these were things you had canned yourself. I think the problem is that everything you have mentioned is acidic. Oranges, Pineapples, and Tomatoes are all acidic and have the shortest shelf life in metal cans. The problem is that the interior of the can has a coating (sometimes an enamel). That coating is being slowly dissolved by the acid in the product. Once it gets through the enamel it will eat through the metal fairly quickly, at which point the sterile environment is compromised. Acidic products will generally have the shortest shelf life of all products canned in metal cans. Higher temperatures will aggravate this even further. Also, I've notice that off brand versions of these products seem to go a little quicker, I suspect that the internal coating is not as thick as what is used on some of the name brand products. I don't think what you're experiencing is too far out of what to expect for these type products. |
|
Quoted:
What the hell is happening to my cans? Educational video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFWZ37ziMag&feature=related |
|
Ok.. here is the deal.. What I have found is anything acidic, like tomato sauces, or canned fruits have this problem and need to be rotated MUCH more often than other canned goods. What happened was that the fruit in the can started to ferment, gas built up in the can and BOOM. Its the main reason I don't store canned fruits of any kind. My tomato sauces sit right in the front of my storage racks, and are the easiest to rotate out as well. If they blow they wont take much with them AND it reminds me to rotate them often. If you want to store canned fruit, just be sure to rotate it often.. I would be safe and say every 6 months. |
|
Quoted:
Ok.. here is the deal.. What I have found is anything acidic, like tomato sauces, or canned fruits have this problem and need to be rotated MUCH more often than other canned goods. What happened was that the fruit in the can started to ferment, gas built up in the can and BOOM. Its the main reason I don't store canned fruits of any kind. My tomato sauces sit right in the front of my storage racks, and are the easiest to rotate out as well. If they blow they wont take much with them AND it reminds me to rotate them often. If you want to store canned fruit, just be sure to rotate it often.. I would be safe and say every 6 months. If it ferments it means that something was left alive in the canning process. True canning is not just putting food into a can, it's heating up the food and the can and then sealing the hot food in the hot can. Done properly the food should stay edible until the can corrodes through, which could be decades. These fruits were probably not heated, just put in the can with some preservatives. Poor quality control probably resulted in insufficient preservatives. You are right to rotate out fruits more often, but blowing up is not a normal thing for canned fruit. I tend to avoid Asian food products, except Japanese. |
|
Echofivekilo,
Thank you for posting this thread. First, obviously, do not eat any food from that production lot. Did the packaging have any signs of damage or corrosion that would have led to a loss of a hermetic seal? If the integrity of the package is not disrupted, then it was a problem with their processing line, which is definitely not good. All canned food should be packaged at sufficient temperatures to kill not only aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, but also bacteria in spore form, this includes molds in vegetative and spore form as well. The only way you can get "bad" canned food, or fermentation as someone alluded to before, is if it was processed and packaged incorrectly, or the packaging lost its hermetic seal, which will eventually happen due to chemical reaction with the packaging material (ie: corrosion of the can). Do you have any cans left from that lot? If so, do not open them and call the manufacturer ASAP while you have some left. The manufacturer, well at least the people who actual know the significance of what's going on, will definitely want to see the unopened cans. More specifically, the food science and packaging engineers will want to examine the unopened cans and work the problem backwards. At a minimum, make a phone call and give them your can codes and tell them what happened. If they are worth their salt, they will comp you for your time and attention, at least with coupons. If they don't, make a stink and get some coupons or a reimbursement check. Sounds to me like something was wrong with their processing lines and they will want to know this to prevent people from getting sick or worse. Moreover, the FDA will definitely want to know this as well. I would also call the FDA and complain as soon as possible so they can recall that whole production lot. The FDA will need the codes off the cans. This is another good reason why I don't buy foreign processed foods. 
|
|
The cans all look fine. No corrosion or obvious problems with any of them (except the one that burst open, of course).
I'm not nearly as organized as most of you guys. There are two more cans of the pineapple that were sitting next to the one that blew open. I'm assuming that I bought them all at the same time. Tomorrow when I get a minute, I'll look for contact info and try to let someone know what happened. Thanks for all the info so far, everyone. I'll update if/when I find out anything. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Sorry, I should have clarified something: these were store-bought canned goods. ETA: they haven't been in there long. Maybe 2 years max. My tomato juice was store bought too. Am I just unlucky? Are there different tiers of canned goods manufacturers?
