Gee, I thought one of the answers would have involved a hollow tree (cf. Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes. London:Frederick Warne & Co., 1911)
Canned food if properly stored will last over 20 years. I know this from experience. In Vietnam I was eating C Rations from the 40’s. I’d take them any day over LRP’s or MRE’s.
Ping!
Unfortunately I have stored too many that way :-(.
11: Between your rib cage and your knees
(see: Roseanne Barr, Michael Moore)
Thanks for the post though some make fun of preps. They’ll be the first ones whining knocking at your door. Hope they don’t lose their jobs or worse when a supply of food would give them a buffer and they don’t have to explain to their kids why mommy and daddy didn’t care enough to provide a little insurance.
Remember not to store food where the temperature is too extreme. A hot garage or attic will ruin your supplies.
Too bad prescriptions can’t be stockpiled.
I would think that the biggest problem in storing food would not be finding a place to put it, but finding some way to keep insects out of it. For instance, I know that if I put a bag of flour in the cabinet sealed inside of a plastic container with a silicone seal, somehow moths and weevils will grow inside of it. How they get past the seal is a mystery, but they do every time.
There’s one other place you can store things....if you have a house with space underneath it that is dry....we have probably 800sq ft of space under our house...it’s dry and cool and the ground is covered in black plastic.
100 year old canned food found safe to eat
"The steamboat Bertrand was heavily laden with provisions when it set out on the Missouri River in 1865, destined for the gold mining camps in Fort Benton, Montana. The boat snagged and swamped under the weight, sinking to the bottom of the river. It was found a century later, under 30 feet of silt a little north of Omaha, Neb.
Among the canned food items retrieved from the Bertrand in 1968 were brandied peaches, oysters, plum tomatoes, honey, and mixed vegetables. In 1974, chemists at the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) analyzed the products for bacterial contamination and nutrient value. Although the food had lost its fresh smell and appearance, the NFPA chemists detected no microbial growth and determined that the foods were as safe to eat as they had been when canned more than 100 years earlier.
The nutrient values varied depending upon the product and nutrient. NFPA chemists Janet Dudek and Edgar Elkins report that significant amounts of vitamins C and A were lost. But protein levels remained high, and all calcium values "were comparable to today's products."
NFPA chemists also analyzed a 40-year-old can of corn found in the basement of a home in California. Again, the canning process had kept the corn safe from contaminants and from much nutrient loss. In addition, Dudek says, the kernels looked and smelled like recently canned corn.
The canning process is a product of the Napoleonic wars. Malnutrition was rampant among the 18th century French armed forces. As Napoleon prepared for his Russian campaign, he searched for a new and better means of preserving food for his troops and offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could find one. Nicolas Appert, a Parisian candy maker, was awarded the prize in 1809.
Although the causes of food spoilage were unknown at the time, Appert was an astute experimenter and observer. For instance, after noting that storing wine in airtight bottles kept it from spoiling, he filled widemouth glass bottles with food, carefully corked them, and heated them in boiling water.
The durable tin can--and the use of pottery and other metals--followed shortly afterwards, a notion of Englishman Peter Durand. Soon, these "tinned" foods were used to feed the British army and navy.
The canned food principle that won Nicolas Appert his prize of 12,000 francs has endured over the years. What might surprise Appert, however, is how his discovery is making food shopping and storing easier for the 20th century consumer.
Those who order coffee at fast food restaurants now also are served canned half-and-half, which has been transported and stored without concern about refrigeration. Hikers can take flexible pouches of canned food on backpacking trips without having to worry about saving water to reconstitute freeze-dried meals. And, in this society of microwave owners, Americans who don't have time to prepare a well-balanced meal can pick up a plastic container filled with a canned, nutritious dinner."
From: The Canning Process: Old Preservation Technique Goes Modern by Dale Blumentha in FDA Consumer magazine, Sept 1990
General Notes:
For month coding, if a number is used, numbers 1 through 9 represent January through September, and letters O for October, N for November and D for December.
If letters are used, A=Jan. and L=Dec., unless otherwise noted.
For year coding, 8=1998; 9=1999; 0=2000; 1=2001; 2=2002, etc.
Bush Brothers & Company
Four digits
Position 1: Month
Position 2 and 3: Day
Position 4: Year
Example: 2061 (February 6, 2001)
Chiquita Processed Foods
Ten digits (only 6-8 are pertinent to consumers)
Position 6: Year (A=1999, B=2000, C=2001, etc.)
Position 7 and 8: Julian Date
Example: A195 (July 14, 1999- July 14 is the 195th day of the year)
Del Monte Foods
First line, four digits
Position 1: Year
Position 2, 3 and 4: Julian Date
Example: 9045 (February 14, 1999)
Faribault Foods (www.faribaultfoods.com)
Consumers can send inquiries and product coding numbers via an online contact form.
A company representative will help them understand the coding.
Furman Foods
Second line, first four digits
Position 1: Year
Position 2, 3 and 4: Julian Date
Example: 9045 (February 14, 1999)
Hirzel Canning
First line, four digits
Position 1: Year
Position 2, 3 and 4: Julian Date
Example: 0195 (July 14, 2000- July 14th is the 195th day of the year)
Hormel Foods Corporation
Five digits on the top line
Position 1-4: Information about plant and manufacturing
Position 5: Year
Example: XXXX0 (2000)
Lakeside Foods
Second line, second through fifth digits
Position 2: Month (Jan=1, Sept.=9, Oct.=A, Nov.=B, Dec.=C)
Position 3 and 4: Date
Position 5: Year
Example: 4A198 (October 19, 1998)
Maple Leaf Consumer Foods
Top of can, grouping of last four digits
Position 1: Year
Position 2,3, and 4: Julian Date
Example: 9130 (May 9, 1999)
Mid-Atlantic Foods
Second through fourth digits
Position 2: Month (letter)
Position 3: Date (A=1, Z=26)
Position 4: Year
Example: MDE0 (April 5, 2000)
Pillsbury/Green Giant and Progresso
Five digits
Position 1: Month (letter)
Position 2: Year
Position 3: Plant information
Position 4 and 5: Date
Example: G8A08 (July 8, 1998)
Seneca Foods
Two digits on the first line
Position 1: Month (letter)
Position 2: Year
Example: L1 (December 2001)
Stagg Chili
Second through sixth digits
Position 2 and 3: Month
Position 4 and 5: Day
Position 6: Year
Example: S02050 (February 5, 2000)