How long past experation date is it safe to still eat. I know about bulged cans and just throw them.
Out of date canned foods
- Thread starter Jay
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Don’t go by dates. Use your judgement. The nutritional quality lessens, but unless the can is noticeably distressed with a bulge or rust, don’t worry about it. Look at the can inside and out when you open it and decide then if you want to use it. Possibly do a taste test before you add it to your meal. I have found that products with tomatoes are the first to decline and usually pass on them about 3 years past. Other things, maybe 5 years before we say, yuck!
Chickens usually enjoy outdated food, so that could be a use.
Chickens usually enjoy outdated food, so that could be a use.
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I feed our dogs outdated meats. The chickens get outdated everything else. I still date and rotate, and really don't have many cans out of date. We just finished off some peanut butter a year past. Couldn't tell a difference.
I've had peanut butter 5 years out of date that was fine. Home canned salmon, that I put-up 20 years previously. Canned goods have been found, and tested nutritionally, that were over 100 years old. If the can is good the contents probably are too.
https://www.delish.com/food/news/a39005/64-year-old-lard-edible/
https://www.delish.com/food/news/a39005/64-year-old-lard-edible/
You might use a smell test also. If something smells funny/odd/unusual/not like it should, I would be very careful about eating it.
Today, when food is still relatively cheap and easily available, many people just throw out past-date foods.
But if things change and the USA becomes more like venezuela then no one will be throwing out food.
There is no set time limit as when canned food goes bad. It is always a case by case problem. Do a smell test upon opening. If it passes then cook to a high enough heat to maybe kill anything bad. Then do a taste test. Then eat it.
But if things change and the USA becomes more like venezuela then no one will be throwing out food.
There is no set time limit as when canned food goes bad. It is always a case by case problem. Do a smell test upon opening. If it passes then cook to a high enough heat to maybe kill anything bad. Then do a taste test. Then eat it.
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I'm eating peanut butter with the best by date of July 2015. I have 2 more small jars that are that old. At this point, I have to scrape off the top layer and the rest is OK. It would seem 5 years is likely the max I would ever want to store PB.
2015 must be a very good year. I am working on tuna fish from then; I believe one should not get nit picky about pre Fukushima tuna.
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Kind of an add on thought. Today I was cleaning in the storage area, and some boxes had been put in front of some canned goods. About a case of apricots, 10 years past..... What. A. Mess. The seams let go, and black ooze all over.
So, don’t make piles, have some kind of inventory system that’s not in your head, store what you eat and eat what you store.
It’s an inexpensive mistake for me, but a bit of a warning to get a handle on what is getting stashed away and maybe reconsidering what I’m keeping.
So, don’t make piles, have some kind of inventory system that’s not in your head, store what you eat and eat what you store.
It’s an inexpensive mistake for me, but a bit of a warning to get a handle on what is getting stashed away and maybe reconsidering what I’m keeping.
All is not lost, you can compost those cans of goo.
Caned goods rust from the outside and the inside. Inspect the outside for rust, mild surface rust is not a problem but pitting is. look for bulging, this indicates something bad is growing inside. Listen for air intake when you open the can, there should be a slight vacuum. After you dump the contents look for Rustin on the inside. The contents, particularly high acid foods like tomatoes, can cause corrosion from the inside. As long as the container is intact the contents should be fine.
https://top-10-list.org/2014/08/20/top-10-foods-edible-after-an-incredible-length-of-time/
https://top-10-list.org/2014/08/20/top-10-foods-edible-after-an-incredible-length-of-time/
I'm pretty bad about ignoring expiration dates and have cooked and eaten things out of cans up to about 10 years past the expiration dates.
One November morning about 3 am I was fixing breakfast and realized that I was out of eggs. So I went and got a couple out of my younger brother's refrigerator and boiled them. They sat pretty high in the water while boiling. When I removed the shells, the eggs looked like an egg sized white version of the drawing of a red corpuscle. They tasted fine, though. When I asked my younger brother how old the eggs were, he said they were left over from his fishing trip in April or May that year.
I recently had some really good tartar sauce. It was just plain old Kraft's tartar sauce from the store, but much more flavorful. The expiration date on the bottle was from 2019. I was really sad to finish it off.
One thing that doesn't keep well is canned saurkraut. I had some in a pantry that was only a year old when it ate through the can, spilled down on cans below it, and ate into them. Now I get the saurkraut in a big jar and keep it in the refrigerator.
When I buy a large ham (unsliced), I keep it in the refrigerator and slice off what I want as I go. I nearly always fry the ham slices. They are good for many things -- to go with eggs, cut into bite sized pieces, fried, and then add rice, green peas, and soy sauce for a ham fried rice, bite sized fried pieces to mix with pork flavor ramen noodles, cut into chunks to go in pinto beans I'm cooking, cut into chunks to go in the field peas, bite sized fried pieces to put on top of a garden salad, ... . Typically, they do well for up to a month, but I've bought some from WalMart that were fine even two months after I bought them.
One November morning about 3 am I was fixing breakfast and realized that I was out of eggs. So I went and got a couple out of my younger brother's refrigerator and boiled them. They sat pretty high in the water while boiling. When I removed the shells, the eggs looked like an egg sized white version of the drawing of a red corpuscle. They tasted fine, though. When I asked my younger brother how old the eggs were, he said they were left over from his fishing trip in April or May that year.
I recently had some really good tartar sauce. It was just plain old Kraft's tartar sauce from the store, but much more flavorful. The expiration date on the bottle was from 2019. I was really sad to finish it off.
One thing that doesn't keep well is canned saurkraut. I had some in a pantry that was only a year old when it ate through the can, spilled down on cans below it, and ate into them. Now I get the saurkraut in a big jar and keep it in the refrigerator.
When I buy a large ham (unsliced), I keep it in the refrigerator and slice off what I want as I go. I nearly always fry the ham slices. They are good for many things -- to go with eggs, cut into bite sized pieces, fried, and then add rice, green peas, and soy sauce for a ham fried rice, bite sized fried pieces to mix with pork flavor ramen noodles, cut into chunks to go in pinto beans I'm cooking, cut into chunks to go in the field peas, bite sized fried pieces to put on top of a garden salad, ... . Typically, they do well for up to a month, but I've bought some from WalMart that were fine even two months after I bought them.
