Canned Soup

[cualcrees]

How long does canned soup last? The can has an expiration date of june 2009, how accurate is it? will it last for years if i store it in a cool dry place or does it not make any difference?
I'm talking about your ordinary, store bought cambells soup and the like.
thank you!

[efarmer]

The shelf life from the manufacturer is in my personal opinion
more related to optimal flavor and meeting the published
nutrient levels of the product. I would not be afraid myself
to eat 4 or 5 year old canned soup if the cans were not
corroded or heavily rusted AND showed no signs of being
bloated.

1 or 2 years of storage before being eaten if you bought
a huge amount would not scare me a bit.

I grew up in a grocery store family and know my old man
would often bring home things past the shelf date like
this for us to eat with zero incidents of problems.

I still think dry beans and grains are a good idea for
long term rations, and a load of "dozen packs" of your
favorite ramen noodles are low dollar and high confidence
emergency eats for short time horizon usage that can
be spiked or augmented with whatever you can scrounge
up to keep your growling belly at bay.

[cualcrees]

The shelf life from the manufacturer is in my personal opinion
more related to optimal flavor and meeting the published
nutrient levels of the product. I would not be afraid myself
to eat 4 or 5 year old canned soup if the cans were not
corroded or heavily rusted AND showed no signs of being
bloated.

1 or 2 years of storage before being eaten if you bought
a huge amount would not scare me a bit.

I grew up in a grocery store family and know my old man
would often bring home things past the shelf date like
this for us to eat with zero incidents of problems.

I still think dry beans and grains are a good idea for
long term rations, and a load of "dozen packs" of your
favorite ramen noodles are low dollar and high confidence
emergency eats for short time horizon usage that can
be spiked or augmented with whatever you can scrounge
up to keep your growling belly at bay.

I´m planning on stocking up on food, and i wanted to know how good an option this was. Thanks!

[seazar]

I agree that several years beyond the expiration date seems to be okay.

I've eaten many things that have expired but you do have to be careful with brown rice (will turn rancid) and tomato products - like canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, etc.

I did have a problem the other day, too, with instant oatmeal made by quaker - it had walnuts in it and the nuts had gone rancid. the box had expiration date of 5/7. I ate other instant oatmeal with raisin's and cinnamon and it was fine. Also had expiration date of 5/7.

[Beignet2]

this is a little off topic but I have about 3 months of stored food and recently (few days ago) I am seeing moths.

Where should I search first? Flour, beans, corn meal, rice, spices?

I've opened a few packages and they seemed fine. What exactly am I looking for?

I did find little wevils (sp?) in my cayenne pepper and it isn't that old.

If anyone knows where and what do look for I think it could be very helpful for the rest of us.

Beignet

[jlw61]

this is a little off topic but I have about 3 months of stored food and recently (few days ago) I am seeing moths.

Where should I search first? Flour, beans, corn meal, rice, spices?

I've opened a few packages and they seemed fine. What exactly am I looking for?

I did find little wevils (sp?) in my cayenne pepper and it isn't that old.

If anyone knows where and what do look for I think it could be very helpful for the rest of us.

Beignet

When this happened to me, it was my corn meal. Now all grain products are stored in air tight plastic containers and I have no problems.

[seazar]

Had that happen to rice.

Put your food in plastic food grade buckets with oxygen absorbers and mylar bags.

I get my buckets free from the bakery department at Publix (grocery store) bakery department, and Walmart bakery department.

[Dawn]

this is a little off topic but I have about 3 months of stored food and recently (few days ago) I am seeing moths.

Where should I search first? Flour, beans, corn meal, rice, spices?

Freezing the food for atleast 3 days and then storing them as seazar said has worked best for me...

But if it's not longtime storage I would still freeze it and make sure the containers have a gasket like these, however I bought mine at Costco. Those moths lay eggs and the larvae can crawl into almost any container. So, be sure to treat all of your dried foods and nuts because they can and will ruin all of your food.

[ki11ercane]

How long does canned soup last? The can has an expiration date of june 2009, how accurate is it? will it last for years if i store it in a cool dry place or does it not make any difference?
I'm talking about your ordinary, store bought cambells soup and the like.
thank you!

On the list of canned goods, don't do soup for long term storage. All soups have a high acidity level, and tomato soup is the worst. Canned foods with high acidity levels degrade faster. What you will have over time is literally a can of "matter" with no nutritional value at all.

