Canned food

Seanachai

Can anybody suggest a source for cheap canned food with non peel lids?

HerrKapitan

Have you tried the Asian supermarkets or food warehouses? Like eurasia, etc.

Seanachai

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117646356#Comment_117646356

Thanks, I'll try them at the weekend.

Graces7

Not sure of this stopped but LIDL used to have non peel lids on eg baked beans. A checkout guy once pointed this out and that the non peel was 10 cents cheaper ..

GoogleBot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058200265/canned-food

Out of curiosity why would you need cheap canned food?

Seanachai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118496700#Comment_118496700

I'm building up a pantry in case there are food shortages in the next few years.

Tabnabs

Lidl, Aldi, Dealz, Musgraves. Don't bother worrying about the labels, take them off and use a waterproof 'sharpie' type pen to write contents directly onto the tin along with the BB date.

Rotate your stock accordingly, actually eat them and then replace what you like and what you didn't.

GoogleBot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118498493#Comment_118498493

Sure but why cheap? Potentially metals may be leaching into your canned food.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501017#Comment_118501017

Cheap price does not necessarily mean low quality content, and I'm sure all cans available meet relevant production standards. Is leaching even a thing?

Buy 100 tins of beans, save 10c per tin because no ring pull - bingo, saving of €10.

Compare brand-name bean prices to Lidl etc. own-brand - difference is massive.

When you compare nutritional details for each brand, there's usually very little difference.

GoogleBot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502368#Comment_118502368

I would disagree, cans made of different type of metals, also some are laminated with plastic or lacquered

Rather look into dehydrated food options can be stored up to 5 years no probs.

The Continental Op

Bit late on this one but as I've kept an emergency supply of food for about the last 15 years I have some experience in the area.

The quality of where you store your supplies should be a major consideration. I store a lot of cans but don't have enough room indoors so some of it goes out in a shed. Inside it all stores better than outside. Most cans if not all are well protected on the inside from their contents getting out however damage on the outside including environmental damage can greatly reduce the storage life of cans.

Dehydrated dry food can suffer from poor original packaging, what seems to happen is the wrappers get damaged with micro perforations from the inside by sharp bits of the dried food. So I put cans and dried food into separate zip lock bags. Normally 3 cans to a zip lock bag and as many packets as will fit a ziplock bag. Everything in the shed then goes into large plastic boxes.

The result is that you can add 2 years or more to the best before date on most tins and about the same for dry food like rice, pasta, noodles, soups, dehydrated meals etc.

The only losses I've ever had are cans that have gone rusty and got damaged from the outside in.

Most tinned meats like Corned Beef, Spam, Bacon grill etc are good if stored well for another 5 years on their BBD. I've kept some tins and tried it. Obviously examine what you are going to eat and check there is nothing obvious wrong with it.

Other tins do just as well and I wouldn't be bothered about eating any undamaged tin that was 2 years past its BBD. As examples I've had most of what Aldi and Lidl sell as tinned fruit and veg that was 2 years past its BBD. I would mention though that my only major disasters have been with pineapples that escaped the tin due damp storage where the bottom of the tins rusted out. Once out the pineapples then attacked a good few other cans. Since then I haven't had that issue because the ziplock bags prevent the condensation that does the damage and if there was any damage it would be restricted to one bag. They also preserve the labels. I do however put the BBD, just month and year in large at least inch high numbers with a sharpie so I can easily check on the dates.

Another good thing to store that lasts really well is good quality fruit cake and good quality Christmas puddings. Well stored they are good for at least 2 years on the BBD.

Currently I'm working through some of my favourite plain chocolate bars (I have a small amount with coffee every evening) that are labelled use by 01-06-2019 they are fine, you couldn't tell them from a recently bought bar.

After a recent sort out there are a few things past their BBD that need rotating so there are a few 2-3 year old cans of, beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato puree (tubes) and packets of noodles (only a year out of date) in the kitchen to use up. I never touch the noodles but my son eats them as a nighttime snack (he works at night) and he can't spot the difference between the old packets and the new, apart from some of the little packets of flavouring absorb moisture. Actually Lidl haven't had packets of noodles for ages now.

Unlike the original OP I don't have any particular issue with ring pull cans.

The Continental Op

As this seems to be a good place to post about cans I'll update with some info on some older cans I'm working through. I checked a box that I thought was full of camping gear and it turned to include some forgotten cans I'd put to one side to eat a few years back and then forgotten about.

Anyway just eaten and survived Lidl Tinned Peaches in syrup with a BBD of 2015, not a thing wrong with them. With a similar BBD I have a lot of tins of sardines in oil and tomato sauce again all are OK and it seems that Vintage Sardines is a thing https://en.mysardines.com/ces2020 (note to self must remember to turn them in future). I also found some tea bags with a 2016 BBD and was going to throw them out thinking they would be rubbish. Tried them first and they are still fine, I did double wrap the boxes with cling film and a zip lock bag so that might have helped.

Useful article I found on how long cans last. You can see from the Peaches you can go beyond the stated limits https://www.thenewsurvivalist.com/longest-lasting-canned-foods/ but really no need to if you do a little basic rotation.

Graces7

Always choose the tins that need a tin opener. The ring pulls last a shorter time and are vulnerable to knocks.

Oh and the assistant at LIDL told me that eg baked beans are 10 c cheaper without ringpull

And of course at least one tin opener

The Continental Op

I found this on youtube, one of the better videos on how long you can store food for with good explanations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9sqv51Jc2c