This is an interesting article I think has relevance to the question of storing food in the event of a Pandemic.
external image
Oatmeal From '70s Still Tastes OK
Next time you feel compelled to clean out the pantry, don't feel bad about putting it off.
A lot of the old food that's gone beyond the manufacturer's expiration date could still be edible for years or decades longer.
Such are the findings of food science researchers who recently subjected a panel of human tasters to samples of really old food. They discovered that
artifacts like 20-year-old dried milk and 28-year-old rolled oats were still perfectly edible and sometimes even tasted OK.
"You'd think that shelf life would be much shorter," said Oscar Pike, one of the professors of food science at Brigham Young University who
conducted the study. "But that's not the case."
Food scientists have long maintained that certain foodstuffs, like salt, granulated crystal sugar and wheat kernels, can be stored indefinitely at
room temperature or below. But Pike said he was uncertain whether a more processed grain, such as a rolled oat, would also stand the test of time.
To find out, researchers prepared oatmeal from 16 samples of regular and quick-cooking rolled oats that had been stored up to 28 years in sealed
containers. A panel of tasters rated the oats on aroma, texture, flavor, aftertaste and overall acceptability. Scientists also analyzed the samples'
nutritional quality.
The conclusion? Tasters rated the quality of the old oats from 4.8 to 6.7 on an ascending scale from 1 to 9. Three-fourths considered them acceptable
in an emergency.
Makers of long-lasting food products aren't surprised that people weren't keen on the taste of 1970s oatmeal.
"Palatability will decline before edibility vanishes," said Gary Hansen, owner of Pleasant Hill Grain, which sells food packages for emergency
stockpiling.
Properly stored food, Hansen noted, can be edible longer than one might infer from manufacturers' expiration dates, which typically indicate when a
product starts to taste worse or lose some nutritional value.
More...
This is actually reassuring ....
When I began considering what food I would store in preparation for a possible self imposed preventative quarantine, the task became more difficult
than I expected. This article helps answer the safety questions I had. It appears that any purchases made today, could still be used 2 or 3 years
later with little concern. That's good to know.
[edit on 16-11-2005 by loam]
