What canned foods have the longest shelf life.

Imo it is best to avoid buying anything that is actually a meal in a tin if you know what i mean, instead just buy canned ingredients to use for cooking. A must is having a variety of beans/pulses, along with spices you can create a variety of meals that will keep you going but not get boring, which is important in a long term survival situation. Dried beans instead of canned last a very long time as well.

Interesting answers and links on the topic of old canned food from Google answers:

Quality Foods Centers, however, suggest keeping canned goods no longer
than 24 months:

"What is the shelf life of canned goods?
Because of growing and harvesting limitations, canned fruits and
vegetables can be packed only a few weeks of every year. That product
packed during those few weeks must be adequate to fill the needs of
consumers throughout the entire year. The shelf life of high acid
items (like tomato products) is generally no more than 18-24 months
from the pack date. By the time the product is stored and shipped
throughout the year, it generally has a shelf life of no more than
12-18 months when purchased at the store. Low acid canned fruits and
vegetables may be good for two years or more, depending on storage
conditions and the condition of the can itself. We do not recommend
using dented, bulging, or rusted canned goods."

answers.google.com...

One day I was at the store and I set out to figure out which of the canned meat products lasted the longest, and from what I saw red salmon had the longest shelf life,

That little bit of digression out of the way I think theprepared.com... is sort of what you are looking for. Honestly I wouldn't put too much emphasis on keeping more than 2 years food at the maximum, its far better to stock seeds and get into permaculture prior to any kind of SHTF situation, means less relying on the cans and keeps you active and fit maintaining and harvesting.

reply to post by tovenar


just my opinion - but all canned foods i have encountered have a far longer shelf life [ ie 8~20 months ]than the duration that any sensible survival plan should be reliant on tinned goods [ 6 weeks to 6 months ]

my physical survival planning is rather modest - most of my survival planning is in my head

in terms of stores / supplies / equipment my " target senario " is surviving a repeat of the winter 1962~63 events

because my faith in HMG and local govt agencies to provide adequate assistance is zero

i am not going into what steps i have taken - but i am confident that if unmolested and my home remains intact i can survive 4 months with zero external support [ this of course assumes i suffer no injuries or medical conditions i cannot treat myself ]

but i digress - as i state - its my opinion that tinned food / dry staples are there as a buffer - not a means of existance

and that the state of emergency will pass before shelflife becomes an issue - or you will have to move on to plan b - a strategy for sustained living

I use the expire date on the can as a general guideline, and with that in mind I rotate my canned foods so that I never have much, if any, that are beyond the expire date. I have my storage organized so that when I buy something new, it goes into the stockpile, and an equivalent older can is used first. Requires some maintenance and organization, but if and when TSHTF, my supply will all be current.

reply to post by crazydaisy

All the cans in our storage room has " best used by" dates. Most are 2013-2015, when those dates are coming close, we will enjoy the meal, and replace with new. I think by law they all should have a dates when they would be unsafe to eat.

Most are good for at least 3 years, but are really edible for at least 5. The problem is most of the nutrition goes away after 2 years, carbs and fiber generally are excepted. Buy a 6-month to 1 year supply and rotate stock.

Canned goods are ok for the short term. I plan to use them up first if the situation arises. Then I tap into freeze dried or dehydrated items that I have acquired. Pair those up with bulk dried beans, rice etc etc.

Remember that you need clean Potable water to prepare anything other than canned goods though. So beef up your long term water storage and have multiple means to clean and purify any water gathered after the fact..

I have been very pleased with the products from Wise foods, I often take some of these pouches backpacking, and the MRE's from Sopacko. Remember that when it comes to core survival, bare bones survival, MRE's are excellent due to the high number of calories provided in these meals vs. any other prepared food. Calories are your friend when the situation gets dire and MRE's contain about 1250 calories per meal. Plus the MRE's contain, a side dish, crackers, dessert, seasonings, drink mixes and heater packs. After that, you have to hunt and gather...

campingsurvival.com...

reply to post by g146541


lol. Ok maybe not too old school, but MREs are good for several years.

Does anyone know how long stuff like beef jerky or any type of meat jerky lasts?

