It has always been my thought that if the can looked good on the out side.

Then when you opened it. The contents look and smelled good it was good to it.

The wife's out of town I was looking foe something the was easy to fix for dinner.

I was looking around in the basement food room.

I can across a can of Bush's baked beans.

Light rust on the top no sign of leakage.

Expiration date 3 of 2015.

So I took into the kitchen washed it off opened it. Heated the contents ate them.

I couldn't tell the deafferents from the non expired can I had a month ago.

As long as the seals and container are intact the food will be fine.

We can thank Napolean for the invention of the canning process. He offered a cash prize for anyone who could come up with an idea to preserve foodstuffs for extended periods of time to supply his "Grande Armee." Some Frenchman did + got the prize. I don't recall the name now but I'm sure one can find it online if interested enough. But consider that we are talking about just a little over 220 years ago; not long.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
As long as the seals and container are intact the food will be fine.

Acidic veggies like tomatoes will eat their way out of a can, don't ask how I know .

Grizz

Dude, that must have been a really old can of tomatoes.

I have found few leaky cans in my life.

Yes they were very old or store under bad conditions

Neither have I nor swelled ones either, of course common sense says to avoid these. I did have an acquaintance that went on an elk hunt many years ago that took along some old C-rats + got so sick he almost died, while in a tent with several feet of snow outside + no way out for 3 weeks. His story scared me.

I have eaten WWII surplus c-rats in the late 70's that were just fine.. The peaches you couldn't tell from fresh. The peanut butter separated but once you mixed it in it was fine. The biscuit tasted like cardbord with a similar texture.

we store a lot of canned good when we can get them cheap, and try to rotate them, but some always seem to slip by.
The only thing we have ever had go bad on us is acidic foods like tomatoes or tomato sauce. And there was something else I forget what it was, mildly acidic but the cans were dented pretty good with i'm sure contributed to the failure.

Many years ago I banked in Walburg, Texas, a solid old German community. One day when going into the old bank, they had on the counter cookbooks from the Ladies of the local Zion Lutheran Church for sale. I bought one, of course. In looking up one Lady's recipe on canning sauerkraut, I bypassed my mother who has forgotten more than I will ever know + called up the elderly Mrs. Etta Kulm + asked her a few questions about her canning procediors + kraut in general. I know much more these days, but 50 years ago, I made that little old Ladies Day!