Hugh,
First, let me share a little background. I spent 20 years in the industrial labeling area, putting labels on everything from small engines to processed food.
This experience has given me a critical eye on the expiration dates printed on consumer packaging. I can tell you that the production people, the ones sweating on the packaging lines, are very concerned about the safety of what they are working on. Most of them consider the dates they have to put on the cans, jars, boxes, et cetera as a joke. They know that the packaging they are sending down the line is good for decades.
With apologies to the bulk packaging/home canning advertisers, I feel you just cannot, in a home kitchen setting, match the quality of an industrial kitchen run by professionals. Is it “over cooked?” Maybe, but it is safe. (If you are canning home grown stuff, go for it! I grew up on that kind of thing.)
This advice includes the newer “pouch” packed stuff. That technology had to undergo unbelievable testing before it was accepted by a very conservative industry.
Vacuum packed metal cans or glass jars have a long and very successful history behind them. When you have the federal inspectors looking over your shoulder three shifts a day and a multi-million dollar reputation to protect, you do not make hasty decisions.
My advice to preppers is to go to the wholesale stores and buy case lots of meal-sized packages of whatever. You can get both the safety and convenience that way. – K.S.
Thanks K.S. – sounds like a great plan to me.
This advice is good for short term crisis but not long term. (E.g. an EMP event). Eventually your stored canned food runs out and you need to be able to store the food you gather during the year from your garden, or hunting. Either through canning, smoking, root collating, etc. Its important to keep these skills sharp.
Besides it seems I regularly hear of recalls on food products packaged by these professional industries.
Should say “root cellaring” not “collating”…stupid auto-correct on phones.
Sounds good except for one thing. What about what the cans are lined with? I’ve read that they are lined with chemicals that can leach into the food.
Janie,
We all have an expiration date…in most scenarios regarding survival in the dysfunctional future, leached chemicals will be the least of your worries. I would guess that you have never been hungry…if the future should find yourself in extremis, you will eat the contents of that old, dented, out of date can with tears of gratitude in your eyes.
Thank you. Ditto for gluten intolerance and food dye hysteria. One of my ancestors pulled down wallpaper and chewed on the dried wallpaper paste during Holodomar.
Thank you. Ditto for gluten intolerance and food dye hysteria. Organic?? Haha haha. One of my ancestors pulled down wallpaper and chewed on the dried wallpaper paste during Holodomar.
Following
There have been 100 plus year old cans fond in far less than perfect conditions. They have been opened, examined, and eaten with no bad results.
And they were packaged with 100-year-old technology.
The current, food grade, technology is much better than the old, uncoated, “tin can” technology.
You can run out of anything, given enough time.
My suggestion is meant for right after a SHTF event.
For until you can learn to be completely self-sufficient.
3 to 10 years.
After that what you have left would be supplemental.
Home canning works.
If done right.
I have eaten long forgotten, home canned, stuff.
But canning is a currently lost art.
As is getting a wood burning stove to work right, let alone cooking or caning with one.
A friend of mine who worked for a major pet supply company was once assigned to provide an expiration date for their cat litter. When she pointed out that it, for all intents and purposes, *had* no expiration date, she was told that the company processes required an expiration date for all ‘consumable’ items.
Agreed that most expiration dates are overly conservative at best.
So, I have been letting my canned items go 1 year to 18 months beyond the stamped “expiration” date, then using it somehow….lunch, roadtrip, camping, etc. Perhaps, I’ll discontinue that and just keep it until “expiration” + 10 years.
I first started storing canned food in 1999 just before the Y2K non event. I bought cases of baked beans, canned tuna, and spam. Not long after finding Survivalblog I read an article on expiration dates. The stuff I had put back in 99 was 7 years past its expiration date BUT I decided to see if it was still good. The first night I opened a can of the tuna. It looked and smelled OK so I ate one 6 oz can. NO ILL AFFECTS. The next night I ate a complete meal all from canned food whoss expiration date was no less than 5 years back. Then the same thing the next night using outdated Spam. NO ILL AFFECTs at all. BUT if the cans are rusting, or spews when opening, or doesn’t smell right, toss it.
I have a question about asceptic packaging. You know, the folded “milk cartons” that are seemed to be lined with a metallic layer that hold juice and other liquids. How long will they last?
I am lactose intolerant and use soy/almond/rice milk which all come in quart-size aseptic boxes. How long can I safely store them in a cool, dark basement?
Thank you.