I really should clean out the pantry more often.

[Michael_in_TX]

So it is a rainy Sunday and I've been putting this off for awhile....about 2-3 years, embarrassingly so, but I am doing a deep clean of the pantry.

It is a good exercise. It shows you what you tend to buy on impulse, yet never finish. (Crackers and other ultra-processed things seem to be it for me.) And as you would expect, I had to laugh at the soup cans in the back that expired in 2023. Even found one that expired in 2022!

But then I found this.



2016?! Wow.

Of course, I haven't tossed it....isn't sealed dried pasta like good forever?

This item sells for $1.76 today. That has the buying power of $1.32 in 2016. I'm 44 cents ahead!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

My record find was a pull tab beer shoved in the back of a work fridge. Our at home record was a thing of mayo 2 years old unopened in the pantry.

[Jfrosty27]

Ha! Now don’t feel alone anymore. And now that you mention it, it’s been awhile since I’ve gone through the pantry. Maybe tomorrow……… 😉

[Davek8282]

The pasta has a "best by" date as opposed to an expiry date. If there is a problem it will be in the packaging, there are a lot of pasta type camping foods that have like a 10 year plus life span. I wouldn't be overly concerned myself but you have to decide for yourself.

[Oak Smoke]

One of the reasons I stopped using chest type deep freezes was because the bottom layer never got used. Good grief when I cleaned our last one out there were things in there I didn’t remember putting in there and wasn’t sure what they were. Now everything that goes in one has a date and what it is on it. The wife just finished the pantry clean. I don’t know what was in the trash can but it weighed 20 pounds at least.

[Michael_in_TX]

Same here with the pantry. I am beside myself with shock that I have cleaned out two lawn bags of expired stuff....from like 2022!

[mrichie1229]

Michael_in_TX, I bet both would taste just fine a la mode! LOL.

[captainlee]

We always, about every 9 weeks, do a total inventory of the chest freezer before heading to Costco. We also have,an inventory check off list that you are suppose to mark when you pull something out. It's about 80% correct. Wish I had an upright freezer.

[RonB]

We clean out the pantry every year, and I still find something that expired several years ago. Every year...

[Michael_in_TX]

I do not have that large of a pantry.....but wow this is actually a workout. Pulling everything out, separating it out, tossing it, putting stuff back in with some semblance of order....

[Prof Bunky]

Canned anything doesn't expire unless it's bulging.

[Michael_in_TX]

Canned anything doesn't expire unless it's bulging.

You have sent me down a very interesting rabbit hole. This appears to be quite true. Canned food is safe to eat essentially indefinitely, as long as the can is not damaged or rusting. Now, flavor may be another story, of course.

There actually are websites dedicated to this. There are people trying to find the oldest canned item they can....and then cook and eat it!

Who knew?

(I, of course, hold that canned vegetables taste terrible from the moment of canning lol. Frozen all the way for me!)

[Huskee]

Several years ago, in want to say 2007, 2008-ish, wife & I were at my parents and I told my mom we'd gotten a fancy (to us) pepper grinder. She said 'oh good I've got some peppercorns in the cabinet I wont use, you might as well take them'. Cool. She told me where they were, although I already knew where most things were, having grown up there. As I found them the jar looked awfully familiar to me, as if I'd seen that very jar through my years living with my parents. It expired in 1987. So I was right, they expired when I was 7. Plot twist, we used them anyway and they tasted like pepper. True story.

[jfmorris]

All I can say is in the post apocalyptic movies and series, folks are eating canned food 100 years from now... Just saying!

And there were the Twinkies in Zombieland...

[RickyBobby]

If I’m fortunate enough to be around for the zombie apocalypse for 2050, the first thing I’m searching for is twinkies. Well, that and snowballs because I like coconut…. Taste AND texture!!! 🤣🤣

[Huskee]

I am a sucker for the special orange Hostess cupcakes. They are divine. I hope they are around in the distant future.

[barelfly]

A few years ago when we moved my grandmother out of her house that she lived in for 50 some years we found packages of stuff that was over 20 years old. She was insistent on keeping it. we didn’t when she wasn’t looking it all got tossed.

[mrichie1229]

I'm reminded of a scene from the movie "Down Periscope."

"What's the matter sir? It still tastes like creamed corn."

[captainlee]

The wife just did the spice pantry a few weeks ago. It needed it badly. Confirmed why I don't make my own rubs anymore, too much onetime use stuff.

[Michael_in_TX]

And the one-time-use stuff also tends to be $13 an ounce and you have 24 ounces of it.