Food Waste

[Mortblanc]

Some things I will risk, but this sausage was an "off brand" cheap type from a low level retail chain. 11 years past use by date is a bit more than I was willing to risk.

I have eaten name brand canned foods 5-7 years past their date with no effects. The last I used was a can of spam I think. It was fine, tasted normal and gave me no negative effects.

I have opened cans of good quality soup that were past their dates and found that the plastic liner of the can had decomposed and plastic was floating among the noodles and veggies.

I trashed the cans of sausage. They are in the bin.

When my prep goods near their end life dates I usually take them to my daughter. The four grandchildren scarf them down with no problem. My grand daughter told me that last time I did that their mom did not go to the grocery for a month!

They really enjoy it, all the boxes of mac & cheese, flavored rice, vegetables and ramen noodles.

Rotation sounds logical, but for me it does not work. When you are one person and you keep a 6 month supply you simply can not eat enough to keep up with the expiring dates. When I dump the last round on the family I usually go out and buy a 6 month supply of canned and long term storable foods all at once rather than "build them up each week". I will spend a week shopping and shelving.

Besides that, much of the foods I store are not what I eat.

I know that defies prepper logic also. The old store what you eat rule.

I eat mostly fresh foods and I am diabetic, so I avoid carbs and sugars completely. My stored foods are high in carbs, and I consider them survival rations, not daily foods. Beans, rice, pasta, noodles, make up the bulk of it. I would wind up with an A1C level that would put me in a coma if I ate them daily.

I keep them for survival because they keep long term, and in an emergency high carb food is better than no food. The carbs probably will not kill me before I run out of heart meds and die anyway. I keep a 6 month supply of meds.