# Oldest food that you've eaten? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 28, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773 "2016-12-28T13:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/1 "2016-12-28T13:59:33Z")
Last week I found an individual serving pack of Froot Loops serial from 1998. I opened it to see what they looked like (expecting dust, or sludge) and they looked completely normal. At this point, of course, I was pretty much committed, so I tried one. Maybe slightly softer than they would have been in 1998, but only slightly, and the flavor was completely normal. So I ate the whole package with no ill effects. So that’s 18 years. Anyone got that beat? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/2 "2016-12-28T14:19:56Z")
Does a 30 year old scotch or a 40 year old bottle of wine count? ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/3 "2016-12-28T14:26:49Z")
I had a small piece of fruitcake a couple years ago that was Viet Nam era. ---
**Author:** ![Brodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Brodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brodi)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/4 "2016-12-28T14:46:13Z")
When I went to visit relatives several years ago my aunt accidentally served us salad dressing that was the same age as her youngest daughter (late '90s). “Mommy, its as old as ME!” Other than being an off color it was fine, no one got sick. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/5 "2016-12-28T14:54:12Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Does a 30 year old scotch or a 40 year old bottle of wine count? Sure. (But not being a drinker, that category didn’t occur to me.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/6 "2016-12-28T15:15:05Z")
Keep in mind that a 30 year old bottle of scotch has been in a barrel for 30 years, and then can sit in a bottle essentially forever without changing. Whereas the age of wine is usually counted from the vintage, which is the year the grapes were harvested. So I’ve had scotch that was originally made 40-60 years before being consumed. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/7 "2016-12-28T15:40:27Z")
Had some cheddar that was 30 years old a while back. It was great! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/8 "2016-12-28T16:03:43Z")
In the 1970s, I ate a D Ration bar (‘survival chocolate’) that my dad brought home (he was in the RAF). The D ration went out of production about 30 years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/9 "2016-12-28T16:16:29Z")
> [@Brodi](#): > > When I went to visit relatives several years ago my aunt accidentally served us salad dressing that was the same age as her youngest daughter (late '90s). Salad dressings age at an accelerated rate, around 3-4X normal time. My wife did not believe this when I kept finding years-old bottles in our fridge; she insisted I was just an unobservant idiot who misremembered when something was bought or when the fridge was cleaned out. We moved cross-country, bringing no perishables. A year later, I found a three-year-old bottle of Ranch dressing in the fridge. Q. E. D. Oh, ObOP: 75-year-old port. Just a sip; I’m not really a port drinker. Tasted like good port. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/10 "2016-12-28T18:36:15Z")
Lipton chicken noodle soup mix, the kind that’s just noodles and broth, this past January. I don’t know exactly how old it was, but there was a mail-in offer on the back of the box that ended in 2002. Since the stuff is basically pure salt sealed in an airtight pouch, I don’t know how it could go bad in any case. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/11 "2016-12-28T20:17:57Z")
I’m pretty sure the salt I put on my steak the other night was millions of years old. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/12 "2016-12-28T20:25:34Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I’m pretty sure the salt I put on my steak the other night was millions of years old. A lot of salt being passed off as the old stuff is actually recently dissolved and reconstituted. Might only be a few thousand years old, in some cases. Or less! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/13 "2016-12-28T20:31:20Z")
Well yeah, if we want to go that route, the quarks and leptons in our food were created over 13 billion years ago. Not mine, I’m lepton intolerant. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/14 "2016-12-28T20:41:18Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Well yeah, if we want to go that route, the quarks and leptons in our food were created over 13 billion years ago. > > Not mine, I’m lepton intolerant. What a strange yet charming idea. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/15 "2016-12-28T22:09:21Z")
> [@Azeotrope](#): > > What a strange yet charming idea. It’s all about flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/16 "2016-12-28T22:15:43Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > It’s all about flavor. If you want to spin it that way … ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/17 "2016-12-30T00:19:26Z")
The water they drink at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station is melt water from far below the surface. I forget exactly how old it is but they make jokes about 15 year old Scotch and 50,000 year old water, or whatever it is. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/18 "2016-12-30T01:11:10Z")
Do spices count? Just a few weeks ago, I refilled my pepper shaker - with the very last of a can of black pepper with a 1986 expiration date. Still smells and tastes fine. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/19 "2016-12-30T03:15:40Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I had a small piece of fruitcake a couple years ago that was Viet Nam era. I’ve had crackers from a nuclear survival kit. That was in the 70s, so maybe 15 years old? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773/20 "2016-12-30T03:35:33Z")
I volunteer at my kids’ school and recently we cleaned out a very large storage locker on campus and came across some earthquake kits that expired in 1982. I opened it up and it had water and energy bars. We opened an energy bar and it looked and smelled like pie crust. I didn’t have the guts to taste it, but someone else did and said it tasted like a bland cookie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-food-that-youve-eaten/775773.md?page=2)