What food last the biggest use by time?

A

alexb123

The Amish web page is fast!
Valued Senior Member
Was reading the thread about food shortages and I wonder what food should you stock up on that will last the longest?
 
Honey can easily stand for at least 60 years, one relative of mine ate honey that was stored before WW2.
Otherwise than that it's canned food.
 
how long can canned food last? And does shelf life of canned food vary by type of product canned or the type of can?
 
draqon said:
the sugar becomes crystallized over time until it becomes hard as a rock...
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It's common practice to heat up such honey. You take a jar of honey, put it in a pot with water and put it on fire until the honey has melted soft.
 
joepistole said:
how long can canned food last? And does shelf life of canned food vary by type of product canned or the type of can?
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If it's canned good and no bacteria is alive in there - theoretically almost indefinetely.
Soviet army had canned food labeled good for 50 years,
but in theory it should be edible even if 100 or 150 years old - if the tin can has not dented and no bacteria has not grown (the tin swells up if bacteria has formed).
 
Happy drinking vinegar during a food shortage to you!
I hear battery acid lasts long too.
 
Thanks Avatar, I was thinking that since canned food is cooked in the can, it should as you say last forever. But the expiration date were kind of confusing...like saying good for 50 years...why not say 100 years?
 
joepistole said:
Thanks Avatar, I was thinking that since canned food is cooked in the can, it should as you say last forever. But the expiration date were kind of confusing...like saying good for 50 years...why not say 100 years?
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Because nobody has really tested it for that long, it's all in theory, and who knows how it tastes after 100 years... Edible is one thing, tasty is another.
 
Avatar said:
Because nobody has really tested it for that long, it's all in theory, and who knows how it tastes after 100 years... Edible is one thing, tasty is another.
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Isn't the degradation of taste entirely due to biological processes? What we call "spoilage" such as fermentation, decay, rancidity, etc., carried out by microorganisms? These processes have, at least in theory, been completely halted by the pressure cooking and vacuum sealing that comprise "canning." There is literally nothing alive in there from which a biological process could be launched.

So I'd guess there are three limiting factors to the shelf life of canned goods. #1 is the survival of hearty microorganisms despite the hostile environment of cooking and storage. #2 is the survival of spores of these microorganisms. This is more likely since some spores are sturdier than their parent organism. But I think these days we have very good microscopy and if they tell us that they can't find any spores or parent organisms in canned food I would tend to believe them. (As long as it ain't made in China!)

That leaves the can itself. I think the metal is good for several hundred years even if nobody's taking care of it, although eventually it will start to oxidize. But if somebody is taking care of it, keeping it clean and dry, it will probably last longer than our entire civilization has existed: ten or twelve thousand years.
 
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