Shelf life of canned goods is greatly influenced by storage conditions. A basement is actually a really good place to store them assuming it doesn't leak when it rains and you have a dehumidifier running continuously. Cool, dark and dry is the way to go. Basements also tend to experience lesser temperature fluctuations than above ground storage places, but you absolutely have to have some control on the humidity level. Keep canned goods up off the floor and not up against foundation walls. Extreme temperature changes and excessive humidity will greatly decrease shelf life. I don't have a basement so I guess a closet would be my best bet. I stocked grocery store shelves for a couple years when I was younger and I can tell you that I have seen almost anything you can imagine go bad. Most commercially canned food will last for a few years at least, but anomalies do exist within canning batches and certain categories of foods will spoil in fairly predictable, shorter, time frames. As other people have mentioned, I would stay away from foods that are extremely high in acid content or high in natural oil content. I have stated in other threads that peanut butter is a good food to stock up on, but I wouldn't recommend buying a case of it and never touching it. The oils in it will go rancid. My wife and I eat enough of it that we could safely keep maybe 10 jars of it in our home, and we will eat it before that happens. You're going to have a hard time finding canned tomatoes that do not have citric acid added as a preservative. While it may help preserve the contents of the can, it will not help to extend the integrity of the can itself. Many fruits are just naturally high in acid and will likely age similarly. I also would tend to look at the calorie of foods. You want to get the best bang for your buck. Green beans may last a long time, but don't necessarily offer much in the way of potential fuel when you're trying to survive on them. The average American consumes well over 2000 calories per day, we all know it's not difficult to do. That said, you need to kind of have a meal plan as you're buying food you intend on storing for survival scenarios. If you store a bunch of low calorie foods, you going to be hungry all the time, even though you're eating, and you're going to eat up your stash more quickly than you may have planned. The other thing to consider as far as maximizing shelf life is to buy seasonally, at least with fruits and vegetables. Many people may not know this, but most of the canned and frozen supplies of fruits and vegetables come from single harvest seasons, as in, it only happens once a year. They are then stored in warehouses for distribution throughout the rest of the year. You want to be aware that you may be buying canned goods that are already almost a year old. That's not going to add to the amount of time that they will stay good in your cache. My guess would be that manufacturers plan for most canned fruits and vegetables to last at least 2 years on the shelf. I don't think they're planning on most of the supply being on shelves longer than that before it's replaced with newer product. I personally don't plan on storing more than a few months worth of canned goods because I don't normally eat that much stuff out of cans. The canned things that I do eat regularly are the ones that most seem to agree will last the least amount of time. Rotating stock for me might entail donating the oldest stuff to a food bank and buying new replacements. I can't afford to do that with years worth of canned goods. If you're looking for ultra long term, read the posts before me. Other people have listed good products to store.

ezinearticles.com...

I remembered my Mom talking about the danger of botulism in green beans, and to be sure to always when reheating canned beans to boil them. This article addresses this and the danger of botulism, especially with honey and infants.

reply to post by crazydaisy


It was givin too me from a family member who was not going to use it, so gods knows how long the had held on to it aswell. When it came into my possession, it sat in my pantry/cupboard around 6 months before I opened the first can. I will add I'm not talking about a 375-400g can of Spaghetti, but a bigger can, Don't remember the exact amount.

I opened it and began to put some my cooking pot etc, and when I got to the middle of the can, there was mould or a green bacteria which I guess is common if the product is contaminated. I threw out that can and checked the others which did not seem to be contaminated. But because I opened them all I had to throw them out anyway as I couldn't be stuffed trying to preserve them and I would most likely end up throwing them out anyway.

So this is what I think may of happened.

- Maybe when the can was going through the cooking process at the factory, the settings were not correct, but this does not explain why the other cans were fine, and I have worked at Heinz and know for a fact that all the cans would of came from the same production.

- The product simply expired its shelf life, but again this does not explain why the rest were fine aswell.

- Maybe I just copped a random can, and maybe it does not happen that often.

reply to post by Redevilfan09


Dang, that blows. You had those super-sized cans that one gets from places like Sam's and Costco's?

If you had to pick would you get that same size or go for the smaller sizes?

I know that if a can has a small dent or ding, that it can cause the metal on the inside to rust and lead to all sorts of nasty stuff, but that does not sound remotely close to what your can had. Hopefully that one was just a random bad can.