Rotating food storage

[Aint2nuts]

I have seen a lot about food storage, and I have seen some handy dandy information on it. However what I want to know is how do you keep up with it?

 

DO you keep itemized inventory of everything you have? That seems like a lot of work.

 

I just went through two of my cupboards. I came away with an entire box of exprired food. I am exhausted and I have four more cupboards to go. ACK

 

What I am doing is taking a black marker and I am putting the Exp date of each item on the can. On those cans that I just got that don't have dates or that have coded dates that I am too lazy to look up, I am dating them as good for two years.

 

I am putting the newer cans to the front of the food that I have, but darn it is hard to keep track of what I need to use!

 

What do you do? I hate wasting food. I don't have a pig to feed all this 'old' food too.

 

 

[Ambergris]

I couldn't possibly keep track of the canned food my guys and I run through. For a while I used a grease pencil or sharpie to write the purchase date (month and year) on the top of each can, but ran into social pressures and quit. Now I just put the new stuff behind the old stuff, and if the front cans get dusty I stop buying that for a while.

 

My theory is that if the can has been stored indoors, is not bent, dented, rusted, or swollen in any way, and if it isn't tomatoes or pineapples, it's not expired even if it's a year or two past the date.

 

If the can is dented or bent in any way, and has picked up a substantial layer of dust, I open it and bring the contents to a boil before using it. If the stuff doesn't try to force its way out of the can with the first opening in the metal, and if it doesn't foam or smell bad, it probably isn't bad. Swollen or rusted cans I throw away without question or second thought.

 

[Skagitgal]

Yes to what Leah said.

 

If the cans are not bulging [or spurt when you open], then heat to boiling for 15 min.; smell [for off smells]then taste one spoonful. Off taste, metallic taste, eat no more.

 

This is my opinion only. Not any official word.

 

Dry food...any weevils? then cook and eat.

 

Food often lasts far longer than the dates indicate. Just use caution.

[Dee]

I try doing the same Leah but sometimes one place gets full, I'm in a hurry and well....

 

I date with a black marker too in big letters on the front and top of the can Aint2nuts. It really helps.

 

I don't have an itemized list. There again, I tried with the food in the freezer but someone (including myself) would take this or that and not write it down. Or, again, I'd get busy when bringing the freezer foods in and not write it down "right now".

 

It's an endless battle but we do our best.

[westbrook]

oh goodness....

 

I date everything but pretty much do what Ambergris does.

 

I do have an inventory of what I have, and my goal inventory. Once the goal inventory is reached then it is just maintaining that goal.

 

I have canned cherries from 1990 I did. I just took out a jar last week to put over cheese cake. gonna do more cherries this year to last another 10 years or more.

 

This is where canning your favorite foods comes in handy. I think we tend to use it if it is our own cooking.

 

I would like to add that there are some foods I don't eat now but purchased as a treat later on. One of those items is canned pudding. You know the kind.. buy a pie cruse and open can pour in! I wouldn't normally eat that but when you want that special treat... it would be one of those nice surprises (pie crust would be made not purchased)

 

 

 

 

[CrabGrassAcres]

I eat lots of expired food since I shop at a salvage store. It isn't a big deal. Hide the box from the food gestapo and use it first once they go away.

[Aint2nuts]

Quote:

I have canned cherries from 1990 I did. I just took out a jar last week to put over cheese cake. gonna do more cherries this year to last another 10 years or more.

Wow, that is 18 year old cherries. You don't find many virgins that age now a days.

Okay that was bad and probably not funny to anyone but me.

[Aint2nuts]

Quote:

I eat lots of expired food since I shop at a salvage store. It isn't a big deal. Hide the box from the food gestapo and use it first once they go away.

The gestapo is looking in garage and in closets. I guess I could put it in the car with the over 1000 books I have gotten rid of in the past week. (sniffle)

[Aint2nuts]

Quote:

I date with a black marker too in big letters on the front and top of the can Aint2nuts. It really helps.

I never thought of dating the front. I don't date them the day I got them, I date them the day the can says they expire. On cans I don't know, I date them two years ahead. I know they will last longer than that, but this is all for show anyway.

I don't inventory much, just the long term storage and foods that I get over 6 months worth of (spaghetti, canned vegetables, chili etc.).

[Aint2nuts]

Originally Posted By: Leah

DON'T TOSS THAT FOOD YET!
Let us know just what you have, we can help you decide.
---------

vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, green beans), canned soup, tomatoes. One of the cans of tomatos was slightly bulging so I know that goes out. It was only a month out of date, but I wouldn't take the chance especially with tomatoes.

[TXQFMom]

date cans now (recently started)

but I have an inventory in excel and we do a physical inventory right now once a month... I am trying to start using a log in/out so we can switch to quarterly...

[westbrook]

When the children were here.. (adults now and gone).... if they took something out, they had to write it down on the list.. if not.. they wouldn't have it!

 

only took once for them to run out before they got it.

 

"MOM!!! we're out of brand X!!!" they would yell

 

I would say "was it on the list?"

 

then I would put it on the list but wait a month before buying it again to stock it back up to my max. But the whole time I would mention... 'gee too bad you didn't put brand X on the list, you could be eating it now'.

