Food longevity, actual personal experience

Leadchunker

Leadchunker

Undisciplined infidel
Life Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
2,688
Location
Southeast NC
Rating - 100%
9   0   0
I try to rotate stock to keep things from getting wasted. I am the only person that eats Ramen Noodles in my house. I must have misplaced, stacked wrong, or whatever. Beef Ramen dated 022211 have an off taste. The shrimp and chicken taste fine within the same date range. The beef taste like the bottom of the hoof after the cow has walked through the pasture. The dog and chickens don't seem to mind the taste. What foods do you have experience with not storing well for extended periods?
 
1. Nabs (ToastChee by Lance). 2 years, ok. 3, no. they get bitter.
2. Saltines (Zesta). after 8 months they still taste fine, but they're flimsy/floppy.
3. Snickers (Mars). still safe to eat after 16 months, but the flavor takes a dive, and they get "white".
 
now for some good news:
1. pasta keeps forever. well, 11 years so far.
2. just about any jerky has lasted a decade.
3. Lipton Tea (individual bags), going on 16.

back to the bad:
1. Coffee. can/frozen/beans/whatever. i don't drink it, but my wife says 2 years, max.
2. Rice is "supposed to last" but i've had two infestations. only rice has done that.
3. Beer. well, that's a given.
 
I buy instant coffee from Aldies and Leidls. some 5 years old no different than new so far !
 
I had some M&M's that were in a BOB in the tool box on my truck. Turned to brown dust. Cheese spread was a oily mess.

Them MRE crackers will last for ever.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk
 
We've been "prepping" as a family now for about 14 years or so and I've had several occasions now to eat foods WAY past their expiration dates.

Fortunately we've had more successes than failures.

Tuna 6 years past exp was just fine.
Sardines in oil and water 2-3 years past exp was fine.

I thought that if anything would get me it would be the fish. I was wrong.
Tomato based entrees on the other hand, not my favorite choice for long term.6 months past expiration on Chef Boyardee type stuff and it feels so acidic I thought it would burn the skin off my tongue.

We've had cans of fruits (pineapple jumps to mind) fail after only a few months past exp as evidenced by the can swelling.

On the other hand, we have eaten various and random canned fruits and vegetables as far as 9 years past expiration. Not much of a common theme or brand preference I could point to in this regard OTHER THAN when a can does fail odds are it is the pull tab kind, not the kind you would have to use a can opener to open.

I have eaten Armour Viennas 2 years past expiration and they were fine.

I have eaten Hormel Spam 6 years past exp and it tasted perfect.

Any grain product is subject to infestation while stored, but how you choose to store it can of course negate the chances.

One of my more epic failures early on was oddly enough Ramen noodles as mentioned upstream. We were buying them by the "case" (cardboard flat with heavy plastic on the outside and individually wrapped packs on the inside) and the way they were packaged I guess gave us a false sense that we didn't need to do anything further. Apparently the individual packages are a little permeable. We had stored ours in the root cellar which does by necessity have a small amount of humidity present. After a year we got a flat out and every package was molded when opened. Lesson learned.

By and large, storage conditions and package type seem to affect food longevity way more than age past expiration date.

PS:
I know our pressure canned/home canned goods is whole different topic, but, we have eaten our deer meat (cubed) up to 10 years old. Pickles, jelly/preserves, green beans, and stuff like that we have eaten after 12-14 years with no problem.
 
Pine apple chunks and peaches with 2012 date are still good and fruit cocktail. The grapes are a little mushy in the cocktail. Beefaroni is heartburn hell. Armour Corned beef hash is still go to go.
 
foopid stucker said:
I may have a bunch of 5-10 year old stuff if anyone dares to eat it...
Click to expand...
I distrust potions in general, but bring me one from a reputable alchemist. You have no potion that I'd be willing to take! (From the game Morrowind).

Then again, I bet it beats 200 year old Salisbury Steak.
 
Last edited:
I had a case of MREs pass the 10yr mark and decided to eat them. The little freshness spot thing on the outside was halfway turned color. They had been stored either in a non-climate controlled basement or inside, at least while I've had them. Most of the food was edible, some perfect but some was not palitable, although probably still actually edible. I can't remember which was which. Interestingly none of the heaters still worked, even adding salt.
 
