Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
•
One year.
Canned nuts, packaged dry breakfast cereals, rolled oats (oatmeal), bottled
dressings, mayonnaise, natural liquid vegetable oils, candy bars, bottled juices
(grapefruit, pineapple, apricot, and orange), canned citrus fruits, and natural nut but-
ters.
•
Six months.
Most store-packaged food in boxes, fresh potatoes (keep cool, dark, and
dry), granola, shelled raw nuts, and unshelled roasted nuts (Stevens 1997, 22-34; Sp-
igarelli 2002, 97-127; Danks 1998, 73).
How Long Does Stored Food Really Last?
The previous list offers general shelf-life figures that you can count on for planning purposes.
However, people always wonder how long stored food really lasts. Who better to answer this
question than the Mormons? Ever since the early members of the Mormon Church nearly
starved in their first winter in Utah, food storage has been an important tradition for many Mor-
mons. The Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science at Brigham Young University
(BYU) in Ogden, Utah, has made a science out of the study of food storage. BYU researchers
have worked with panels of consumers to taste-test and evaluate a variety of long-term stored
foods.
The taste and nutritive quality of long-term stored foods depends upon a variety of factors,
including quality of packaging, storage methods, and storage temperatures. In spite of these
variables, the information gathered by the BYU testing and evaluation program provides valu-
able insight into what the “real shelf life” might be for long-term stored foods. A few of the
results are summarized as follows (Godfrey 2009):
• Freeze-dried foods tend to be good for 20 to 30 years.
• Whole-grain wheat and white rice, packaged to remove oxygen and stored at room
temperature or cooler, are usually good for 30-plus years.
• Beans, dried apples, macaroni, potato flakes, and oats are good for up to 30 years.
• Properly stored nonfat dried milk is good up to about 20 years.
• Baking powder will store for many years, and baking soda will keep indefinitely.
My mother was a pack rat of sorts, and rarely threw anything away if she thought it might
be edible or useful “someday.” Without a doubt, I have eaten a lot of food that was well past
the “use by” date. As a child I remember cleaning out cans from our root-cellar shelves that
were bulging, and some of them were super light, the contents having long before rotted
through the can walls and the liquid drained out. When in doubt, throw it out. If a can is bul-
