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Food storage - how long will it keep


geek

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How hungry will you be?

Taste may deteriorate (as in 'best before' and 'use by'),but if properly stored (cool,dry) ,unopened and undamaged ,tins of commercially canned

food (inc tuna) will remain safely edible for an indefinite time.USDA(Dept Agriculture).

Should see you through most temporary supply glitches....

Sprite seems to last 6m+,coke not 3 years!

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Hi Paul,

 

They found some tinned foodstuffs from the Shackleton expedition and opened them, and they were still fine to eat, I think. That is stored in minus temperatures though.

 

It's been discussed a little bit here, and one of the posters supplied this quote from Wikipedia (if that is to be relied upon!):

 

"In 1824 Sir William Edward Parry took canned beef and pea soup with him on his voyage to the Arctic in HMS Fury, during his search for a northwestern passage to India. In 1829, Admiral Sir James Ross also took canned food to the Arctic, as did Sir John Franklin in 1845.[7] Some of his stores were found by the search expedition led by Captain (later Admiral Sir) Leopold McLintock in 1857. One of these cans was opened in 1939, and was edible and nutritious, though it was not analysed for contamination by the lead solder used in its manufacture."

Surely the smell and then taste test if the key. Open it up - how does it smell? Taste a tiny amount and does it taste rank and off? Not just gobbling up large quantities of the stuff and then getting food poisoning. I do tend to eat A LOT of food past it's use-by date, as I think its a load of cobblers, and massively wasteful. And, I can trust my sense to give me the right feedback for whether to eat it or not. I know that's a bit off topic, but use-by dates drive me up the wall as they are so inaccurate.

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Luke,I agree-though 4 year old coke really should not be served to your son's new girlfriend-though her tact in rejecting it might be an interesting guide!

 

Anyhow,the USDA are quite specific on 'best buy' etc labelling,it's a flavout advice not an edible advice,for many canned foods.

"Fresh' or "frozen' of course-ie 'not canned' need to be taken more seriously-the nose test at the very least.

 

"use by" in UK may well be rather naughty,implying some health risk if extended?

It is a pain trying to store new cans at the back of your shelves-though probably just easier to resort every 6months-way beyond any short term 'prep span'.

cheers (spirits seem OK)

gbal

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gbal-sounds lime you've inadvertently devised a good prospective girlfriend/boyfriend test!

 

 

Certain foods will last longer than your natural life as mentioned earlier , wheat was found in the Egyptian pyramids and was grown and used in crop research.

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Certain foods will last longer than your natural life as mentioned earlier , wheat was found in the Egyptian pyramids and was grown and used in crop research.

 

Hmmmm cf post8 ...... I might be able to use this for my next 'good mummy test'....:-)

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Try wise food company or legacy premium freeze dried food, a lot cheaper than mountain house and has 25 year shelf life. I noted a company in Germany selling Legacy Premium - 120 servings for about £220

 

I've had a good look at this and Legacy Premium is clearly the way to go. It is so much cheaper than Mountain House which is stratospherically expensive. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone retailing it in the UK at present. There is one website which deals exclusively with Mountain House, based in Leeds, but when you drill into it a "6 month supply" is actually only 180 meals, i.e one meal a day. It's also £800. Mind you with a shelf life of 25 years, you will never need to replace it and it would be great security.

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, but when you drill into it a "6 month supply" is actually only 180 meals, i.e one meal a day.

 

...for a family of 5, it's only one meal a day each ..for 36 days.

 

I'm sure someone on here mentioned buying freeze-dried food from the States via Amazon? Spartan, was it you? If so, please would you remind us?

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...for a family of 5, it's only one meal a day each ..for 36 days.

 

I'm sure someone on here mentioned buying freeze-dried food from the States via Amazon? Spartan, was it you? If so, please would you remind us?

 

Correct - Wise Food often have specials on amazon.com. The catch is the charge you an imports fee deposit. When it is delivered contact the delivery service (in my case it was DHL) by email (so you have it in writing) and ask if there where any fees - customs duty of VAT. There was none added to my orders, so I contacted Amazon, advised them and produced the proof and got my full refunds back. There are also some users on ebay selling wise foods, but watch out for the global shipping progam charges (some seller sign up to this) - its a rip-off.

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Food storage, now there is a thing that the fear police have put the clampers on! Currently I have hams that I cured seven years ago hanging in the shed, still in good order if a bit hard. My salamis are a bit younger, my air dried salt mutton was killed and hung to dry last October and still has not seen the inside of a fridge. There are a lot of scare stories around food, I often feel many are put around to ensure folks throw out perfectly edible food.

In the Western Isles of Scotland birds such as cormorant were eaten very fresh or hung for a month or so before eating, all with no ill effect. Much worry is due to preconceived 'good and bad'. Tins will last until the tin punctures, keep them in a dry environment and they will be ok a hundred years from now. Let them rust and they could be spoiled in a year. Look at how the old people prepared and ate food and follow their example. If you have led a sterilised life you may have gastrointestinal hurry for a day or two but your guts will acclimatise to the microbiology soon enough; after all we have evolved as scavengers for over four million years!

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Food storage, now there is a thing that the fear police have put the clampers on! Currently I have hams that I cured seven years ago hanging in the shed, still in good order if a bit hard. My salamis are a bit younger, my air dried salt mutton was killed and hung to dry last October and still has not seen the inside of a fridge. There are a lot of scare stories around food, I often feel many are put around to ensure folks throw out perfectly edible food.

 

 

 

I think you are quite right Missed. Have you taught yourself to cure meat or have you been doing it for a long time? Is it easy to do?

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I was taught as a child however over the years I have been fortunate enough to learn from other cultures. Curing meat is not difficult, when you are dealing with a large pig or beast you have plenty to play with. I enjoy the Faroese and Icelandic methods of dealing with mutton (lamb is pretty tasteless and best left on the heather for two years to gain flavour). If you stalk its worth making biltong. My children used to go through kilos of the damn stuff, preferring it to sweets. Best advice if you have never done any before is to get someone to teach you, failing that read up on the various methods and choose one and get that right before trying another method.

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here is the german store that sells legacy premium - http://shop.recentr.com/search?sSearch=legacy (they also sell katadyn)

319 euro for the Entree package for 120 servings - http://legacyfoodstorage.com/project/premium-120-serving-package/

postage an packaing is 12.50 euro DHL

 

Thanks for the info ! :)

 

£240 from Germany, 40,800calories at £240 = 170kCal per £1

 

-Can't find similar info for mountain house to compare it to (www.mountainhouse.eu.)?

 

 

(also fairly depressing to note that 40,800 is only 20 days for 1 person at 2000 calories per day........so, a four day supply for a family of 5; or 8 days on half rations :( )

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

 

this looks like a good selection and price, though not sure what the delivery will be:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wise-Grab-Go-120-Freeze-Dried-Real-Meat-Meals-Food-Storage-MRE-Prepper-Emergency-/161548770436?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item259d0e9c84#shpCntId

 

What import duties / taxes will I have to pay if i ordered this?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

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From which supplier - the ebay chap in J0N's post?

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They quoted $91 for delivery for the above package of two boxes, which equates to £227 delivered (not including any import tax's, I'm not sure if you have to pay import on food?) how did this compare price wise to the site in Germany inc delivery? The above is for 120 Servings of Real Meat Meals.

 

Cheers

 

Jon

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