How Long Can I Store Canned Goods?

When a cut of meat says "use by," that's pretty straightforward.  Anything fresh like meat or dairy products should be used by the date on their labels, more or less.

Canned goods, however, have been preserved.  They have a different story than fresh foods.  The purpose of canning fresh foods is to be able to use them well beyond their fresh-shelf life which would only be a few days or weeks.  The preservation process makes them good for years, in fact.

Think about the difference between buying a fresh fish and buying a can of tuna.  You'll want to eat the fresh fish soon, but the can of tuna could stay on your shelf for months.

Keep in mind that "use by" (like you see on meat and dairy products) doesn't mean the same thing as "best by" that you might see on a can of corn.  (More here and here.)

Let's cut straight to the moral of the story, and then I'll give you the story.  The moral of this story is:

Don't be quick to throw away your past-date canned goods!

They are almost always good (and even nutritious) beyond their date-stamp.

My favorite study to back this up was conducted on the steamboat Bertrand.  Well, its sunken wreckage, that is.  In 1865 it sailed the Missouri River with loads of canned goods for delivery to gold mining camps in Montana.  It snagged on something on the river bottom and sunk under the weight of all it was carrying.  The wreckage was discovered about 100 years later.

Some of the canned goods from this wreck were retrieved from the bottom of the river in 1968, and in 1974, chemists from the National Food Processors Association ran tests on the contents of the canned goods.  100+-year-old canned goods.  They determined that although the foods had lost their fresh smell and appearance, they had no microbacterial growth and were just as safe to eat as when they had been canned.

*In a different century!*

There was a decrease in some of the nutrients, as the food was--after all--over 100 years old.  But the food was still safe to eat.

I don't keep my canned goods for 10 years, let alone 100, but the point of this story is that most canned goods last much longer than their expiration dates.

Jumping ahead to this century now, experts say that if you store your canned goods in a cool, dark place, they actually have about double the shelf life of what is printed on the "best by" label.  Most canned goods can still be eaten 3-6 years later.  (Here's another source.)

We're talking about wet canned goods here (like a can of peaches), but dried food (like oats) lasts MUCH longer.  (My favorite place for staples preserved in cans is here.  You can find canned oats, sugar, flour, apples, onions, and more.)  Some dry canned goods like wheat can last 30 years or more!

Don't waste money or food by throwing away cans that have been stored well (out of direct sunlight and extreme heat) and which have no damage.  Never eat the contents of a can with a bulging top as the food inside has likely been compromised, but don't be quick to throw away canned goods just because of a date stamp.  The food inside is almost certainly good for a few years yet.

This is great news if you want to keep a bunch of things handy in your pantry so you can make some of the easy recipes at Easy Pantry Recipes.  And it's even better news if you find yourself in a pinch.