Another problem is sodium levels. Soups are #1 for sodium content. "If" we are in a food availability issue scenario, soups will be bad for your health if consumed all the time, and issues arising from high sodium will arise.

If you are going to store canned anything, suggestions are:

1. Vegetables (again, minimize tomatoes or high acidity vegetables) I suggest green and wax beans, corn, peas, and carrots.

2. Canned meat - you will need protein in your diet, and if you're not farming beef, pork, or poultry, this will have to do. The issue is still there for sodium, but you need protein for energy, and this helps. Canned Spam, ham, or chicken is very good.

Overall, if you're going to can anything, you really should be buying the "dry" versions like dried peas, dried beans, dried corn, etc., and storing it in pails or barrels.

You should also be be rotating cans all the time, buying more than you eat, and keeping a stash. The truth is you have to consider "food storage" not to be an everlasting solution to there being no food. You have to treat stored food like a savings account. Eventually, you'll spend it all. Stored food is supposed to be used as a springboard to getting through a rough patch and starting to garden, possibly farm small animals (chickens, goats, etc.) and trading with others. Other than spending thousands of dollars on MRE's to last 20 years, you should not rely on any stored food for more than a year. If you haven't gotten on your way within a year of a situation coming where there is no food to eat, you are pretty much done for.

You should also be storing dried pastas and for sanity food, ramen noodles with some kind of spice. Also, you should be storing spice. There are MANY lists of prep storages for food here.

[Quinny]

In about 1973 my mates and I found some tins of WWII meat and veg with labels that indicated they were from 1940's.

We cooked them in a pan we found and washed in a stream. The cans were tarnished, but not pierced or blown.

The food wasn't the best I've had but it tasted OK and filled my belly. It got digested as well, no toilet problems, so I can't see how all the nutritional value can disappear completely.

[ki11ercane]

In about 1973 my mates and I found some tins of WWII meat and veg with labels that indicated they were from 1940's.

We cooked them in a pan we found and washed in a stream. The cans were tarnished, but not pierced or blown.

The food wasn't the best I've had but it tasted OK and filled my belly. It got digested as well, no toilet problems, so I can't see how all the nutritional value can disappear completely.

Over time, the nutritional value (vitamins, minerals, etc.) will disappear in any canned food. Eventually the food product itself will consume those molecules at the molecular level. Eventually, all the canned food will have is calorie content and the equivalency of "matter."

Canned vegetables have low calorie value but high nutritional value. So they have to be consumed within 5 years to have a nutritional value. Since their calorie content is low (mostly water) you are eating very little for calories no matter when you eat them.

Canned meat is high in protein but low in vitamins. Again over time, the meat will convert to simple elements and have little energy value but will retain some calories.

You will still need to get an external source of dairy (unless you canned powdered milk which you should do; properly packed it will last for 10 years), bread/cereal (you should have canned/packed flour and yeast), fresh meat (either you're farming it yourself or you've worked out a barter deal with someone(s), and fresh vegetables. (gardening) Again, canned "anything" is not meant to replace real world foods. It's only meant to supplement or get you through a harsh patch.

Another thing you should be canning is vitamins. (vacuuming sealing to be more precise) Over time canned food loses it's nutritional value slowly and you will need vitamins to supplement your diet.

[alokin]

I only store what we're eating anyway, because it must be eaten from time to time, in case the downturn takes long. And do you really want to eat canned soup?? The second thing is that canned soup contains lots of water and I think it is not very wise to store water. We store pulses and soup mix (pulses + barley) and with a bit of veggies we can make really yummy things. And you can sprout pulses, this gives you vitamins just like veggies. And you even might plant them, however real seeds are better.
If you live in the city you might search for some land bought or rented. Even 10 sqm is good.

[kpeavey]

I look at stuff that will last a considerable time- dry goods, canned goods, bottled water, and find expiration dates consistently under 2 years. I see it as liability reduction rather than an accurate representation of shelf life. Take a look for yourself, try to find something with a date 5 years out.

this is a little off topic but I have about 3 months of stored food and recently (few days ago) I am seeing moths.
Where should I search first? Flour, beans, corn meal, rice, spices?
I've opened a few packages and they seemed fine. What exactly am I looking for?

This is an important issue that probably deserves it own thread.

People are starting to store food for extended periods with products that are packaged for short term consumption. Most packaging is not designed to keep the product fresh and wholesome for more than a year in a throw away, single use, consumable product, just in time distribution world.

People are learning about the idea of storing food, but they also need to investigate the methods. It can take some time to get to that next level of study. In the meantime, the bugs come.