 

they got it!

[KallieKat]

I don't keep an itemized list at all. Since we eat what we store everything is always in motion. However, I do like to mark dates of expiration with a marker when bought and put into storage...more to keep me running for my glasses so I can "see". Kitchen cabinets and pantry are what we're using on now, mid term storage areas are where I "shop" for weekly or monthly needs in the kitchen. By using out of the storage areas all the time I have a pretty good idea of what's in there. There are times when something has expired a short time...no biggie....we eat it if deemed safe. If a can happens to go "poof" when starting to open, go no further...it's outta here! I'm organized in storing and using, just not with writing lists, and I'm such a computer bimbo that I only piddle around with this thing!

Karen

[Ambergris]

Aint, if you haven't tossed the bulging can yet, please check to see if it is the same manufacturer and date as the other cans of tomatoes. If so, you might want to toss all of those. Actually, I would toss all out-of-date tomato cans.

 

(I'm sitting here munching on shelled pistachios that went out of date a year before I bought them.)

 

[BiscuitMaker]

Keeping this all inventoried is a nightmare------My long term storage is easy but that everyday food is really hard. Too many things.

[cookiejar]

I haven't been my usual chipper self, forgive me. I'm probably going to ask some inane things..stuff you probably told me before. Let me say sorry ahead of time.

 

Cans of tomatoes, pineapple, saurkraut, etc. is because of the natural acid, right? In those cases..I chuck the can within that year or what what?

 

What about canned meats? I found canned chicken meat that expired last month-6 cans misplaced by my *helping me* family. I didn't chuck it yet as I wanted to ask.

 

Do you boil everything or just homecanned or what? Honestly, I was doing really good for a long time in rotation with my little book and a highlighter if something would be due with two months, etc.

 

I have a bag of walnuts in shell...how long does something like that last?

 

How about fruit leather?

 

Can you tell I've had a few questions pent up and too embarrassed to ask? Sometimes my internet hunts lead to two different survival sites saying two different answers (chuck it in one keep it in another).

 

and now to show my true age...I don't remember expiration dates on most cans was that just young and clueless?

[Leah]

Canned Good Shelf Life and Stamped Code Decoder

http://www.y2kkitchen.com/html/can_code_decoder.html

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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/01/Taste/Th...ife_of_wa.shtml

TO STORE: Walnuts have a long shelf life, so it's practical to keep them on hand for adding to recipes or for snacking. In-shell walnuts keep best; shell them when you are ready to use. Unopened packages of shelled walnuts have a shelf life of up to a year. Open packages of shelled walnuts or chopped walnuts can be refrigerated or frozen in an airtight container and kept for six months.

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http://www.solareagle.com/PREP/SHLFLIFE.HTM

Walnuts in shell unopened package 24 months

Canned Chicken 36 months

Canned Tomatoes 36+ months

[Farmermom4]

This might be oversimplifying but, we don't have a vast menu. We produce all our meat and alot of our fruit and veggies. I cook pretty basic most of the time because of time and expense. I don't like buying a ton of misc. stuff. I have the kitchen cabinets and the basement shelves. Our system is: Every two weeks I shop, before I go I head to the basement and bring up canned goods and dry goods to replace what I have used in the kitchen, then I hit the sales and also add to my storage with what is needed. The new food goes to the basement. I hate packing food up and down the stairs but I haven't figured out a better way. That way the old comes upstairs and the new in downstairs. I only buy what we eat on a regular basis. I never buy meat, we eat whatever is in the freezer, we always have beef, pork and chicken. Sometimes I'll buy a hotdog for our campfire nights. So far it is working for us, when I buy storage items I put the month/year when I bought it on the container, and I know about how long it takes me to use it up.

Toni

[JCK88]

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn579-1.htm

 

This is another website for determining shelf life of just about anything. Angela, I'm thinking you should print out some of that info and have it stuck your fridge with a magnet so they KNOW you have all this info right in front of you.

[Snowmom]

 

Ok, so I'm late again.

 

I use the small return address labels and I date everything I buy. When I can the foods, I use the larger lables. But, if you date it and keep the older to the front, you won't have so much trouble with it going bad.

 

Ok, Wes, I can beat you there, I have juice that is closer to 30 years old and it is still good. This is what I canned, not the boughten juice.

 

There was one year that the chockcherries were just thick, I made gallons of juice that year, and I still have a few quarts of it left.

 

I have a feeling that the last snow storms took out what few pin cherry trees we had here.

 

[kappydell]

i buy canned veggies at the local cannery. expiration dates are frankly, to keep the manufacturer from getting sued in our sue-happy society. the food doesn't all at once turn to poison or anything, it just starts to lose top quality. i have found a very few cans where the vegetables started soaking up more of the juice and were mushy, but not unduly, and some tomato products will start getting tinny if not in an appropriate can (i lost a case of tomato soup once...but it took 5 YEARS for the stuff to go tinny). since i buy cases of cans from the local cannery for use, I have to mark them with codes to know what is inside anyway...a good marker is a thing of beauty...mark BEFORE you wax or oil cans for longer term storage though....and try to remember what your codes mean (...does Ps stand for peas or potatoes, for example)