It's not like I have 87,000 cans and 2 went bad. I have maybe 2-3 dozen cans total in the pantry. 3 DOZEN CANS? 2 YEARS OLD? Do you prep or eat out all the time? That just hits me as really odd. How long are you gonna survive if Mcdonalds doesn't get tomorrow's shipment? You have a room full od MRE's? Edit to add, My first geuss would have been that the cans had frozen at some point, maybe before you bought them. Another +1 for not buying foods out of my area. Especially from China. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
What the hell is happening to my cans? Educational video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFWZ37ziMag&feature=related Beat me to it, that is exactly the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. LOL. I am going to have to find that and watch it again, its been a long time since I have seen it. |
|
Quoted:
wow.... In twenty years of using canned goods (and we have 'em stacked by the damn case) I've never had a single can 'explode'. I'm talking commercially processed tins. For that matter, I'v never had a can that even bulged for no apparent reason. I have have maybe two cans that bulged, but both had been severely dented. If your cans are bulging, and they are not dented or corroded, then there is only one possible reason: The canned goods in question were not properly sterilized, sealed and processed. This is an "at the manufacturing plant" failure of huge proportions. I know we hve never had an issue, but I will also state this: We arevery careful with regards to what we buy. We flat out refuse to buy any food manufactured or processed in China. Period. It does not have to be USA, but it had better not be chinese. I am rally quite curious as to the countr of origin on those cans that exploded. For what its worth I've used cans many years out of date. No problems. Frozenny Ive seen two and they were cans my Grandmother had so who knows the age. Once was a large can of redpack sauce that was on the basement stairs atleast as long as I could remember and the other was some standard size can of tomato product in the back od a cabinet. Surely they were there for ever a decade. Probably more like triple that. The cans didnt even "explode" they each developed a pin hole leak that just make nasty spot under the can itself. A second large can was bulged so bag I thought it was goign to blow when I picked it up lol. |
|
Quoted:
Sorry, I should have clarified something: these were store-bought canned goods. ETA: they haven't been in there long. Maybe 2 years max. Wierd, we've had a couple of cans do that too. Dole brand pineapples and tangerines, both less than 2 years old too....still had not reached the expiration date on the can. mm |
|
Quoted:
I've not heard of that before. Very strange! As someone who is concerned about prepping, I'm definitely in this for updates so I can learn what to look for. As others thought, at first I thought it was your canning process... Store bought... wow. I haven't ever had this problem, even keeping my cans in the garage during the South Florida summers. I have had some pineapple and orange cans for over two years with no signs of bulging. I do however buy name brand can fruits in bulk. |
| Honestly thats crazy, i mean ive heard of homemade stuff canned that exploded just because they were not properly disinfected and stored right but to have professional canned stuff from a store explode is crazy! You didnt happen to buy discounted can did you? like dented beat up ones? that could have been the issue. |
|
Quoted:
3 DOZEN CANS? 2 YEARS OLD? Do you prep or eat out all the time? That just hits me as really odd. How long are you gonna survive if Mcdonalds doesn't get tomorrow's shipment? You have a room full od MRE's? Edit to add, My first geuss would have been that the cans had frozen at some point, maybe before you bought them. Another +1 for not buying foods out of my area. Especially from China. If every McDonalds disappeared off the face of the earth, I wouldn't care.  Also, if I never see another MRE again, it'll be too soon.
I cook for myself most meals and rarely ever eat out. I just don't eat many canned goods. Occasionally, when I'm at the store, I grab a few cans to set aside for a 'rainy day'. I'm not as organized as you guys so some of them are probably 2years old (maybe more) while many were purchased more recently - I really don't know. (I did a quick count and I actually have more than 36 cans.) I'm not prepping for the end of the world, I'm just trying to work and go to school while still enjoying life. The food and water I have set aside should hold me over for 99% of contingencies that I'd face here. A hurricane being the most likely (US east coast). Quoted:
Whats the average temp in your pantry? It gets into the high 80s maybe low 90s in the summer. In the winter probably in the 50s or so. Quoted:
Honestly thats crazy, i mean ive heard of homemade stuff canned that exploded just because they were not properly disinfected and stored right but to have professional canned stuff from a store explode is crazy! You didnt happen to buy discounted can did you? like dented beat up ones? that could have been the issue. No, they were in good shape. |
|
I've had bulging but not exploding store bought cans.
