The author, Roshunda Terry, is director of the Anson County Cooperative Extension office.
With many citizens staying home as a precaution to the COVID-19 pandemic and many shelves at local stores being bare, now would be a good time to take stock of what you have at home in your pantries and cabinets. Throwing away out-of-date food is a good way to declutter.
Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or just no longer on a supermarket shelf (unfit for sale, but not yet unfit for use). In more common terms, shelf life is how long a food will stay safe to eat and still have the same nutrient content it had when purchased.
Storing food in the pantry usually means keeping it in cool, clean cabinets. Cabinets above the range, near the dishwasher or next to the refrigerator exhaust tend to be warmer. These are good places to store dishes, pots, and pans, but these cabinets are too warm for keeping food safe and at top nutritional quality.
Here are some things to remember when it comes to storing foods in cans.
The color, flavor, texture and/or nutritive value may be affected after a length of time. Don’t keep canned goods longer than one year. Don’t keep canned fruit juices for more than nine months.
Canned goods should be kept at moderately cool, but not freezing, temperatures. Canned foods stored above 70 degrees F will have a shorter shelf life. Don’t store canned goods above 95 degrees F, such as in a storage shed or garage. Sometimes in the winter, canned goods may freeze. Canned goods may be frozen and thawed once but it may result in a slight breakdown of texture.
If cans are bulging, the food inside is spoiled and they should be thrown away. Cans with dents on the side seam or the rim seams mean the food may have been exposed to air, a good environment for harmful bacteria to grow. Don’t buy or use cans that have leaks. Food in rusty cans should not be eaten since you cannot be sure the food is safe.
To find a detailed chart of the listed foods and many others, click here. Click here to find the FoodKeeper app.