I need a better answer.

[JoJo]

I have been all over the internet looking for a definitive answer to storing canned food and none was found. The canned food I’m asking about is the stuff you get from your local grocery store and not the freeze dried stuff. Some say that one year after the sell by date others say ten years. There is also a story where canned food was found to be eatable after one hundred years.  I learned that canned meet doesn’t store as long as vegetables. 
 My wife, who by the way doesn’t believe in long term prepping prefers fresh vegetables so rotating is out of the question. 
  I can use all of the help you can give me.

[JohnyMac]

1) Once canned food goes past the recommended "eat by date" it's not that the food goes bad (Unless the can starts to
     bulge) it's that the vitamin/nutrient benefit/value diminishes.
2) Each type of food's  vitamin/nutrient diminishes at a different rate depending on
    A) How it was cooked, and
    B) The item in the can.

    That is why you can not find a standard to follow. There are just to many variables involved.

The standard that MrsMac and I have used successfully is:

 I) Any canned meat we keep no longer then one year past Expiration Date, and
II) Fruit & vegetables, five years. Remember that light is one of the major contributors to food loosing it's
    vitamin/nutrient value. So the above standard does not include home canned items put in clear canning jars. The
    maximum time I would keep jar canned meat is 12-18 months and veggies & fruit 24-30 months.   

We do rotate stock and we clean out our can cupboard once a year. We give the cans away to the food bank we do not want to keep another year.

On another note:
We can a good portion of what we grow. If we do not grow enough of X we buy it from a produce wholesaler. What we strive for is:

24-30 pint jars of ea. Carrots, and green/bush/wax beans
24-30 ea plastic zip lock bags of corn and lima beans. 1 cup per bag and frozen
12-18 pint jars of peaches
24-30 pint jars of my grandmothers pasta sauce (You get about 12 pint jars per 20 #'s of tomatoes)
12-18 qt jars of pickles,
12 1/2 pint assorted jellies, and
9 qts of blue berries (3, 1 gallon ziplock bags) frozen.

Sounds like a lot for two people but it is just about right. Lasts us from ~October through April-ish. The pickles last us till August/September.

We have been given canned meat in qt jars but never tried doing it ourselves. We freeze a lot though. I figure if we loose electricity, I would just move the freezer out onto the porch in the winter. We did that in 2012/13 as we had limited electricity then.

A lot more info than you were looking for Jojo. Sorry...  

[DMCakhunter]

That is why you cannot rely solely on canned foods. Freeze dried meals offer the longest storage duration for complete meals that retain a majority of the nutritional value. No matter the item, canned, glass jar, or pouch it will last longer if stored in a cool dry place.

Just got a flyer from Mountain House, free shipping in February.
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[JoJo]

Thanks JohnyMac, thats the best answer I got. Everyone else beat around the bush. 

[brat]

JoJo, I can't give you a "definitive", but I will pass on my personal experience. Take that for what it's worth.

I have a couple of local friends (yeah, I know, only two) that have lived off the grid for over 15 years now. I have been to their homes/compounds and eaten their meals. They grow, butcher and can "everything" and if we were talking about hogs, I mean everything but the squeal.

Last spring prior to setting our gardens, we had a "meeting" to learn more about canning our bounty. We were fed a nice home cooked meal of roast beef, carrots, beans, cabbage, potatoes and other stuff. There were about twenty or so of us. We all commented about how good the home cooked meal was.

Then we were educated about the fact that ALL of the "fixins" were home canned, in a pressure canner, over their wood fired stove. My buddy then tossed this handful of used canning lids on the table, all neatly marked with contents and date. The "youngest" food we ate was canned 7/2006 !!!!    The beef lids were marked 9/2002. No one got sick, upset stomach, died or anything else, maybe the shine helped, I dunno. It was the tenderest beef I can recall eating.

So, I guess my point is there may not be the "definitive" answer you seek, at least to properly prepared home canned stuff. I'm not too sure as to the mass produced stuff, but you will have more control over stuff, especially the quality, when you do it yourself.

Myself, I have some store bought (rotated), some home canned (look up pressure canners) from my garden and local meat, some dehydrated (look up Excaliber) and I have some LDS cannery and freeze dried from various companies. Like anything else when prepping, don't put all your eggs in one basket, two is one and one is none, insert favorite saying here....

If you decide to get into home canning, I can recommend a couple of good books.
Best of luck to you JoJo. 

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey jojo. Another factor you should look at with store bought canned goods is sodium content sugars and acids. I will keep some things allot longer than JMc if the can has a high sodium count or high acidity. Allot of canned meats have been cooked and cured with allot of salt prior to canning(ie spam, sardines, salmon, hams and deviled ham).
Tomatoes, crushed steamed diced whole or whatever have a high acidity and sodium, so they keep on my shelf for 4 to 6 yrs. But things like tomato paste tomato sauses have allot of sugar which is bad for long term storage.
So take some time to read labels. A can of chef boyardee will keep on the shelf for a long time. I have cans that are 5 yrs old and still fine. For my money i will keep the syrupy sugary caned stuff for two yrs past exparation date with no fear. And the salty acidic stuff, well i have some tomates that are six yrs old and still taste good. Inspect your cans for bulges, smell when you open them and you should be gtg buddy. Hope that helps a lil bit

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey brat. What books would you recomend for home canning?

