Foods With the Longest Expiration Dates

yahoo finance ^ | 7-27-11 | Seth Fiegerman

[WOBBLY BOB]

Every house has food in the pantry that has been there for weeks if not months, but according to food experts, you may want to think twice before throwing those items out. Many common food products last far longer than you might think.

[bgill]

Same here. Canned goods have a much longer shelf life. Dried beans a looong time, too. Even white rice, stored in the freezer, lasts quite some time. I don’t worry about most canned goods until after 3 years. Didn’t they find canned goods on some Civil War ship and they were just fine? Honey found in pyramids was dried up but just fine, too.

[bgill]

There’s no such thing as weevils. It’s just ground pepper.

[goat granny]

Asparagus grows wild along many country roads...It takes a couple of years to get your asparagus to a large enough size to make a meal. But when it goes to seed in mid summer you can find it growing along country roads. Been there for years and worth digging up and replanting in your garden...the plants last decades and continue to give you good fruit.....I made one mistake with mine, I mulched in 2 yeas ago to keep the weeds down and the mulch killed most of the plants. I think it leached something into the soil that killed the plants....It takes several years for it to produce well..

[TexasBarak]

Any vending machine food is questionable, except candy bars. I wonder what the shelf life on them are. Those apples, oranges, bananas and sandwiches, yuck. Creepy thinking of eating anything ‘healthy’ from them gives me the hibbie jibbies.

I'm in the vending business. Almost everything I put in my machines has a clearly visible expiration date on it. I will grant that I am probably far more conscientious about dates than most route guys- in fact, I'm kind of anal about it.

Candy bars are different- they have a coded date, on the back of the package- and the manufacturers don't want us knowing the code. Still, this isn't a problem if the product turns over several times a year (chocolate holds up well if kept out of heat and direct sunlight).

Dates on most of the products we sell function only to make us have to throw them out and buy more- another week added to most of these items would make no difference in taste, but would save vending companies millions. I often bring home "stales" and feed them to my family.

Oh, and I agree with you- fruit has no place in a vending machine!

[goodwithagun]

Hey Kart, I appreciate the heck out of this prepping stuff and the ping list. I just ordered Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. I'm going to put dried beans, oats, wheat, and corn meal in them and then in 5 gal. buckets. What is the shelf life then? Is it still the same as your list on post 42? Thanks!

[RitchieAprile]

Well, I will keep that in mind. I wonder how it would do here in the great NorthWet.

[goat granny]

I think it is a cold weather plant, I live in Michigan, but don’t know about wet...good eating tho...There is a nack to growing them from root stock that you get in the nursery or walmart....You dig a trench about 1 foot deep and put the root in and every week add an inch or so of soil...I got impatient and put the dirt in the hole more than an 1 inch a week...thats why getting a mature plant saves you lots of time...

[Kartographer]

Cost of One Year Supply for 1 Adult
This is from the food storage experts at LDS. But remember oxygen, temperature and moisture are your enemies when it comes to food storage. Stored food kept at only 10 degrees above room temperature has half the shelve life of the same food kept at room temperature.

[Chickensoup]

in the seventies we had banna orange juice c-rations.

[Oztrich Boy]

Tortoise and sturgeon meat will last more than a century, provided it isn't killed.

[eXe]

I will be honest here. I have been a prepper or survivalist for years now. I have eaten canned veggies 10 years after I got them, Spam 7 or 8 years.. still good as the day I got it.

99% Of food, as long as the can retains integrity, is good for a long long time.

Canned hams are a perfect example of this as well. I have a few of the smaller ones I rotated out of my stash and we lost them behind in the other pantry. Found them.. at least 9 years old and they were as good as the day we got them.

[tiki]

In WWII in the Pacific Theatre they ate WWI rations.

[ansel12]

I believe that honey can be quite edible and tasty for a lot longer than one year.

About a month ago I opened a qt. I had from the 1990s, it tastes fine.

[NTHockey]

Anchovies and sardines, both excellent sources of Omega-3 generally have no or long expiration dates. Saw some canned hams the other day with expiration dates of 2016! Vienna sausage makes a good trade-off from Spam.

Wife and I are having a discussion regarding staying in the “castle” (her) and GOOD (me). She’ll probably win, so a .22 with a ton of ammo is in the near future. Heck, I’ll buy one anyway.

[fini]

Another food is pickles. When they pulled the Hunley (civil war submarine) up from the ocean, they found a container of pickles that was still sealed. One of the archaeologists ate one and found that it still tasted good. Vinegar is a very good preservative.