Tins that are a bit squashed. Or very squashed.

Confused_and_Bewildered

Well I was always told it was really bad to eat the food from them but I had some delivered this week and ate them 'cos it was all we had. Are we all going to be violently sick soon? Would you eat food out of them?

calleyw

Did the contents smell?

if a can has blown the tin will bulge. This happens if air has been allow to enter the tin because the seam on the tin has split.

Yours

Calley

Coopdivi

Dents on the side are ok. It's only if the rims at the the top or bottom have been bent that you should be concerned because that's where the seals are.

If supermarkets chucked out every tin with a dent in it their profits would soon suffer.

nikinackyloo

most of my pantry contains battered tins! - we have never been ill, and I save a fortune on the likes of tinned tomatoes and beans etc I didnt know about the rim of the can being a problem, I buy them with any dent in as they generally reduce them to 10p a tin in my asda;)

Stompa

I've occasionally inadvertently bought a dented tin. I'm not dead yet.

chalkysoil

I've sometimes bought rtc dented tins, no ill effects here. I wouldn't keep them for ages though. Wouldn't buy tomatoes dented though, they seem more volatile.

Confused_and_Bewildered

The tomatoes smelt (smelled?) fine but I didn't like the look of the tins. They came with my supermarket delivery but I might just buy them myself from now on to get the good ones.

maman

Like nikinackyloo, I actually buy dented tins when they're whoopsied so no problem at all, they're perfectly safe. But I would complain to your supplier because, unlike us, you're paying full price.

EssexGirl

Thanks for the info regarding tins. I was taught never to buy or use a badly dented tin, so now I won't even buy dented pet food tins. Maybe I'll consider it in the future.

As for supermarket deliveries, it seems that they are dumping substandard/unsellable or day before use by date goods on delivery customers recently. I've had some awful quality stuff delivered. It never used to be like that.

arsenaljamie

Supermarkets shouldn't sell tins that are dented as this is because the dent could have caused the thin film of plastic inside the can to split which means the metal could then contaminate the food. In the majority of cases this is unlikely to happen but as rule I don't buy any badly dented tins, minor bumps are fine though.

jenniewb

I was once given a school q&a to wade through when I was about 11. One of the questions was "why shouldn't you buy tins with dents in them?" I tried guessing: they wouldn't look good in the cupboard, they may not stand up straight, they may have ripped labels...but in the end asked my mum. She couldn't think of anything either.

When we went through the sheet at school as a group, the teacher said the answer was because they may be difficult to open with a tin opener and may fall over when opened (presumably if the base is what has been dented) I buy dented tins and have not been told I have tin can poisoning yet, though I have been feeling a bit on the tierd side lately...