canned food 6 years past expiration

[Jenbirdee]

i just opened a can of cream of chicken soup that expired 2018 ( 6 years ago) The cans look like new on the outside.
my husband is not afraid to eat it but i am.
he thinks it tasted fine but to me the smell reminds me of the chemicals used in hair perm stuff. !!!!
i read this that says it’s safe though but would you eat it?

 

[Brooks_]

Generally speaking the date on canned stuff is about the quality - flavor/texture. Botulism thrives in anaerobic states like canned, but that would have happened long before the date.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I would eat maybe 6 months or a year past the date but not 6 years.

 

[igorsMistress]

If it’s still good, yes I would eat it. Canned goods on the bottom of the ocean have been tested as still safe to eat after decades. If the smell was too much, or if it was something acidic like tomatoes in a can, nope.

 

[Jenbirdee]

If it’s still good, yes I would eat it. Canned goods on the bottom of the ocean have been tested as still safe to eat after decades. If the smell was too much, or if it was something acidic like tomatoes in a can, nope.

i guess we will see if DH survives . he took a big container of it with him for his lunch today, after i added mixed veggies and fried onions and some ham and rice into it. but i can still faintly smell hair perm solution smell … i wonder what that’s from . of course a soup like cream of chicken has all kinds of weird stuff in it including MSG and modified food starch ,, things I don’t like to eat in the first place, even if it’s fresh. ( dh bought lots of cans in years past for storage but wants me to use them up now at least the expired ones)

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

Tomato stuff, not good. other canned veggies, or soups: absolutely! I have eaten plenty of stuff from the 2010s, in this decade. so I would say it's safe

 

[Aardyn]

It would still be "safe" to eat as long as there was nothing wrong with the can, but it may not taste as good that long after the date. The longer something is canned the less nutrition and flavor it has.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Tomato stuff, not good. other canned veggies, or soups: absolutely! I have eaten plenty of stuff from the 2010s, in this decade. so I would say it's safe

yeah i opened a tiny can of 2017 tomato paste and it poofed out as soon as it got a tiny opening it was squishing out like a snake thing . reminded me of those toy pellet snake things like you light it on fire and it grows into a snake ? really weird. so i tossed that one

 

[sourland]

If I had the money to buy fresh, I would feed it to the dogs.

 

[igorsMistress]

i guess we will see if DH survives . he took a big container of it with him for his lunch today, after i added mixed veggies and fried onions and some ham and rice into it. but i can still faintly smell hair perm solution smell … i wonder what that’s from . of course a soup like cream of chicken has all kinds of weird stuff in it including MSG and modified food starch ,, things I don’t like to eat in the first place, even if it’s fresh. ( dh bought lots of cans in years past for storage but wants me to use them up now at least the expired ones)

The smell would probably put me off tbh. My husband would eat it though. I hope yours is ok!

I write the dates on my canned goods and I rarely have stuff that I let expire.