Take a look at the packaging. Anything with air gaps should be checked out. Cardboard boxes with glued flaps are notorious. Plastic bags are easily punctured. This would be your dry beans. Paper sacks are a combination of easily punctured and glued flaps. As this is your food storage, I'd urge you to check and repackage ALL of it. As long as you have the container open to be repackaged, give it a taste. The stale odor of a closet can penetrate plastic and cardboard. What a disappointment that can be. I've lost some product, learned my lesson, made adjustments.

What to look for:
-web like and fibrous debris, often in the corners
-shapes that are not consistent with whats in the package. An example would be rounded or ball-like shapes in with the macaroni.
-debris on the top, bottom and corners inconsistent with the product. Flour production is highly industrialized and highly uniform. If you see specks on top, take a deeper look.
-damaged packaging. tears, rips, crushed areas (squished corners are common), splits, cracks, dents, bends, rust, water spots, puckers, wiggles.
-Discoloration, spots, specks, tiny round bug-doo sized spots.
-Holes. Try holding it up to a bright light.
-Check inside the container walls for dust like bits, wait for a few seconds to see if they move. Some bugs are so tiny they don't look like bugs for lack of detail, could be mistaken for cardboard dust.
-Take a look inside the cabinet/closet. Spiders are a sign that something else is around in numbers big enough to keep a spider alive.
-Canned goods that are pulsating, goods that have behavior or response patterns, as well as things that glow in the dark or have developed self-ambulatory properties should be given particularly close scrutiny.

[MidwesternMom]

Had that happen to rice.

Put your food in plastic food grade buckets with oxygen absorbers and mylar bags.

I get my buckets free from the bakery department at Publix (grocery store) bakery department, and Walmart bakery department.

Just wondering, do you call and prearrange a pick up, or just go to the store and ask them for the buckets and they give them to you there?

I had heard beverage companies will sell you their buckets, but i much rather get them for free if possible

[Pops]

Go here and click Food Storage FAQ

[bratticus]

Go here and click Food Storage FAQ

Your link broke.

[PrestonSturges]

I've had moths & grubs in dried peppers.

I have seen cans of pineapple rust out after a couple years, probably due to the acidity. The plus side is that those levels of acidity would prevent botulism.

[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Good day: I do a lot of reading, but little time to post. had to respond to this one. We have a nice pantry. About 4 years ago we began to see little moths in the pantry. Come to find out they came in from an open bag of dog food in the pantry. Dog food is now stored in the basement in a sealed container.
The moths were extremely difficult to get rid of.
I had to completely strip the pantry, shelves and all, caulk each and every nook and cranny, paint, reinstall shelves, caulk every nook and cranny of the shelves, paint the shelves 3 times to make them perfectly smooth.
The moths lay eggs in every nook and cranny they can find.
I had pheromone traps for Indian Meal Moths in every room in my two story house. I found moths in the traps for 6 months. We kept the house spotless, consistently checking behind picture frames and light fixtures. We kept finding larva of the moths in these locations, all over the house!
Took six months before the traps began to show empty. We left the traps up for several more months.

Here is a wiki link to information on these horrible moths.
Ziploc bags do not work. The moths only eat in the larva stage and they can chew through plastic. I learned this after I put all my food in ziploc bags.
These little critters are extremely destructive. If you are going to store food you need to learn about them.
They can remain in a dormant state for many months, almost like a tick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianmeal_Moth

Good luck.
Pheba

[PrestonSturges]

Good day: I do a lot of reading, but little time to post. had to respond to this one. We have a nice pantry. About 4 years ago we began to see little moths in the pantry. Come to find out they came in from an open bag of dog food in the pantry. Dog food is now stored in the basement in a sealed container. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianmeal_Moth

To me it is a mystery how anything can live entirely on dry flour and not have any water??? Digesting carbs takes lots of water. But they call them wax worms - maybe they seal and conserve all their moisture.

[nocar]

To me it is a mystery how anything can live entirely on dry flour and not have any water??? Digesting carbs takes lots of water. But they call them wax worms - maybe they seal and conserve all their moisture.

Actually, I am reasonable certain that digesting carbs produces some water. The basic process for plants to make carbs, photosynthesis, is combining water and carbondioxide with the aid of sunshine energy. The reverse process, making energy from carbs, produces carbondioxide and water. Some animals of course economise better than others with this metabolic water. Humans lose water and carbondioxide with every breath.