First of all, Merry Whatever you might be celebrating this time of year!
So, I was up early today, baking the pies I’m assigned for today’s dinner. While cleaning up after the last was in the oven, I noticed the lid from the can of pumpkin I’d used. It read:
J8EF062A 2150
6130 PUMPKIN
Just like that, two lines, with extra spaces between the two sets of numbers/letters.
Okay, I don’t know what the first part of each line means, but are they seriously saying this pumpkin will still be good to use sometime in 2150??
Obviously, I don’t need (or expect!) an answer fast.
odd numbers of cans can also be when they were packed
2150 could mean 2002, 2012 or 2022, 150th calendar day or May 30 of whichever year it was produced
6130 could mean 2006, 2016, 130th day of the year it was produced - may 10th
Any idea when you might have bought it? 2012 or 2016?
it’s possible one of those two numbers is a date code, companies often have their own formats. a common one is based on Julian date format- the first digit is the last number of the year of production, followed by the day of the year. So if that was the case for either of those two numbers, “2150” would be the 150th day of 2012. or “6130” = 130th day of 2016. others start with the last digit of the current year, followed by the number (1-52) of the week it was produced.
the first string (J8EF062A) is likely to be a traceability number/lot code so they can identify where it was produced on what equipment in the case they have to do a recall.
And while no company is going to put a date 130 years into the future on their products, because nobody would actually believe it, there’s no reason why canned food couldn’t stay good that long (as long as the can hasn’t rusted through). At worst, I’d expect loss of texture, but then, canned pumpkin doesn’t really have much in the way of texture to begin with.
Well, Christmas dinner is scheduled for 2 pm, so likely it’ll be gone by then.
I know exactly when I bought it: Friday, Decembe 21, 2019. Right around 7 pm.
Geez, I hope the grocery store/manufacturer isn’t selling cans that have been sitting around for six – or even two! – years. The pumpkin goo looked like it always does, and smelled like usual…
Maybe I’ll stick to eating apple pie though. Those definitely were grown this year!
a family has kept a fruitcake in a box for over 100 years, they keep passing it down to the next generation when the owner dies. Experts said it is still edible but won’t taste good.
lol, no. I had a can of pumpkin that expired after about a year. It had expired a few months before I used it, and was completely fine, but 100 years would be an insanely different story.
There’s a channel on YouTube called Steve1989MREInfo filled with videos of a man who obtains vintage MREs, opens and reviews them, and generally attempts to eat at least a few of the items within. From his videos it seems canned goods were common in WWII- and Vietnam-era MREs, and most of them are quite perished by now. Coffee grounds and cigarettes seem to be two items that hold up well.
How long was the expected life for the WWII and Vietnam MREs? I think the WWII stuff was mostly in cans.
In the late 70s I knew some guys who had a non profit radio station so they were allowed to get Army surplus food for free. Don’t know how old it was but they ate it without any issues from what I recall.
We used to have to mix in pumpkin with one of our cats’ food (digestive issues), and one month a few years back there was a shortage. We looked in a dozen different stores and everyone was out. So I asked my mother if she had any and of course she did; she gave us three cans. Two of them were fine, but the third one was about 5 years old and the pumpkin had dried out and solidified into a single mass. It had pulled away from the sides of the can and shrunk. As far as I could tell the can was uncompromised.
If it dried out and shrank away from the sides, then the can must have been compromised. Mass is conserved. And when a can is compromised, it probably won’t be any good even before the printed date.
