Tinned salmon - BBE Nov 2007!!

booter

I opened a tin of salmon tonight for tea. (I had to rummage around in the cupboard a bit, we don't often eat it.) On opening, it looked OK, smelt OK, but was a little bitter whilst eating. When I washed out the tin for re-cycling, I found that the bbe was Nov 2007 _pale_
So now I feel slightly nauseous and the dog won't eat the skin & bits
If I tell the OH he'll want to go to A&E :eek:
Oh dear - I'm trying hard not to anticipate!! Any reassurance? Please

Essex-girl_2

I would have eaten it as long as it smelled ok, especially if the tin wasn't damaged or dented in anyway

withabix

You will probably just get botulism and die.

The bitter taste will be the oil having oxidised.

Rage_in_Eden

I'm with Essex Girl. Okay it might not have tasted as "fresh, sparkly and juicy" as in date but as long as it wasn't off and trust me you'd know, you'll be fine. Did you start to feel rough only after you'd seen the date?

booter

withabix wrote: »

You will probably just get botulism and die.

Yeah, thanks for that - just the reassurance I was after. I'm not dead, yet...:)

Essex-girl wrote: »

I would have eaten it as long as it smelled ok, especially if the tin wasn't damaged or dented in anyway

No - the tin appeared to be intact and made that noise tins make when you "pop" them with the tin opener, so not "blown".

Rage_in_Eden wrote: »

I'm with Essex Girl. Okay it might not have tasted as "fresh, sparkly and juicy" as in date but as long as it wasn't off and trust me you'd know, you'll be fine. Did you start to feel rough only after you'd seen the date?

Yes, it was only after seeing the date I started to feel nauseous - I know, it's the thought of it I'm assuming by saying that I'd know if it was off, you mean that it would've stunk to high heaven?? And it didn't - it smelt (smelled??) just like tinned salmon! But I wouldn't have eaten it if I'd seen the date first. A couple of months maybe, but 5 years? Nope, I just wouldn't Maybe I'm not the good MSEer I thought I was

Well, I'm still here to tell the tale so far.....:)

chequers10

I volunteer at a food bank & we often get a batch of really out of date tins.
We think mainly it is people who are clearing out relative`s houses & it is not really helpful as we are not allowed to give outdated tins to our clients but we do have a box with clearly marked 2010 & 2011 tins which people can choose in addition to their packages. I did bring home 6 tins of tomatoes dated between 2006 & 2009which would otherwise have been thrown away & used them in spaghetti bol tonight & they were fine,.
Our record tin so far is 1999.

SailorSam

Reading through this has made me think i must have a rummage through the cupboards and see what's there.

GreyQueen

Back in the 1950s my Mum worked in a grocery store and, when business was slow, had to dust the tins. Yes, gentle reader, tins hung about so long that they accrued dust.

And no tins had such things as Best Before dates either. You will recall from your history lessons that tens of thousands of Brits were dying every year from food poisoning back in the day, entirely attributed to expired tinned goods - NOT!

I've eated many a tin years past its Best Before date and never noticed the slightest ill-effect. I'd say exercise reasonable caution re the condition of the tin and only discard if the contents appear to be off.

I've only ever encountered one "blown" tin in nearly 50 years of life; a date-expired tin of fruit at my Mum's place. I opened it and as the tin-opener pierced the top it made a small "whumpf" noise and the tin sucked inward sharply. If that wasn't enough of a warning, the contents had a slightly-off appearance and odour. We chucked it straight onto the compost heap.

I think Best Befores are basically butt-covering in case the manufacturers get sued for substandard product.

youngie

I remember when lots of items didn't have dates on everyone just used common sense if it smelt and looked ok it was fine and there are alot of people my age alive still so just forget about it

[Deleted User]

My late OH when he worked in the Sudan in the early 1980s said that often the local markets had OOD tinned food for sale.He once spotted a big case of bully beef (corned beef) with a date stamp on it saying 'a gift from the Chinese republic 1949'stamped on the case.His cook brought some home and they all ate it without any problem ,but then my old man did have a cast-iron stomach anyway and had been born and brought up before and during the war when folks ate almost anything (as do I )
I have lots of memories of rationing and tins of strange stuff (snoek,whalemeat ) that arrived on the table to eat My Mum once had some apple purree sent to her in the late 1940s from my aunt in the U.S. and it was tinned Heinz baby stuff and we spread it on toast instead of jam when we had a shortage of jam (she usually made her own if she could get hold of enough sugar)I have also eaten crab apple jelly and rose hip jam on toast It brightened up the toast and took away the awful tase of 'Summer County' marg

krlyr

Remember that "Best before" only means that you should eat it before that date for it to be of optimum taste/texture/vitamin content. "Use by" is for the stuff that goes bad after a certain date (to a degree - it's not going to go off at exactly 0:01 on that morning)