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canned goods
Due to food boxes plus my buying habits for "just in case" food, I have a fair amount of canned goods for an apartment dweller.
I was sorting thru the box that had soups in it checking to see what was past "pull date".
Note: for camnned goods the dates are "best by", not "Oh god, throw it it!" dates.
A certain friend who shall remain nameless annoyed the heck out of Fay and me when she posted about having been given several boxes of canned stufgf by someone who was moving and said she'd thrown most of it out because of the dates on the cans. At the time both Fay and I were kinda tight on money, and we'd *cheerfully have taken those "expired" cans....
Anyway, in the process of digging thru the soups, I found a can of tomato soup that had some dark stuff around the rim of the lid (not a good sign unless you've spilled something on it). Worse, I could see that the lid was bulging noticeably.
That one went straight into the dumpster (and buried under something so it'd be unlikely to get grabbed by something dumpster diving).
The next day while shuffling stuff in the "should be used soon" box around, I noticed another can that looked like it had a slight bulge. I checked it against yet another can. On the other can, if I poressed hard on the lid, nothing happened. On the suspcious one, a slight push caused the lid to indent a bit.
Yipe. Another one for the dumpster.
Everything else checked out ok. But tis is a reminder to actually check your stockpiles and make sure you rotate things.
Other bad signs. If you open a can that wasn't "vacuum packed" and there's a his, that preetty much means *something* generated gas in there. Not a good sign unless it's a can of pop.
and don't forget, clean the can opener after you throw out the can!
I was sorting thru the box that had soups in it checking to see what was past "pull date".
Note: for camnned goods the dates are "best by", not "Oh god, throw it it!" dates.
A certain friend who shall remain nameless annoyed the heck out of Fay and me when she posted about having been given several boxes of canned stufgf by someone who was moving and said she'd thrown most of it out because of the dates on the cans. At the time both Fay and I were kinda tight on money, and we'd *cheerfully have taken those "expired" cans....
Anyway, in the process of digging thru the soups, I found a can of tomato soup that had some dark stuff around the rim of the lid (not a good sign unless you've spilled something on it). Worse, I could see that the lid was bulging noticeably.
That one went straight into the dumpster (and buried under something so it'd be unlikely to get grabbed by something dumpster diving).
The next day while shuffling stuff in the "should be used soon" box around, I noticed another can that looked like it had a slight bulge. I checked it against yet another can. On the other can, if I poressed hard on the lid, nothing happened. On the suspcious one, a slight push caused the lid to indent a bit.
Yipe. Another one for the dumpster.
Everything else checked out ok. But tis is a reminder to actually check your stockpiles and make sure you rotate things.
Other bad signs. If you open a can that wasn't "vacuum packed" and there's a his, that preetty much means *something* generated gas in there. Not a good sign unless it's a can of pop.
and don't forget, clean the can opener after you throw out the can!
no subject
I've done a bit of research on food preservation, in part for an article. The experts pretty much all say that if the can is at the proper pressure for what it contains - not bulged. etc. - and intact the food is safe. It may have lost some nutritional value through time but otherwise it's fine.
One thing which can help maintain palatability is to turn cans with mixed liquid and solids (noodle soups, for example, or canned tuna, etc.) over every six months.
A few years ago a museum opened some cans of food from a case left over from an Arctic expedition in the late Nineteenth century. Not only was it fine, despite expectations it had just the barest trace of lead from the soldier.
Of course, if you want *really* long-term food storage try hardtack:
http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/JOHT/JOHT52OurDailyBread.html
no subject
I think the oldest can I've ever used was 8 years old.
In the recent consolidation, I used one that was 5 years old.
I'll note that really old rice tends to not cook well. After the normal cooking time you tend to get a lot of grains that are still rock hard.
But I think some of that was due to it not being sealed air-tight.
no subject
no subject
So yeah, I wash it if it gets used to open a questionable can.
Also, besides the botox possibility, even if it's just some other bacterias, you don't want to spread it to another can thayt might not get used all at once.
Maybe it's overkill, but it's not that much hassle to eliminate even a small possibility of something nasty.