Canned Sardines: Shelf life if never opened.

[Clarence Martin]

Anyone know the shelf life of canned Sardines if the can was never opened ?

[Ryan Mooney]

Think of them as schrodinger's sardines, they are both good and bad until you open the can.

http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18268 - they're likely still edible for quite some time past that, but the texture and flavor starts to get not-so-good (oils get rancid, fish start to turn to mush...). Packed in acidic contents (like the ones in tomatoes) will likely fail faster since the acid will eventually eat the can.

[Bert Kemp]

Mine have a best used by date which is Mar 2017 I bought them last week, no telling how long they been in the store tho.

[Clarence Martin]

Checked the date on the can. I bought them for trapping Raccoon when the fur prices were good years back. The date on the can says it was packed 18 years ago !! The Raccoon might not even go near them at that age !!

[Mike Lassiter]

I doubt they smell any worse now than they did 18 years ago. :rolleyes:

[Jim Koepke]

I doubt they smell any worse now than they did 18 years ago. :rolleyes:

To a raccoon, they might smell better.

jtk

[Jerome Stanek]

When I was in the service in the 70's we were eating canned c rations from 42 and never got sick other than the taste of some of their entrees eggs and lima beans

[Jim Matthews]

If the can is dome shaped, it's ready!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkvideo/10681525/Surstromming-tasting-the-smelliest-food-in-the-world.html

[John Coloccia]

When I was in the service in the 70's we were eating canned c rations from 42 and never got sick other than the taste of some of their entrees eggs and lima beans

About 7 years ago, just before I moved from California, a guy was having a "hangar sale". For those who don't fly, that's when you stuff your hangar full of junk that you don't want anymore, and people come buy it...like a garage sale for pilots. Anyhow, this older, crotchety guy owned the hangar and I couldn't seem to buy ANYTHING from him. "I'll take that vise".

Oh, you can't have the vise. I may need that someday.

"OK, fine...I'll buy this tool".

Oh!! You're finding ALL my gems. You can't have that either. You can buy this box of random screws if you want.

So the wife and I are looking and looking and looking. Everything we want, he won't sell. Finally, I come across some sort of big box filled with lots of little boxes. Hey, what are those, I wonder.

"Rations from 'nam. Want to buy some?"

Success! So I buy some Vietnam rations. This was around 2007, I think, so you do the math. We took them home, and of course I couldn't resist. The wife didn't want any part of it, but I remember it came with some way of heating it (I forget exactly how, now), and it may even have come with a pack of smokes. Yeah, I ate it. I think one was some sort of stew. Another was maybe something like ham and peas. They were as fresh as the day they were made, and actually tasted pretty good!

I'm not sure this really helped you with your sardine problem, but I'm sure racoons would like the rations, so why not buy some of those next time instead?

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm sure racoons would like the rations, so why not buy some of those next time instead?

Racoons? Where do they sell those?

[Tom Stenzel]

My Mother has a can of Spam she found in one of the cabinets.

It has no date code on the can. None.

She hasn't thrown it away but she won't wisely won't open it either.

I've heard of carbon-14 dating but don't know how familiarity of carbon's social life can tell me how old anything is.

-Tom

[John Coloccia]

I have a theory about Spam, it's shelf life, best ways to prepare it, etc. It goes something like this: "Why did you buy spam?"

That is all.

[John Coloccia]

So why is Spam packed in that gelatin, anyway? I call it Spamatin. Is it a cosmetic touch to ensure a satisfying *FWOP* sound when you finally get it to slide out of the tin, or is it more to keep it fresh, sort of like coating machinery with cosmoline?

[Justin Ludwig]

I have a theory about Spam, it's shelf life, best ways to prepare it, etc. It goes something like this: "Why did you buy spam?"

That is all.

Similar to my thought, "Why are you eating sardines to begin with?"

[Mel Fulks]

Many taste their first Spam in jail. So maybe it was just the ambiance that gave them a bad impression.

[John Sanford]

I have a theory about Spam, it's shelf life, best ways to prepare it, etc. It goes something like this: "Why did you buy spam?"

That is all.

Spam Musubi

Grilled Spam & Eggs

[Butch Spears]

If you ever get POOR enough and HUNGRY enough. You will learn to LIKE spam. I know, because I LOVE it. fixed in a lot of different ways.