Products tested ranged from popular baby foods, staple BBQ condiments and store-brand
products from Walmart and Trader Joe's, to products like Purdue chicken and organic pasta.
Posted on 09/16/2023 3:07:53 PM PDT by CottonBall
This is an ongoing thread – meaning come back to chat, post information, or ask questions any time. Hopefully the thread won’t stagnate and I’ll do better at posting weekly (or bi-weekly) topics than I have in the past. (anyone willing to post a topic now and then we'll be highly praised and appreciated).
We are in for some bumpy rides, and prepping can only help. If for peace of mind, if nothing else. We have a wonderful gardening thread and a current-events survival/prepping thread, and hopefully this one can piggyback off of those, maybe having a longer discussion about certain topics or … whatever. It's your thread, do what you like with it! (civilly, of course)
Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3
Products tested ranged from popular baby foods, staple BBQ condiments and store-brand
products from Walmart and Trader Joe's, to products like Purdue chicken and organic pasta.
Bkmrk.
Wow just a few months, that’s not good.
I think we’ve come up with our next topic!
I’ll put you guys down as contributors to the next topic, if that’s okay. I’m going to steal stuff from your post. It’ll be about ignoring expiration dates
“I’ll put you guys down as contributors to the next topic, if that’s okay”
That’s ok.
We post to share - the more the better !!!
Canned/Jarred Food Expiration Dates
It’s probably a good idea to learn about some of the canned and Jarred foods that we have in our pantry, before it actually becomes a necessity to know which are safe and which are not. We definitely don’t want to be testing at that point.
So I thought a list of what people have noticed is very helpful, we can all learn from each other.
Iron Munro & nomorelurker have contributed to this list; let’s keep it going, what sort of things have you noticed? It doesn’t have to be scientific, but if you have some articles with research in them that’s great too.
• In our limited experience with storing store bought canned food the product that went bad first was canned pineapple.
• In general store bought canned food in old style cans keeps much better than new style cans with pop-top lids.
• Another point: Plastic is not impermeable to the same degree as metal or glass.
Foods and water in plastic bottles will all lose moisture over time.
• Only thing I have had a problem with is evaporated milk. A few months past expire date and it turned into some kind of brown crud.
• So far the only thing I have found that is affected by a couple years past the expiration date is Peanut butter. It sort of loses its peanut flavor and becomes a horrible consistency
• I have several 28 Oz cans of whole tomatoes, DLP San marzano. The date on the oldest one is 2016. Those are starting to look a little pudgy and I think it’s time to toss it. The ones dated 2017 and 2018 still look okay. I’ve been using those and quality and everything else seems to be fine. So looks like about 5 years for canned tomatoes past the expiration date is still safe.
A short video stated Medications retain 90% efficacy after expiration date.
.
I need Two Aspirin daily to get going in the Morning...
Today maybe Three!
High acid foods do a number on cans.
They eat through the coating on the inside of the can then destroy the aluminum.
“So looks like about 5 years for canned tomatoes past the expiration date is still safe.”
Most likely due to the high acidity of tomatoes/tomato products in general.
I am very good about ‘rotating’ my purchased canned goods, and we normally ‘eat through’ what I home-can by the next spring - except I always seem to have Salsa on hand. :)
Canned goods can usually be found for a SONG at Aldi (it’s worth the trip for me once or twice a year) and any warehouse-type food store you have near you. We have one called ‘Twelve Baskets’ which I am DYING to check out - but again, it’s a ways away. Dollar Tree, of course, can provide good values once in a while - but check the expiration dates, of course!
I’ve been stocking up on the shelf-stable milk, also available to me at my Dollar Tree. I have a few chocolate milks stashed in the even that I can’t get any coffee creamer during the Zombie Apocalypse. ;)
Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of long-lasting canned goods from a site called ‘Build A Stash.’
https://www.buildastash.com/post/longest-lasting-canned-foods
P.S. SPAM - love it or hate it - lasts a very long time. :)
I am always nervous about canned tomatoes, including tomato paste, etc. I have a whole box full in my basement that are a few years past expiration and aren’t bulging or rusty, but I would still be nervous about eating them. We buy tomato stuff in bulk like most things, but we never eat it all because I grow/can/freeze my own.
One thing I have found that keeps well past expire date is jarred olives either in oil or brine.
Some years ago a local grocery had 8 oz jarred green olives on sale for 8 cents a jar, yes 0.08 cents. We and everybody else bought cases of the things (they had large pallets out). Was still eating them 6 years plus later own.
“Today maybe Three!”
Is that because of the cold?
My 13 year old Yorkie with arthritis refused to follow me up the hill behind our house. He actually layed down in the snow. I carried him home. Then put him in front of the fake-woodstove heater. I hate seeing him get as old as I am.
“They eat through the coating on the inside of the can then destroy the aluminum.
I guess it’s at that point that I would get the bulging?
I’ll have to open a test can and see what the inside looks like, the inside of the can. Try to figure out at what point the coating gets eaten away, don’t want to eat it at that point.
Thanks for the info!
I guess the extra saltiness of the olives would stop any sort of contamination.
When we lived in bakersfield, they lined the streets with olive trees. One year I decided to go get a whole bunch of olives and see what I could do with them. I still have a couple jars, moved here about 9 years ago. I’m just watching them. They don’t look contaminated at all.
Unfortunately olive trees won’t grow in East tennessee.
“We buy tomato stuff in bulk like most things, but we never eat it all because I grow/can/freeze my own.”
I think that’s why I have so many tomato test subjects. In the summer we don’t use them at all. And then in the winter I use what I had Frozen first. Then eventually whatever I can. So like you, the Box stuff gets neglected
let me know if you ever open yours and what the result is.
“I’ve been stocking up on the shelf-stable milk, also available to me at my Dollar Tree. I have a few chocolate milks stashed in the even that I can’t get any coffee creamer during the Zombie Apocalypse. ;)”
Me too, I just can’t have black coffee. The Shelf stable stuff, is that in the cartons? I bought some of that but I wasn’t sure it would last very long.
My new favorite powdered milk is Moo milk. Although it says it’s not really milk, but it has milk products in it. It tastes fantastic. And they have a chocolate version that is quite yummy. The only problem I have with it is that the packaging is erratic. They say the large plastic containers will last 20 years, but the one I opened didn’t have a single oxygen absorber in it. The canned ones had an oxygen absorber but since now I don’t trust this company, I’m not sure if it was rated for a gallon or not.
That’s a great website, thanks for the link
Some typical shelf lives of canned foods are:
• Canned meats: 4-30 years
• Canned vegetables: 3-8 years
• Canned beans: 3-6 years
• Canned fish: 3-6 years
• Canned rice: 2-6 years
• Canned soups: 2-4 years
• Canned fruits: 1-2 years
I think so.
You can definitely tell with something has detinned the can when you open it though.
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