Letter Re: Which Foods Have Indefinite Shelf Lives?

James Wesley,
What are the chances of you posting a link to all food items and such that have an indefinite shelf life as they come from a store, I have heard that items like Crisco vegetable shortening have an indefinite shelf life. Is this true or just hearsay?
Thanks in advance for any info and also thank you so much for the huge wealth of information you have made available to me through your blog! You have probably saved more lives than you can imagine. – Jeff

JWR Replies: Tables of shelf life info are provided in my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. Much of the same info can be found scattered throughout the four and half years of the SurvivalBlog archives, free of charge. (Do searches. There are now almost 8,000 searchable archived posts!)

Crisco actually has a short shelf life, and has even been found to be borderline rancid, from day one. Take a few minutes to do a search of the SurvivalBlog archives on “fats and oils”, for some detailed recommendations.

Some foods with very long shelf lives (30+ years) include whole hard red winter wheat, honey, and salt. The latter stores indefinitely.