Shelf Life and Food Storage Information

I have eaten eggs coated with mineral oil and stored at 70 degrees or less after 9 months. The only noticeable difference was the yokes all broke when the eggs were cracked. They scrambled perfectly and tasted no different from fresh eggs.

 

That's good to know. I think that many people have been brainwashed into thinking eggs need to be kept in a fridge. The simplest solutions are often the really good ones!

 

what you don't know is they have already been in the refrigerator 4-5 weeks by the time you get them so keeping store bought eggs in the fridge is not a bad idea, you can also lightly wax them for longer storage

 

You are correct @Ganado, I would not try preserving store bought eggs. You never know how old they are. You could be giving deterioration a three month head start and they have been washed, removing the bloom. Once I refrigerate eggs they stay refrigerated. And I store them with the small end up. Just the opposite of the way they come in a store carton.

 

Why not? It is taken as a laxative and when perfumed we rub it on kids as baby

oil.

 

Mineral oil, not mineral spirits. And yes, plenty of food grade mineral oil out there.

 

Very good and comprehensive list there.

I know Im a new guy here. But would like to bring up something that seems to often go ignored when it comes to shelflife of canned goods. I often see people talk about canned meats and what not being good indefinitely. A lot of that depends on the type of coating in the can.

Can makers do not guarantee shelflife. (I work for one of the larger ones in the US). They wont guarantee shelflife for alot of reasons. So I wont go into all of them cause its late and I'm tired. Instead Ill talk about a good rule of thumb to go by. If the can is coated with a BPA based laqour like 36Q AB you can expect it to still be good for 26 months. If it is a BPA free laqour like PPG 4553319 then you can't expect it to have a shelflife of no more than 18 months. Could either type of laqour keep food good for much longer? Yes. But to be safe its good to rotate your foostuffs according to the above timetable.

Another factor is what type of food you're storing. Meats dont hurt the cans and laqour nearly as much as things like tomatoes. Foods high in acidity like tomatoes or tomato paste aught to be rotated out at no more than 12 months. Also never store your cans upside down. The top part of the cans and the lids deteriorate faster than the bottoms eventough the coating up there tends to be thicker. This is because the tops are exposed to both air and the food in the can.

Oddly enough the coatings used on dog and cat foods keep the contents good longer. They have to be of a higher quality cause of all the added ingredients that arent allowed in human foods. You can expect thr PPG grey used in dog and cat foods to keep the contents stable for upwards of 36 months.

 

You have given info to think upon. Ambient temperature that the cans are stored in will affect storage life also. Keep those cans cool and dry. Technical info is interesting. Worth researching further...

Oh, and welcome to the monkey tree, Thumper.

 

Thanks for the welcome.

There are exceptions to every rule. I came across old C-Rats from Korea when I was in the Corps that tasted fine and they didnt seem to be properly stored. Ive also came across new cans of chillie in the supermarket that seemed absolutly rancid.

Think of it as a better safe than sorry sort of thing. And also remember that we evolved, or were created (depending on your belief strcture) to be opertunistic eaters. There are very few things on this planet that we can not eat.

 

@Thumper40 good info is good info we dont care what your gender is =)

 

Ok. Wait. What?

 

How can you determine the laqour coating type by looking at a can or can you?

 

If you've worked around it a lot yes you can. If you dont have experiece working with it then you'll need to either do research or call the company that canned the food.

 

A little off topic but Ive always wondered. BTP. Do yall do random or periodic checks of the cans that you bring in for things like coating distribution or enamel rating? Or do yall just do visual checks?

 

Ok. Makes sense. Thanks.

 

Laqcuer?

 

Sorry, lacquer. Misspelled it.