black.joel•12d agoMost Upvoted

Am I the only one who thinks canned food expiry dates are way too conservative?

I was cleaning out my pantry last weekend and found a can of green beans from 2021. Instead of tossing it, I opened it up and it looked and smelled totally fine. Ate it for dinner and felt fine too. I get that stores have to be careful for liability, but I think a lot of us are throwing away perfectly good food based on those stamped dates. Has anyone else tested their older cans and found them still good?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary77612d ago

oh man I laugh but its because I am the queen of expired canned food experiments lol. I literally have a whole shelf in my pantry I call the "archaeology section" where I keep cans that are like 2-3 years past date just to see what happens. So far I havent died or even gotten a stomach ache from anything. The green beans from 2021 were probably fine because that stuff is basically just water and salt locked in a metal fortress. I think the real scam is how they print those dates way too early just so we toss stuff and buy more. Honestly if it looks right smells right and the can isnt dented or bulging I will eat it. My only rule is no dented cans those scare me.

piper91212d ago

My mom kept a can of tomato sauce from 2018 in her basement and we cracked it open last year out of curiosity, still tasted like regular tomato sauce. I honestly think this whole system is just another way companies cover themselves while making us buy more. Same thing with "best by" dates on bottled water. It's tap water in plastic, it's not going bad by that date, they just want us to toss it and buy new.