"Survival" foods

[Fred Pillot]

It can be hard to find/see the expiration date on cans and jars, so I write the date on the lid with a felt pen.
I had a package of paper towels in the pantry that I thought a mouse was relieving itself on the package. Dried yellow looking. If finally investigated and it turned out to be a can french cut green beans leaking on it. The bottom failed and it was maybe 4 years out of date.

[JB White]

Tomatoes/tomato sauce goes bad in the can. A couple of times it sprayed everywhere as soon as the opener made a puncture.
Botulism all over me and the kitchen. One of them was only a month out of date. The other one was a forgotten lost soul in the back of the pantry.

[Art]

Tomatoes/tomato sauce goes bad in the can. A couple of times it sprayed everywhere as soon as the opener made a puncture.
Botulism all over me and the kitchen. One of them was only a month out of date. The other one was a forgotten lost soul in the back of the pantry.

Yup. Acidy foods like Tomato and Tomato sauce can go south in a hurry, especially if it starts to react with the metal in the can.

[JB White]

My first real life experience with that I was in my late 20's. As soon as it happened I knew what was wrong. I must listen to people more than I realize.

[dryheat]

Had a Costco sized bottle of Heinz ketchup go bad. It turned brown. Had a can of tomato paste swell up. Tossed it before it blew. When my cast iron kitchen drain pipe corroded the plumber told me that it's the food that goes down the drain that eats it away.

[lyman]

funny thing is up until the 80's, most foods did not have a sell by date,

cans were code dated (usually Julian calendar date, and often that date was the canned on date)

lunchmeat had either a code date, or a 'freshest by' date, and a disclaimer after that that it was good at least 7 days past,


when I was in the meat business back then, we did what we called Reworks every day,

Reworks were packages dated that day, we opened, inspected, converted (turn a roast into steaks, stew etc) and repackaged, with a new date,

if it looked a bit off, or was turning , it got reduced,


dates were not a big concern, presentation was,

[Art]

You know guys, it all comes down to whether you're a "grasshopper" or an "ant." Most on this site are "ants." Most people, though, are "grasshoppers," either because they are always in the crew that doesn't want to think about what could go wrong, don't have the resources to prepare, or, more often, are just flat lazy.

The great thing about "ants" is they encourage others to be "ants" and share their knowledge of how to be a more efficient and effective "ant" with other "ants."

[S.A. Boggs]

Art has a point and "we" are moving faster to improve our place. Who knows how much "time" is left to do what one wants to do.
Sam

[Sunray]

"...overloaded with sodium..." So are most processed foods. You should absolutely read labels.
The biggest advantage of canned stuff is that it's easy to tell if it's gone bad. The can will literally expand with the gasses created. So if your can is swollen, don't eat it. snicker.
Regular SPAM has 32% of your daily required sodium. 81.8% is Fat. The Low Sodium variety has 25%. Isn't that low.