Check your cupboards for food safety
- col-kate-shumaker
- January 19, 2024
- 557
Hello again. Last week I shared several OSU Extension resources to get you off to a fresh start for 2024. For many people the new year also brings about a lot of cleaning and organizing. This may be brought about by wanting a fresh start, but also by being indoors more during cold weather.
One area most of us need to get better organized is our home food storage. I’m pretty sure it’s time for some education related to proper storage of commercially canned and dry foods. Contrary to popular belief, these foods don’t have an infinite shelf life.
One of the best things you can do with all methods of food storage — freezer, refrigerator and cupboard — is to practice food rotation, always using the oldest product first. The industry term for this practice is first in, first out or FIFO. The products that come in first (oldest) should go out first before the quality declines. For more information on food storage times, download the FoodKeeper App or visit their website at www.FoodSafety.gov.
Here are some other tips that may prevent you from finding some antique food goods in the back of your cupboards:
—Store new products behind older products on your shelves.
—Write the use-by expiration date or purchase date on the tops of cans with a permanent marker.
—Try not to keep canned foods more than one year. Do not keep canned fruit juices more than nine months. These aged canned goods may be safe to eat, but their color, flavor, texture and/or nutrition value may have deteriorated.
—Store foods in cool cabinets. Put dishes or pans in the cabinets over the range, near the dishwasher or by the refrigerator exhaust. In these places the temperature is too warm for food.
—Do not buy cans with dents on the side seam of the can itself or on the rim seams at the top or bottom of the can. Check carefully for leakage, especially around the seam. Throw leaky cans away.
—Check for leakage; the rust may have penetrated the can.
—Bulging cans: Don’t open the can or taste the contents, as it may be contaminated with deadly botulism toxin produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacteria. Place can in a double-layered plastic bag and dispose of in a covered garbage container to prevent pets and other animals from getting into it. Do not put out for recycling. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after handling these cans.
“Best if used by” and other terms are used to signal when the product is at its best flavor or quality. If the food date label passes during home storage, the food product — except for infant formula, the only product with a date that truly indicates safety — should still be safe and wholesome if handled properly until the time spoilage is evident. Spoiled foods will develop an off-odor, flavor or texture due to naturally occurring spoilage bacteria. If a food has developed such spoilage characteristics, it should not be eaten.
I am challenging each of you to do an annual (at least) inventory and cleaning of your freezer and dry food storage areas. Discard unsafe foods and take on the mission of practicing FIFO in your home. Then post your new inventory lists and use them for easy meal planning.
Kate Shumaker is an OSU Extension family and consumer sciences educator and may be called at 330-674-3015. Like and follow on Facebook @OSUEXTHolmes or visit at https://holmes.osu.edu.