Food Storage Question
 

I think I know the answer but here is the question. I stashed one year of food from a survival company for Y2k. Standard mix of beans and dried food. Is this still good? I am thinking not but would like some input. thanks.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

Define stashed. Did you just put bags of rice and beans into a closet? Are they in buckets? bags? Mylar? etc? Was it hot?

So many variables. If they were vacuum sealed and keep cool rice and beans are good for 20 to 30 years.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

From Safetrek, in cans with double enamel wall, vacuum sealed.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

Temperature would be the big factor in that case....70 being the most you would want to store them at, figure 10 years at 70, and the life about doubles for every 10 degree drop below that.....so you know how they've been stored.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

It should be fine. The LDS did a study with old food storage and found that some of the staple items tasted exceptable even after 30 years in storage.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

Ha! Some time for GIM rather than firewood for 011' or brakes for the 89' chebby truck.
State j ,If the cans are stored in the original carboard boxes cut open some boxes and check for RUST on the cans.
Peel off a few labels and double check.
GOT RUST on the cans??
Sand off the rust and spray with a clear coat from a rattle can.
Remember... Rust Never Sleeps.
Just ask me about the 20 year old brake system I'm currently working on.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

LDS Site on how long properly stored foods will last.

I dont know anything about Safetrek, but I would feel comfortable with eating anything that was stored at room temperature from '99 as long as the cans were intact.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

Yes, they reported, for instance that 75% of testers found the rolled oats to be edible in a survival situation where the object was not to die from starvation. The fact that 25% said that they couldn't eat those rolled oats even in that circumstance tells you something about how much the taste had suffered over the years. LDS is now making a distinction between ordinary shelf life and emergency shelf life.

My rule of thumb for old stored food in sealed cans with O2 absorbers is to throw nothing away. In a disaster, if you've eaten all your newer stores and you're forced to open the old stuff, either you'll be able to eat it or not. But the old food just might keep you alive.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

What brand, what container, what packaged condition (freeze-dried, dehydrated), storage conditions?

Re: Food Storage Question
 

Excellent advice. I presume the 25% were not actually starving or anything it was just a commentary from an otherwise well-fed study group. When you are actually dying of starvation you by god will eat that shit... you will eat dirt... and like it.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

If you had animals that could eat the same stuff as you, you could always feed it to the animal, then eat the animal, right?

Re: Food Storage Question
 

I assumed the same. Where would the LDS find starving people to test the 28-year old oats?

From Man and Society in Calamity
by Pitirim A. Sorokin, Copyright 1942
http://grandpappy.info/bmanand.htm

Suppose that we are confronted by a dry loaf of bread of poor quality, or by a piece of somewhat putrid meat. If we are not hungry, we respond to these stimuli by speech reactions such as: "Nobody, not even a dog, would eat it. It is nauseating!" But after prolonged and acute starvation our reaction is as follows: "Excellent! Delicious! Wonderful!" and we avidly seize the bread or the meat. The half-rotten flesh of horses that had died of starvation was eagerly, even greedily sought by most of the Russian population during the famine, and it was eaten with as much relish as well-nourished people eat the best steak. The same was true of the flesh of dogs, cats, and even mice and rats. Mikkelsen and Iversen, under the stress of starvation, decided to try the liver of a dead dog which even their own dogs would not eat and which they knew was to some extent poisonous. After cooking it, "We taste it critically . . . ; but the first little mouthful is speedily followed by one considerably larger, and two broad grins of delight with inarticulate murmurs of satisfaction, announce that we find it delicious." What is "tasteless" or even nauseating under normal circumstances becomes "delectable" to a famished person.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

If it was me and I was a tightwad and not wanting to do anything for new preps, I would take the oldest looking can/container, the one I would look at and give the lowest passing grade, and open it up and consume. Majority of my preps are in rotation. I am doing some long term 5gal bucket/mylar w/ oxy abs for wheat berries/oats. Finally getting back into gardening now as an added bonus. Would really like to make a greenhouse, soooo little time and soooooo much to do.

edit: on that opening it and consume part, might want to use best judgement, . Saw a vid of a guy that had some y2k supplies and he cracked a can open and ate right there, said had been in a storage shed in sunlight in 90+ degree temps. May also look if any cans are 'swelling'.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

We're eating food from 2000 right now. Oatmeal, macaroni, milk powder, potato granules...

Open it and try it.

Re: Food Storage Question
 

I wanted to stretch the OPs time frame out to 20-30 years. Instead, I'm afraid I got us involved in rotting dogs and starving horse flesh.:signs14: My point, really, was that stored foods last a long time more than folks think. I've seen many posters here worrying about best used by dates. And, while I don't believe stored foods last forever, I do believe they are good way past the dates on the cans. You can measure the shelf life of stored foods in decades at least.

And, I especially wanted to insert the idea that folks not throw away old canned/stored foods. Most of us are preparing for difficult or disaster scenarios. The foods you have stored don't have to be gourmet quality to be valuable to you. If you've paid for it and it enables your survival, it's worth keeping..

Re: Food Storage Question
 

lol, no worries, Merlin! You are correct that value depends on factors other than expiration dates, but instead of just saving the food until it's unpalatable, it's so much better to store what you eat and eat what you store. Rotate food out.... eat the older stuff and then replace it with newer. That way you never have to deal with really old stuff of questionable quality.

The only cans or stored foods I would not open and eat are those that are either leaking or that have swollen. I've only had to throw out 1 #10 can in the last 10 years and that was a scone mix that had swollen the top and bottom of the can so that it wobbled like a Weeble.

As someone said also, if you don't want to eat something that is old, feed it to the animals if you have any. Don't feed them anything that is spoiled like the swollen cans, but stale oats for the pigs or goats is just fine.