[brat]

@WhiskeyJack

You'll find everything you'll ever need in these.....

"Putting Food By" - Greene, Hertzberg and Vaughan

"Stocking Up" and "Stocking Up III" - Hupping and Rodale staff

and the old stand by "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving" - Kingry and Devine


The Ball book I use more for recipes to try when I have too much of one thing to can.

The other two get the most use and I use them to cross reference.

If I have questions after all that, I use the "phone a friend" mentioned in my other post....

[graynomad]

In Oz most canned goods don't even have a use by date, I went looking the other day as was flat out finding some that did. I gather that if a food will last more than 2 years it's not required.

As I understand it most canned goods will last essentially forever, they may lose nutritional value but still be edible. This is backed up by my Dad's experience, in WW2 this unit was fed canned corned beef that was packages in WW1, he said it was just fine.

[Nemo]

Don't ask for a better answer.  The government tells you the answer.  All food items have an expiration date on them.  Generally no more than 1 year from date of final packaging.  Anything over that you cannot eat as it is expired and will do bad things to and for you.

Nemo

[WhiskeyJack]

Ty brat
i have all but one of those books.

[Erick]

To add to what Johny Mac said:

The Best Buy dates dont neccessarily accurately reflect any problems with that cans content by that date.
There are also regulatory reasons why not can is marked good past 2 yrs from manufacture

[Shadow]

Once in a Blue Moon, a store will have Campbell's Chicken Noodle and Tomato Soup on sale $.50 a can.  When that happens, I try to buy 2 or 3 cases - depending upon my budget and my belief that it might go down again sometime in the future.

I will eat those can's of soup until they are finished, regardless of how long they have been on the shelf, and the first can tastes just as good as the last!

Any type of vegetable on sale automatically goes on the shelf.  You never know when you might need to make some soup etc and need some canned vegetables quick.

In comparison - canning carrots, or anything with carrots is the worst experience I have ever had.
Most times they ferment - regardless of what I do!  So I avoid trying to can soup with carrots or beef or venison.

I can buy canned pea's cheaper than I can buy a jar and can them myself, so there is no reason to do so.  I do agree with those that has said that dried vegetables is a much better option.

I have to look at how much stuff I can carry in one vehicle, should Bug Out become necessary!

I can't get past the 6 month threshold no matter how hard I try to keep things on stock for a bug out.   Should I get my own place - way up north where the Husky's goes, I will try to increase that to about 1 years worth of food.  The problem then being where do you keep it all, and how do you keep someone from robbing you when you aren't there.
It is commonplace for cabins to get robbed in the off season when individuals wander into a deserted camp and make themselves at home during the winter.
And, you never know if you are going to be able to get to where you plan to go - should you have to bug out.
The key is to get as far away from the roads as possible, because anyplace you can go with a vehicle, so too can someone that might be looking to rob you when food sources dries up.
I am into this Prepper for the long term.   Not looking to just be thrifty or acting like I am prepared when in fact anyone that thinks that they are going to bug in - isn't!

I won't let a woman or any person tell me what I can and can't eat or how long I can keep something or to throw it away because they think that it might not be any good!

When you are hungry, you will eat green bologna and like it!

The key is to only buy what you like to eat and only keep what you plan to take with you!
Have enough stuff packed that if the phone rings you are already 50 miles down the road before the Zombies realizes that the World is Coming to An End!

[Kbop]

to what Shadown said;  I like to shop sales too!  I have always found it interesting how much of some things i'll go through and how little of other things.  I agree, store what you eat.

On the carrots - my better half suggests pressure canning them.  (I know how to eat not can). 

It makes sense to stock up on pre-made, if you can find it cheaper than growing - the only hitch in that is resupply.  if your window of need is 6mos to a year, you can store what you need.  To JoJo's question - storing for any longer than a year and you might want to consider growing and preserving or barter for food.  The hitch in that is you need the materials and skills to back it up.  A cabin on the side of a hill in the woods may be secluded and off the beaten path BUT it might be hard to find 5 acres of pasture and 5 acres of garden space in that environment (historical land use with no electricity and a family of 4).  For barter you need either materials on hand or skills really needed at that time and in that place.  If you choose the manufacturing barter materials route, you need the infrastructure, skills, materials and demand in place to open your business.  - if a primary concern is safety, barter in any form increases contact with the public - just something to keep in mind.

