Would you eat this?

January 14, 2018 10:35 AM

Waffling over two cans of tuna.

I always love reading the "is it safe to eat" questions. I'm pretty sure these are safe to eat, but was curious if you'd eat them.

Two cans of Trader Joe's yellowfin tuna packed in olive oil with a "best by" date of 7/14/16. I'm leaning toward "it won't kill me, might as well not waste."

Bonus questions: what are some pantry items with best by dates where you'll go way beyond that date? How far beyond the date would you go? And what are some items where if it is only a month or two past the date, you toss it?

Thanks!

posted by fatedblue to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

I would lean towards not eating the canned tuna though I would strongly bet it is safe to eat. I get a funny feeling about proteins, especially fish. This week, I opened and ate Trader Joe's canned pumpkin with a July 2016 "best by" date with no health concerns or effects. I looked at the pumpkin and it did not seem oxidized, discolored at all. If I had seen darker pumpkin especially on the edges, I may not have eaten it. I was recently at my grandparents and found canned evaporated milk over a couple years past the "best by" date. Upon opening, the milk was not the usual smooth liquid of evaporated milk but instead looked drier and much thicker on the edges. I tossed it because it might change the texture of the baked recipe though probably not a health concern. Most canned items I would eat past the deadline or at least under a year past the deadline with no concern. Over a year, I would look at the product in the opened can and decide. Non-pantry canned items, such as refrigerated crab, would get tossed sooner than a couple weeks past "best by". I would toss anything that exhibited an unusual color, texture, or smell at any time past or even before the date.
posted by RoadScholar at 10:45 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's canned, which means it's been heat-treated and sealed. It's not like the "best by" date on fresh goods. It's basically the CYA approach for the company. If the can isn't bulging or leaking and it doesn't smell or look off when you open it, it's fine.

Anecdotal, but I've eaten many cans of expired food and lived to tell the tale.
posted by liminal_shadows at 10:59 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

It should be fine to eat. Probably not with waffles, though.
posted by slkinsey at 11:29 AM on January 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

Cost benefit analysis time:

Maximum possible benefit: whatever two cans of TJ tuna cost. Probably about $5?
Highest reasonable cost unless you're immunocompromised: puking your guts out and a few days of the wicked shits.

The hard part is that you don't know the probability that you will, in fact, puke your guts out and get the screaming shits.

How to think about this: how much would someone have to pay you for you to first chug some ipecac and, when you were done puking, do a whole treatment of colonoscopy prep fluid? If you'd do that for ten bucks, you can tolerate a 50-50 shot. If you would only do it for $100, you couldn't tolerate more than a 5% chance.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:31 AM on January 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

In a survival situation, I'd definitely eat that as long as it doesn't smell or look weird. Maybe even if my literal survival wasn't on the line but all the alternatives were extremely inconvenient, like trudging down the block to the corner store in the middle of a snowstorm or something.

Outside of that context, though, I'd probably just toss it. I share RoadScholar's caution around expired proteins, and I'm really disinclined to tempt fate for something as relatively mundane as canned tuna.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:50 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think the "best by" date on cans really reflects the texture of the contents rather than the safety. As liminal_shadows points out, it's been sterilized during canning, so there will be no decay as such but the tuna may have softened.

Personally, I like sardines which have been in the can a long time so their texture is nicely aged .. your taste in tuna may differ.
posted by anadem at 12:54 PM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

People deliberately age tins of sardines for many years, so I don't see why tuna would be any different. This guy ate a 32-year-old tin of sardines and lived to tell the tale.
posted by HotToddy at 12:56 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have never even looked at a best before date on a can. I would eat these without a second thought provided the cans were completely intact. I am usually very careful with food safety.
posted by kadia_a at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't eat that. The thought of eating old tuna grosses me out.

I'm willing to ignore the date on dry pasta or cereal. Basically anything that's dry and doesn't seem like it would collect mold or ferment in some way.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:46 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don’t know specifically about tuna (although if it smells ok I’d probably eat it) but I can report that the can of evaporated milk at my parents house with a best before date of 2014 (maybe 2011, I forget) tasted nasty.
posted by leahwrenn at 6:02 PM on January 14, 2018

Best answer: Hell no!

I'm sure in a survival situation they would be fine. The in-Laws are Mormon and keep a huge supply of food on hand--more than a year's worth for two people. (Maybe they figure they need to provide for their unholy progeny?) Because of health reasons, my M-i-L has fallen down on using a lot of things by their best-by date, some things being as old as 2014. Being frugal, she offers them to my husband. Being frugal, he tends to want to use them.

I can testify to what RoadScholar said about evap as well as condensed milk--weird thick texture and taste. Ditto canned pumpkin and canned chicken breast. Old olives are just weird. Canned fruit and vegs taste tinny and are mushy. The dried beans cook up tough. Being frugal, I give it to the chickens who greatly appreciate it and give us fresh eggs. After several dishes that didn't kill us, but were just...blargh!, husband now has orders NOT to use anything older than mid-2016 and only after I approve.

I would try a bite of your tuna and evaluate it for taste and texture, and if it wasn't good, pitch it. It won't hurt you, but who wants to eat lousy food?

(M-i-L also gave us two HUGE jars of Folgers Instant. What? Coffee is allowed after the End Times as a pick-me-up? Maybe Mormons are hoarding it to buy off the gentile hoards. Perhaps they're planning to throw it at zombies? Actually, they may be on to something--The end of the world is one thing, but in this house, having no coffee would be truly apocalyptic! Nevertheless, Folgers Instant isn't going to cut it!)
posted by BlueHorse at 7:18 PM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hmmm, that wasn't very clear. The part of me that says you only have two cans of tuna says hell no. The frugal part of me that has over 100 cans of various foodstuffs to sort through says that mid-2016 *might* be still tasty, or at least edible. If we didn't have chickens, I'd be weeping from the waste of it.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:03 PM on January 14, 2018

Best answer: I’d eat it. Also here is an article from Slate/Lucky Peach on aging canned foods:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/03/aging_canned_goods_why_time_and_heat_can_make_your_canned_tuna_and_spam.html
posted by Doleful Creature at 10:15 PM on January 14, 2018

To your bonus question: I am maybe the Most Terrible, but I don't throw out spices for the most part no matter what the date says. Same goes for tea. For Japanese foodstuffs: I would not throw miso away unless it was growing something extravagantly weird. It stays in the fridge until the end of time. Natto gets eaten pretty quickly in our fridge but I figure (maybe wrongly) that it's already kinda rotting and anything further is just giving it more character.
posted by sacchan at 11:31 PM on January 14, 2018