Shelf life of commercially canned food?

[lostinthewoods]

Hello all!

I know this has been discussed at length here, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I've been buying about $10.00 worth of food for the pantry each week. Most of which has a use by date of about 2 years from now. I'm still eating chicken noodle soup from my Y2K stash with no ill effects.

Can it be stored indeffinately like home canned food? I would think it would keep forever so long as the can does not rust and stays intact?

Any suggestions?

Thanks
lost

[annabella1]

Most use by dates on canned goods are for the product in perfect condition. It should be safe to eat for a long time past that. They put use by dates on to protect themselves if something is wrong (stored improperly, cooked improperly)and to get you to buy fresh. Even so it is a good idea to rotate your stock use your oldest things first, and replace them. If you are not using it now you are probably not going to want to have to use it in an emergency. Some canned goods such as condenced milk need to be regularly turned over to keep them from seperating. And once a can is opened use it as soon as possible and keep leftovers refrigerated.

[docjered]

I agree with Annabella, but also will add that most canned foods (in fact, most commercially prepared foods) also contain nutritional values on their labels. These values presume consumption by their "use by" dates. The nutritional values continue to degrade (by a small percentage) as the foods age, even in their cans, therefore they require a use by date to make the info correct. I guess you could eat a can of food that is fifty years old, if originally canned properly and not rusty, but what would you really be eating other than bulk to fill the belly? Hmm.

Also, I am a little more concerned about cans with the newer "pop-top lids, soft pack canned goods like cooked rice products and tuna, and anything canned in Mexico or China. Another concern with food storage is to keep up on recalled products. I found a dozen jars of Peter Pan recalled peanut butter in my food stores, from the plant that was closed down and retooled to correct the contamination problem. Fortunately, these were all within the use by date, so I returned them and changed brands. If they were outdated, they would not have been returnable.