Unfortunately for me, I had already opened one can and put it in a venison meat spagetti sauce and was working on the next can when I punctured it with the opener it spit air and juice at me. ruh roh. I examined the can that made it's way to my food and found the lid was corroding on the inside. I pulled the other 3 cans of tomato paste from the same batch. I called Hannaford with the lot number and the lady said they were about a year beyond the use by date and offered me a coupon for replacements. I passed as it wasn't worth the effort. I deep sixed the rest of them. Wish I had saved them for targets.
I have had some small black dots on lids of pickles that I canned too. Not sure how that happened as I washed everything boiled my jars and pressure canned the lot. BTW the pickles suck when cooked that long like that. Mush. Oh well trying to play with the pressure canner. |
|
**UPDATE**
On the phone with Kroger right now.... "All of our agents are still busy, please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly." ETA: got to talk to someone! Aaaaand he didn't have any product info, so he transferred me. On hold again. 
ETA2: Kroger's product dept. picked up the phone relatively quickly. The rep told me that it was probably an isolated incident (lol) and that the other cans should be safe to eat. She did say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them. I asked what she thought had gone wrong with that can and she said it was probably improper canning - either too much heat or too little. |
|
Every #10 can of long term pancake or muffin mix that I've ever purchased has done that to me. Usually between 2-5yrs, and they're toast and ready to blow.
Each and every manufacturer has said 'we'll send you new ones, what's the code on the cans, and what's your address'. Got 4 cans of Provident Pantry corn muffin mix in the greenhouse right now ready to blow. (and no, I don't store them in the greenhouse, just the ones that are bulged and ready to explode. Everything is stored in the finished basement on ventilated shelving. 50's in the winter, 70's in the summer.) |
|
Quoted:
**UPDATE** On the phone with Kroger right now.... "All of our agents are still busy, please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly." ETA: got to talk to someone! Aaaaand he didn't have any product info, so he transferred me. On hold again.
ETA2: Kroger's product dept. picked up the phone relatively quickly. The rep told me that it was probably an isolated incident (lol) and that the other cans should be safe to eat. She did say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them. I asked what she thought had gone wrong with that can and she said it was probably improper canning - either too much heat or too little. "...say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them." I would keep them, 'sploding cans should have a lot of value for trading or use in a SHTF. |
|
Quoted: Quoted: **UPDATE** On the phone with Kroger right now.... "All of our agents are still busy, please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly." ETA: got to talk to someone! Aaaaand he didn't have any product info, so he transferred me. On hold again. ETA2: Kroger's product dept. picked up the phone relatively quickly. The rep told me that it was probably an isolated incident (lol) and that the other cans should be safe to eat. She did say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them. I asked what she thought had gone wrong with that can and she said it was probably improper canning - either too much heat or too little. "...say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them." I would keep them, 'sploding cans should have a lot of value for trading or use in a SHTF. Why not go rotate your entire stock for new stuff based on their offer, while it's still good? EXPY, the fuse on those grenades might be a little on the long side... |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
**UPDATE** On the phone with Kroger right now.... "All of our agents are still busy, please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly." ETA: got to talk to someone! Aaaaand he didn't have any product info, so he transferred me. On hold again.
ETA2: Kroger's product dept. picked up the phone relatively quickly. The rep told me that it was probably an isolated incident (lol) and that the other cans should be safe to eat. She did say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them. I asked what she thought had gone wrong with that can and she said it was probably improper canning - either too much heat or too little. "...say that if I was concerned about the other cans I could bring them to the customer service desk at the store and they would replace them." I would keep them, 'sploding cans should have a lot of value for trading or use in a SHTF. Why not go rotate your entire stock for new stuff based on their offer, while it's still good? EXPY, the fuse on those grenades might be a little on the long side...
Shhh, the Sheeple will never notice... |