Goin’ thru the ol’ BOBs and car survival kits today, and sure enough I realized I hadn’t rotated a few things. I pulled out eight bags of various types of Pacific Gold jerky, “best by” date 09/06, bought in 2005 sometime IIRC (from Costco, naturally).
I did a taste and texture test of an “Original” bag against the exact same 
product, bought last week (“best by” date in 2008). Aside from being a little drier than the stuff I bought last week, the stored jerky seems just fine even after sitting in bugout bags in the trunk or cab of various cars for the past couple of years, and enduring the extremes of heat and cold that California car interiors go through.
I also pulled out a couple of five-pound foil bags of Sun-Maid raisins, again purchased from Costco in 2005, expiration dates in 2006. I tucked into ’em by the handful, and they seem just as delicious as fresh raisins.
This last one isn’t in the survival kits, but it’s more of a Good to Know item: when I got my first job out of college in 1992, I went out to Costco and bought five six-packs of Edge shaving gel. (The image is of their current 
product, but it looks almost the same as what I have). Little did I realize that a little gel goes a long way. That, law school, and working for companies that didn’t require me to shave every day means that I still have about twelve of these cans. So this gel is fifteen years old and still works great — the cans have pressure, the gel foams up nicely, and it seems to work the same as it always has. This is some good stuff to stock. I have no idea if Costco still carries it, as I obviously haven’t shopped for shaving cream in a very long time.
It’s good to know that I’m not the only one that checkes experation dates on products. The wife thinks I am a little odd for checking the dates.
Booty! Booty! Booty!
Went thru my deep food storage (non-perishable) two weeks ago. Opened a cardboard-can of Sunmaid raisins, which were purchased only 15 months ago, and they were a little too dry for handful eating, but would be fine with minor water reconstitution. I have several 1# bags of World Kitchens beef jerky, and while I didn’t open any of that (had no dates, but is less than 2 yrs old), it visually inspects OK through it’s clear packaging. It is maintained in a light-tight storage locker in my garage, and has one hot summer on it. I just bought some more World Kitchens jerky, and those bags have a 20-month “best by” date on them.
Am starting to stockpile short-grain rice. Have 35# on board now, will add at least another 25#. it should keep for years. 12 oz dry rice is a carb ration for at least two people per day, and can be stretched to three for sedentary sheltering. 60# would be 80 days of carbs in rice alone, plus I have maybe 10# of pasta on hand, and 8# of dried beans of several varieties.
I need to get more agressive about repackaging dried food in Food Saver bags with silica gel. If I keep the original cellophane packaging on pasta, put in silica gel packets and vacuumize in a Food Saver, I should get twice or better the shelf life out of the pasta.
In the next few weeks, I am adding 5 full-size Gorilla shelving units to my garage (and subtracting the compact car slot), so I will have plenty of open storage. I can move a lot of the non-food items out of the tight lockers (the garage is lined with them) onto the Gorilla shelves, and I will have more tight, light-proof storage for dried foods. I could get up to a year easily. It works out to about 3 mos/2 mouths per 30″X18″X72″ locker now, so I would need four to get up to a year’s supply.
I have 10 gal water in bottles, and 60 more in the water heater. All-year creek is 100 yards away, need to get an expedition filter to use the water though. 3 gal. of bleach will disinfect a lot of the water, just have to filter out the giardia and crypto sporidium with a silver filter first.
I’m fairly ready for constant-shelter now, could make it really easy with one major shopping trip.
Sounds good. Thumbs up on the rice. We’re eating short-grain Calrose rice that’s about six years old (we bought a 35-lb. pack from Costco and I parceled it out into gallon Ziplocks). Tastes fine, although I’m sure some of the nutrients are gone. But that’s what multivitamins are for!
The only reason the expiration dates exist is to keep the companies from being sued. And let me tell you, they mark those dates waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before the food actually goes bad. You can eat most preserved food for a long while after it’s “expired”.
Granted, it might not taste the same, or have as many nutrients, but it ain’t gonna kill you. Just use common sense, like not eating the GREEN beef jerkey, and you’ll be OK.
You should be able to rehydrate and soften up that old jerkey by adding a little water to the bag and putting it in the sun for 15 minutes. That way you can enjoy your rotated foodstocks without having to throw them out…