PDA

View Full Version : Old stored food still good?


Arizona Highlander
12-05-2007, 04:27 PM
Some really good news for those of us with food storage. Research by folks at Brigham Young University shows that bulk stored food lasts a whole lot longer than most of us have been led to believe.

Wheat and white rice, they say, have an expected useful life of 30+ years - not bad! And though I’ve heard people insist that Pinto beans are good for only 2-3 years, the BYU folks say they’re okay for at least 30. I’ve experimented with 10-year old Pintos myself, and though they won’t soften up easily (you can run them through a cheap, steel-burr wheat grinder, like a Corona or Victoria, to resolve that) at least they’ll still offer some nutrition.

They do note, however, that one essential survival item - vegetable oil - goes bad after just a year or two. That matches with my experience as well, as I had to toss a few bottles of Wesson oil years ago that (despite still being factory sealed) had gone horribly rancid after just a few years of storage.

For the whole story, check the link below. Good information!

http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7797-1-4222-1,00.html

Ryder
12-05-2007, 10:26 PM
Dam good link.

I can vouch for powdered milk lasting 15+ years. We have some store that had be nitrogen packed in the early 90's and was as fresh as the dya we packed it!

yarro
12-20-2007, 04:38 PM
If you want to stretch the life of cooking oil, store it in the refridgerator. Heat, light, and exposure to oxygen all degrade oils. It will turn into a semi-solid and have to be warmed to room temperature to use, but its quality will not be affected. If the airspace was filled with nitrogen like a lot of olive oils then you have minimized exposure to all three degredation factors.

-Yarro

Vagabond
12-21-2007, 02:35 AM
Another use for old pinto beans is to sprout them. I did an experiment a couple weeks ago with some pintos old seeds from y2k to see what would happen. I did the moist paper towel in the ziploc and put them in the closet. Almost all of them sprouted and the sprouts tasted pretty good.
I would be curious as to the nutritive value of the beans consumed in various ways and if the sprouts carry full nutrition with any age?
I suppose you could always grow them to full plants too for harvest (but I dont know if the seeds are hybrids or not...does anyone know?)