Using Food Storage: How Old is Too Old?
When you start doing a pandemic check-up on that food storage sitting in your basement, you’ve got to wonder: Should you be eating food that’s older than your adult kids?
Depending on how it’s stored, some foods are actually OK to eat after 20 or 30 years.
When I was the Deseret News’ food editor, I wrote about a food storage study done at BYU. They asked for donations of old long-term food storage, typically stored in restaurant-size cans from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welfare canneries.
They found that low-moisture foods, such as dried apples, beans and rice, can be safe, edible and nutritious up to 30 years after being packaged.
But in some cases, the flavor and quality may deteriorate.
The BYU study tested the food for nutritional value. They also prepared samples for 50 taste-testers, in a cross-section of ages, to rate on a nine-point scale, with 1 as “dislike extremely” to 9 for “like extremely.”
BYU’s “acceptable” cut-off point was “dislike slightly.” In other words, food that people would be willing to eat in an emergency, but that was still well-accepted. They found:
- The wheat kernels hardly declined after 30 years, and still made a great loaf of bread.
- The 30-year-old apple slices were so well-liked that people continued to nibble on them.
- White rice, pinto beans, macaroni, rolled oats and potato flakes were all deemed “acceptable” at 30 years.
- Powdered milk was deemed “acceptable” at 20 years.
Keep in mind that these findings apply to the large, food-storage size cans, stored with oxygen-absorption packets, and stored at room temperature or below. The group sampled dried milk stored in cardboard packages for 20 years, and deemed it “terrible, both in nutrition and taste.” Heat, light and air will cause food products to deteriorate more quickly.
Oscar Pike, a BYU prof that I interviewed back then, noted that when food manufacturers determine a “best if used by” date, they are conservative, and based more on quality than safety. They won’t go down to a “slightly dislike” level of acceptability.
And if the “best if used by” date says March 13, the food is probably going to taste as good on March 14, or even a few weeks or months later. So instead of throwing it out, use it up as soon as possible.
And your perception of “acceptable” may differ from someone else’s. I recently opened a can of white flour that I packaged at the church welfare cannery back in 1997 (don’t judge! I was waiting for some day when I would really need it. And now I do.).
Despite the supposed 30-year shelf life, this flour had an “old” odor and flavor. I’d read somewhere that pouring it into a bowl and stirring it would get oxygen back into it, and eliminate the odor. Nope. I asked several food scientist friends, and they confirmed that nothing will make that rancid flavor and odor go away. I guess some would judge it as “dislike slightly,” because if they were starving, they would probably eat it. But they wouldn’t like it. One of my friends uses up old-tasting flour by mixing in small amounts in a recipe — about 1/4 cup old flour to 3/4 cup new. That way, the flavor isn’t as noticeable.
I’ve also been using some of the dried beans stored 15 years ago, and there’s a slight “old” taste that can be disguised with lots of seasonings. I also add a half-teaspoon of baking soda to the simmering water so the beans will soften up more easily. (Be sure to rinse the baking soda well before using the beans.)
For safety’s sake, DEFINITELY toss out any cans or jars that are bulging, heavily dented, cracked, with broken seals, loose lids. or any compromise with the packaging. Never use food with a foul odor or that spurts liquid when the can or jar is opened. While extremely rare, a botulism toxin is the worst danger in canned goods, and even tasting a tiny amount can be deadly, according to a USDA food-safety bulletin.
The bulletin also states that can linings might discolor or corrode when metal reacts with high-acid foods, such as tomatoes or pineapple. But as long as the can is in good shape, the contents should be safe to eat, although the taste, texture and nutritional value of the food can diminish over time.
People who hate to waste food often think of donating it. But if it’s too old for you, it’s too old for the food banks. They can’t give out food that might make people sick.
Our family started acquiring food storage back when our church advised having a two-year supply of food for times of need. Not just for a big doomsday scenario, but to use during a job loss or dip in your income, or power outages, food shortages, a snowstorm, and so on.
And seeing how quickly panicked “corona shoppers” cleared out grocery stores, it’s become clear that there are times when you can’t buy the food you want or need. Suddenly, stocking up on food and water (and toilet paper!) is back in style.
The advice used to be to sock away life-sustaining basics that stored well long-term, such as whole wheat, powdered milk, and sugar. Which left basements with literally tons of wheat that people didn’t know what to do with, especially if they didn’t have a wheat grinder. One of my friends told me her family relied on food storage for six months after her husband’s business closed. They were grateful to have it, but they had to get pretty creative to keep the beans, powdered milk and whole wheat from getting monotonous.
Today’s advice is to store food you will actually eat. (No reason to store wheat if you have family members with gluten issues.) Then rotate the food, so you eat it before it reaches the end of its shelf life, and keep re-stocking. But when you’re working, raising a family and keeping up with life, you don’t always think about lugging food up and down the basement. Unless you cook with it regularly, it’s hard to use two years’ worth of it. Which is how I ended up three cans of old flour that I “dislike slightly.”
So, if you’ve got lots of old wheat, sugar, sitting in your basement, pull it out, see if it’s still good, and start using it. And be glad it can last a long, long time.
I’ll be posting some upcoming wheat recipes that don’t require a wheat grinder. And if you have a lot of church-canned Fruit Juice Mix, I have a great non-edible use for it here.