If you have a BOL/cabin but don't want to cache supplies on property, you could find a 'u-store-it' nearby.    if you relocate, your supplies are within an hours drive of your location - store extra fuel or cartage.  secure the BOL then move the supplies in trips until the storage locker is empty. (make sure you clear out the locker ASAP).  Typically storage lockers aren't hit first in a US type panic.  History shows that retail then warehouse facilities are hit first.  Then trucks and train yards...    I did see where one person online is making tornado shelters that aren't too expensive.  If your budget permits, you could burry a tornado shelter - a bit away from the house.  fill it with your stores and burry the front entrance a foot or two deep and sod it over.  The odds of it being found by casual looters is remote.  If placed properly it would also make a nice security/observation point or fighting position.

Eric;  in my bachelor days, canned food was eaten unless the can was leaking or looked like it was going to pop like an over-inflated balloon.  it was buried in my pantry like geological strata - no apparent dain brammage seems to have occurred.

[Shadow]

Sorry, but I can't agree with what Kbop says.

First off, do you realize how big 5 acres really is?

Lets cheat and say an acre is as big as a football field.

I have a garden roughly 16 feet x 16 feet.  With my old worn out rototiller, it takes me about 6 - 8 hours of work, just to prepare the soil.  It takes me another 6 hours to weed and or plant - depending upon what happened the year before.  It takes approximately 100 gallons of water, twice a week to water the garden - when it doesn't rain.
When it does rain, I rejoice louder then the Hallelujah choir.

Then you have the weeds.  To use black plastic vs not using black plastic.
Black plastic is great for some things and not so good for others.
Green Peppers don't seem to like black plastic, I have had years where it got hot and the pepper plants fried and died or were stunted.  Onions, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, corn, potato's - can't be grown in black plastic.

Then again, where are you going to get black plastic every year?

The kids around here are totally worthless.  They spend their every waking hour looking at their mobile babysitter - cell phone.  They don't go out of the house, they don't do any manual labor.  They want paid in advance before they do the work, and even if you can get them out of the house, everything they do, they do half assed and then they blame it on inexperience - like I have to teach you how to pull each and every individual weed.  The adults are no better off - this is where the kids gets it from.

How are you going to weed 5 acres?

I can understand the big tractor theory, but in actuality, you will probably run out of fuel long before planting season if people wants electric every day and some type of event happens where all of the grid is taken down!
And without any electric, there is no electric to run the pumps to pump the fuel into the trucks to deliver it to the individual gas stations.

Barter is totally out of the question..
Just think crack house..
What happens at a crack house.
One person has the product and other people comes to the house to buy what they need for the day.
They beg or borrow to get what they want and they patiently wait for you to leave and then they rob you!
When you come home and your dog is dead and your door is kicked down and all your stuff is gone you will wish that you never met those people before in your life.
Even if you could catch them, there is no telling how many people they shared it with - of your location and your store of food and supplies.

I keep trying to tell people, that you want to get as far away from civilization as possible and to keep others away from your place of refuge, else you will end up with a bunch of free loaders and thief's, but most people won't listen...

Find yourself a healthy old lady that is young enough to still have kids for the next 10 years.
I don't care if she weighs 180 lbs, as long as she is healthy and is willing to work like a dog.

Buy your property now and build your house so you can heat it with a candle and put up enough firewood - to last two years!  Unless you have a Diesel chainsaw - if there is a solar event - Carrington Event - no internal combustion engine and no vehicle with a computer is going to run.

Figure out how to build a cache and put your supplies in it NOW, not later.

Quit your job, move to your bug out location, find what ever job you can find, even if it is only packing grocery bags in a store.  Learn how to live off the land now!  This isn't going to be like going camping for a weekend with your family.  I stress communications to the point of knowing how to use a transceiver, knowing how to find internet where there is none.  Learning how to make your own Mesh Node and setting up your own WiFi hotspot.
Having your own internet server.  Having much of what you need to know, medicine, health, science, agriculture, math, home economics - already stored on your computer will help you out when there is no internet to go to!

How do you can corn?
How do you can carrots?
How do you keep carrots without refrigeration?
How do you keep onions / potato's - long term?
How do you make soap?
How do you make roofing materials?
How do you make nails?
How do you cure meat?
How do you smoke meat?
When should you plant your crops?
How long will seeds keep?
How to store seeds that you have grown?
How do you make shoes?
How do you fix shoes?

You aren't going to be wearing sneakers!

Do you already have several pairs of work shoes, insulated and non insulated already in inventory?

Bandages, how to perform surgery.  How to gather roots and berries and what mushrooms are good to eat and which ones are poisonous.  What happens if our food mutates after a nuclear winter?
Again, everyone thinks that it is going to be summertime when this stuff happens and nothing is going to happen to our climate..

What happens if our earth falls off its axis and North America becomes Alaska or Siberia.
There is a lot of things that you have to think of if you are going to be prepared...

What would happen if Global Warming caused another Ice Age?  You would have no growing season!
How far would you be willing to travel by foot to kill something to eat?
Would you become nomadic?
Could you even live an Amish lifestyle with no electricity or modern conveniences?

[Currahee]

We prefer fresh veggies as well and do not "rotate" in that sense.  I have a couple of rubber-made boxes that I keep in a closet.  Every 3 years I rotate.  The stuff that we will not use goes to the local church pantry.