Adventures in shelf life

Today’s adventure in Will-It-Kill-Me*. Today’s challenger: a can of Costco Kirkland-brand roast beef with a ‘Best By’ date of four years ago. And the defending champion: my constitution.

First thing’s first… check for bulging can. Check. Check for explosive outgassing when can opener pierces lid. Check. Check for odd smell. IT’S CANNED MEAT…IT ALL SMELLS LIKE CAT FOOD.

Drop it into a frying pan and hit with the BTU’s:

The meat is soooo tender. I mushed it with a fork to flake it out into, basically, ‘shredded’ beef. Added some kung pao sauce, threw it over a bowl of rice, add a little soy sauce and..yum. So, there you have it, kids. Four years after the Best By date and I’m still here to talk about it.

Whats the point of this sort gastronomical double-dog dare? Well, for my own confirmation that on many (but not all!) canned food products you can get a little bit of margin off the ‘Use By’ or ‘Best By’ date. I mean, we’ve heard that, and we’ve read that, and ‘experts’ tell us that but….here’s the actual proof.

The Kirkland roast beef, by the way, disappeared from my local CostCo shelves several years ago. It was only recently that another canned beef product took its place. I find it to be about as good as the Kirkland and have stocked up accordingly.

+ = Spoiler alert: turns out the only thing that can kill me is me

19 thoughts on “Adventures in shelf life

  1. dear wife and I have “discussed” this topic for YEARS! she doesn’t care and won’t partake of my ongoing trials, heh.

    • If things go south and that’s all there is to eat, you can count on her eating it.

  2. Goodness Commander Zero I check ALL my cans as I open them. I’ve had throw away events from fresh (?) from the grocery store cans.

    BTW most folks know this but don’t feed “Bad Cans” it to your dog either. Can be the most expensive meal you ever fed them.

    I too eat my oldest stock First IN First Out but am sometimes amazed when I find one or three cans from prehistoric dates.

    Oh what are we going to DO with out daily trips to the Grocery Store (sob, sob).

  3. Good article — I think there are many instances of canned food holding up well for a long period of time. My wife is a fanatic about dates on food and if she doesn’t like it, it’s gone. Granted, we have discovered some really old stuff that’s done for. (^_^)

    After the events of the past 15 months, and with the “managed scarcity” that government is rapidly shoving down our throats, I’ve been picking up some canned meat. I don’t have a lot but add to it a bit at a time. Wife thinks I’m overreacting. Maybe – maybe not.

  4. CZ, my experience is similar. I recently ate some canned product that had a “Best If Used By” date of 2011. (Alas, I have forgotten what it was.) I’m still here.

    When I cleaned out a closet last week, I came across Top Ramen and Cup O’ Soup ramen noodles. Both are “the college student’s friend,” and their inexpensive price when purchased in bulk make them very tempting to add to storage, especially given the fact that they are tasty. My particular examples were several years old, as much as 10 years.

    I tested a packet of old ramen noodles two or three years ago. I found the seasoning packets to be spoiled at that time, so I didn’t even check the seasoning packets this time. Out of curiosity, however, I heated the noodles only, and then added soy sauce. It seemed to me that the noodles were okay. I expect that rice noodles have a shelf life similar to pasta.

    If anyone has old ramen noodles in their storage, my advice is that if you have limited storage and a limited budget, toss the seasoning and save the noodles for addition to other food in spicy times. Of course, the better choice is to do a taste test now and be more sure of what you have.

    And about the Cup O’ Soup I tested, it was very discolored. There was no way I was going to put even a spoonful in my mouth. I tossed it all. Because these products are so inexpensive, if readers decide to store them, I expect that the results will be fine as long as a rigid system of rotation every year is used. Storing them and then forgetting about them will not work.

    Over the past dozen years, the only canned foods to fail while in storage were tomato products and a can of pineapple, no doubt due to the acid levels inside the can.

    After using myself as a guinea pig over time, I feel confident that canned meat and canned vegetables, in particular, have a useful life well past the “Best If Used By Date” on the can. If the integrity of the can is not damaged by rust, if the lid or sides are not swollen, if the can does not emit a “whoosh” when opened, and if the contents smell and taste good, you are highly likely to be “good to go.” If still concerned, eat a very small part of the contents and wait a few hours. Your stomach will tell you.

    While an old can’s contents’ nutritional value may be diminished, a daily vitamin will likely take care of that problem.

    • I found ramen noodles to get rancid in a fairly short time. But I was only putting them on the shelf. Sealing them up properly should take care of that.

      • Ramen was actually designed as the first survival food,after WWII Japanese were almost in constant starvation and this was created as a cheap,calorie dense,easily storable answer.

      • To be sure, are you saying that the noodles wer rancid, or that the seasoning packet was?

  5. Commander:
    ALL these “use by” dates aren’t when the food becomes dangerous, it’s when the Company stops guaranteeing that it’s safe –
    Not the same thing at ALL!
    They build long “intermediate” intervals in between as a CYA.
    You almost always have a decade (often more) of safety.

  6. I’ve been consuming fresh chicken I bought and froze in 2016 and have had no issues.

    I imagine non-acidic canned goods would be similar.

      • In the beginning I just left them in the factory wrapping; styrofoam tray and heat wrap. Worked ok but I did notice the texture of the meat was slightly different, a bit more ‘solid’ or ‘rough’. Didn’t affect taste or anything like that.

        Went with the Commander Zero Approved ™vaccuum sealer on some of them and they seemed to store a little better. Neither method had any negative gastromic consequences, but the vaccuum sealed bunch did seem to maintain it’s ‘tenderness’ a bit better.

        Also, when you buy a couple score of the 8-pound chicken trays, you really should break them down into smaller sized packages. Pain in the ass having to thaw and use it in 8-pound chunks.

        • I can’t believe how long it took me to take the Commander’s excellent advice about the Food Saver. I finally got one & I LOVE it! I’ve repacked about half the food in the freezer & there’s already more room.
          Thank you, Commander Zero!

  7. One deer season recently, I opened a can of Spam that was 6 years past it’s best by date. Tasted just fine. Flavor, texture, and smell were as good as new.

  8. CZ, GMTA. I read your post while eating two cans of sardines on my salad. One has a BBD of SEP2019 and the other is old.

  9. I’ll ignore the “Best By” if the can meets the above safety criteria. OTOH, I do pay attention to “Use By” dates, especially with acidic contents. Canned tomatoes are the only ones I’ve had to throw out due to a deformed can so far.

  10. I’ve eaten C-rations that were probably 30 years past their “BEST BY” date!

    In a true survival situation it has nothing to do with “BEST BY” or wheather ir not you even like it. Is it edible and does it have nutritional value? That’s it!

  11. Sorry,

    I have a rough idea of what is fresh and what is new and what might be old, or way old. Never really kept up with “rotating stock” and all that jazz.

    The way I see it, when push comes to shove, the good stuff is packed, ready to go. The “unknown” is still on the shelf. Help yourself……..No guarantees. If you didn’t have the foresight to figure it out in the past…….might be a steep learning curve.

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