Dates, but not the Fruit

When I first began preparing for a potential emergency, everything I read stressed the importance of ROTATING my stock. Eventually, this task became overwhelming, partly because we don’t typically eat a lot of beans and rice. The things I was stashing away could not easily be transferred to our daily food supplies. But keeping up with dates on all my cans also put me way out of control. So how do I ensure my food doesn’t spoil before my family needs it?

My solution went two different directions. First off, I found articles (case studies, really) about canned goods that had been discovered more than 100 years after purchase. One occurred in Texas when a company bulldozing an area to build a parking lot for a new shopping complex discovered a root cellar that contained hundreds of canning jars full of food. The food was taken to an independent lab and tested for bacteria and nutrition. Every jar, still carefully sealed, was free of bacterial infiltrate and still held it’s original nutrition and taste, with one exception - the canned peaches weren’t quite as tasty as fresh. The other case study involved a shipwreck that had been salvaged. Among the salvaged goods were canned foods. Same situation. The salvagers knew the exact date of the shipwreck, so the age of the cans was also known. After over 100 years in the ocean, not a single can that was intact had degraded product, except the canned tuna that maintained its flavor and nutrition but had broken down in the water and was no longer a block of tuna surrounded by liquid. The important thing to glean from these case studies is the word “intact”. The home-canned goods still had a vacuum seal. The cans from the shipwreck were carefully inspected for any pinholes caused by rust. Any cans that were compromised were discarded. You should always follow this simple rule. Any can or jar whose seal has been broken should be discarded and not eaten. Any rusted cans should be discarded, as well. However, if you have purchased canned goods and maintained them in a cool, dry location, the “sell by” or “expire” or “best if eaten by” date really means nothing. The FDA does not regulate these dates. Putting dates on canned goods was introduced by manufacturers to aid store owners in rotating their stock. It IS NOT mandated and, therefore, each company’s dated stamp means something different. As long as your cans remain intact, there is absolutely NO REASON to get rid of them, no matter how far past the date. Of course, this is not true when referring to freshness or dairy products. I’m only talking about canned vegetables, meat, and fruit. PLEASE discard any baby formula or food that is past the date. These products ARE regulated. 

Secondly, I decided I would rather save up my money and purchase products that had been carefully packaged for freshness over many years. There are lots of companies that sell food stuffs in sealed tubs lined with Mylar bags that guarantee a 25+ year shelf life. While they are about 1 1/2 times as expensive as the product would be from a local grocery store, it’s well worth the added expense to be able to buy it, store it, and forget it. These companies sell professionally dehydrated products, too, like cheese, peanut butter, and butter. But you might want to start your foray into purchasing long-life products by investing in dried fruit or vegetables. They arrive sealed in #10 cans with a label and can easily be stacked.

You can also invest in wheat berries that arrive in huge sealed buckets. Wheat berries are the whole wheat that has not been ground into flour. They also last far longer in this state than ground flour. Hard wheat contains glutens that aid in product rise, like for bread. Soft wheat cannot be used for bread baking, but is great for flat breads, flour tortillas, and other products that don’t need a nice rise. If you buy these extended shelf life grains, be certain to also purchase a hand grinder for your Stores. If you need to begin using these food stuffs one day, you may not have electricity, so a good hand grinder will be essential.

I buy a 66-gallon bucket of hard red wheat about once a year. That way, I can add bread, a great filler, to my meals. Bread is also a nice, versatile comfort food, and an investment my family will appreciate. One more note about wheat. During the worst of the first wave of COVID-19, I could not find bread flour in the grocery stores. I was using my bread maker and we were all enjoying a nice, crusty warm loaf on cool mornings, but there was no bread flour to be found in the stores. Bread flour differs from regular all-purpose flour by having additional gluten, which gives bread a lovely rise. Trying to bake bread with all-purpose flour is a little like filling a blow-up pool with air when it has a tiny leak - it just doesn’t quite get you there. After a little research, I discovered that you can purchase (I got mine from Amazon) Vital Wheat Gluten. The directions were on the container and I added this to my all-purpose flour to transform it into lovely bread-making flour. Who knew? So, of course, I am sure to keep a container of vital wheat gluten around for times I want to make bread but just don’t have bread flour on hand.