Sep 18, 2014

Today I Ate a 42 Year old Package of Long Term-Food Storage

long-term food storage
The 42 year old package of beef stew i ate today

It has been my contention that properly packed products will last beyond what most people would consider their shelf life. Personally, I have limited my own purchases of long-term food storage to a few companies. In the last, few years I have seen a number of new companies enter the long-term food market. The majority of these companies seem to be just trying to take advantage of the demand for food and I would not trust their products to keep my family alive. Some companies I do trust and today a friend and I ate a Mountain House pouch of beef stew dated the ninety-sixth day of 1972.
Yes, that was 1972; 42 years ago and we are talking about a pouch not a can. At that time they were never expected to be kept for this period of time. But they were packed with the best technology available.

As many of you know, I try to get my hands on all the very old long-term food storage I can find. I have opened many cans and have refused to eat products from many companies.
 
Friends are always giving me all cans and packages that they are concerned about. Anyway, I ended up getting several old pouches of Mountain House Beef Stew. The pouches were in good condition and the food looked good so we rehydrated it and ate it.

long-term food storage

One thing that I have learned about older food freeze-dried and dehydrated foods is that you need to let them set in the boiling water a little longer than normal. Second, they seem to require a little more water than the recommended amount.

The 42-year-old beef stew tasted fine and I enjoyed it. Now I don’t know about how nutritious it was, but I know it filled me up and provided me with calories. Now I am not advocating that you keep your food this long, I believe in rotating it regularly. But if you run across some old Mountain House don’t be in a big hurry to throw it away. It might still be good.
Howard

http://preparednessadvice.com/

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