Ate 2 yr old GV instant oatmeal, Strawberries n Cream. Just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Nearly everything is fine for a long time. I tend to buy things in bulk on sale and often it sits for years. Or a decade. Very rarely is anything dry actually bad or even much off taste. Canned stuff 5 years past date, no problems. All stored in climate control.
 
Had pinto beans for supper tonight. They were put in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in 2011. Bag was vacuumed down like a solid brick. Wife said only problem was they had to cook a lot longer. Taste like pinto beans to me.
 
Wife has a method of dry canning flour etc in the oven to kill off eggs that may be in it. Then seal the jar and it is good until you open it.

Same thing with saltines; bought a bunch and they were good 2 years later (might last longer if I didn't eat them all. . . )

Search youtube for dry canning flour.
 
I don't know about extendedly expired food
but i know we have a cardboard box full of food past its best-by date.
every time my wife goes on a business trip, the box gets a little emptier, and then starts filling back up when she returns.

9 years is a bit much for me though. I'll do 5 years on most dry/canned things without thinking twice.
 
concepthomes1 said:
I’ve eaten 32 yr old sideways sloppy joes and she, I mean it, tasted just fine.
Click to expand...
I will neither confirm nor deny that i have done this using food my wife put in the "i refuse to eat that" box...
she once threw out a container of table salt because it was years old. I said "IT'S A POWDERED ROCK, IT LITERALLY CANNOT GO BAD BECAUSE ALREADY IT'S BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD"
 
DrScaryGuy said:
I will neither confirm nor deny that i have done this using food my wife put in the "i refuse to eat that" box...
she once threw out a container of table salt because it was years old. I said "IT'S A POWDERED ROCK, IT LITERALLY CANNOT GO BAD BECAUSE ALREADY IT'S BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD"
Click to expand...
Too funny, thanks for the laugh !!!!!
 
I recently changed out some food I had in a sustainment pouch attached to my get home bag.

The only wet-pack food I had in the pouch was 6 of the little mylar type bags/pouches of Starkist Tuna.

They were only out of date by 2 or 3 months. (I've eaten canned tuna 4+ years out of date and it was fine).

But these pouches had been in my vehicle every day for almost 2 years. They had gotten very hot and fairly cold.

They were all fine. Ate all 6 over the course of a couple of weeks. I couldn't tell any difference than one I had just taken off the shelf. That one kind of surprised me.
 
DrScaryGuy said:
I will neither confirm nor deny that i have done this using food my wife put in the "i refuse to eat that" box...
she once threw out a container of table salt because it was years old. I said "IT'S A POWDERED ROCK, IT LITERALLY CANNOT GO BAD BECAUSE ALREADY IT'S BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD"
Click to expand...

I feel like the post you quoted flew by your head at an inordinate rate of speed and merely tussled your hair:D
 
Funny this thread popped up tonight.....had one month out of date mayo that google said would be ok with my smoked pork bbq tonight. Stomach is currently disagreeing with google....never again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Me.
thrillhill said:
I recently changed out some food I had in a sustainment pouch attached to my get home bag.

The only wet-pack food I had in the pouch was 6 of the little mylar type bags/pouches of Starkist Tuna.

They were only out of date by 2 or 3 months. (I've eaten canned tuna 4+ years out of date and it was fine).

But these pouches had been in my vehicle every day for almost 2 years. They had gotten very hot and fairly cold.

They were all fine. Ate all 6 over the course of a couple of weeks. I couldn't tell any difference than one I had just taken off the shelf. That one kind of surprised me.
Click to expand...

I have some spam single serves in my bag. Bout the size of those packs of tuna. Been thinking about busting one open to see. I’ve had them a couple years
 
Burt Gummer said:
I have some spam single serves in my bag. Bout the size of those packs of tuna. Been thinking about busting one open to see. I’ve had them a couple years
Click to expand...

Funny you say that. I also had 4 of those in that bag. They were within date, but had been through the same environmental issues. They were delicious. Let us know how your are.
 
Leadchunker said:
Nesquick chocolate milk dated July 2012. Looks good, smells good, taste great with a big ol peanut butter sammich
Click to expand...
I can only imagine what chemicals are in that for it to be ok that far out....wow!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom