James Wesley, Rawles:
Sometime in the middle 1990s I put away four litre (quart) jars of tomato sauce. Now, at least 20 years later I opened, processed and consumed this tomato preserve.
The storage was in a cool, dry, dark and undisturbed location. The product was cooked, skin-removed italian tomato.
The canning process I had used was simple: cook, skin, fill, bottle, water bath, etc.
The result was acceptable. Although I had to cut away the ring with a can piercer to loosen (destroy) the ring on the jar – the cap (lid) was intact.
There was no bulging or other signs of contamination – there was no off-gassing or warning smell.
The contents was brought to a boil before being added to a meat sauce.
The result was adequate but the flavour level was low. Certainly it was not contaminated with any opportunistic organisms and nobody had any gastrointestinal issues. – Richard S.
JWR Replies: That was an interesting experiment, but keep in mind that even though older canned foods are often safe to eat and marginally palatable, their nutritive value is negligible. As stated many times in SurvivalBlog, it is crucial to mark dates on all of your canned goods–both commercially-canned and home-canned. Rotate them religiously, using First-In, First-Out (FIFO) rotation. Using specially made canned food rotation racks (such as those made by Shelf Reliance) makes this process fool-proof. If you are on a very tight budget, there are plans available for making your own, out of cardboard. While not as durable or sturdy (DO NOT stack multiple cardboard units!) and they are time-consuming to make, the cardboard racks do work adequately.