Outdated Food???

[TanksHill]

So I grew up pretty poor and any food was good food. Maybe we just did not know the difference. Anyways, my children's private school has a church based pantry. The collect donations and distribute to needy family's.

Today my friend who is sampling and organizing literally a pallet of crackers, granola and tea gave me a call. She said the crackers were stale and if I wanted them for my chickens I could take as much as I like.

I of course said yes and loaded up my mini van. But while helping myself to the crackers I noticed the granola, teas and a couple other things. I asked for some of these items as well to share with family and neighbors. She said sure.

I guess I have two questions, would storing food that has already expired be a good idea for emergency rations? Like in case of a disaster does it matter if the cracker is stale? I mean really, if it's free your really not loosing any money.

What do you think? Should I save some of these items for human consumption or just crush the crackers and give them to my hens? I know it's a lame question but I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[farmerlor]

Y'know, I remember that in the Vietnam war they were still eating C-rats from WW II that contained crackers. No one died from the C-rats though I'm sure they sometimes thought they might. I think if you put those crackers in an airtight container they would probably keep almost forever.

 

[dacjohns]

My philosophy for emergency rations is that emergency rations are part of your overall home production and storage.

Start with new stuff, store what you eat and eat what you store. Rotate your food storage.

I wouldn't put old food in my storage although it might get old sitting in the storage. I would feed it to the critters or make compost out of it.

Another thing. Besides the food being unpalatable it will lose some of its nutritional value.

 

[patandchickens]

Honestly I'd feed them (gradually) to the chickens rather than try to save them. There is not all that much nutritional value in crackers *anyhow*, and it is not just flavor/texture that deteriorates over time, nutritional value declines too.

There are better things to put in airtight containers to store than already-old crackers, IMHO.

If some stuff is edible, I'd suggest eating it *now* and using that the leeway to rotate fresher stuff into whatever food storage you have.

JMO, have fun,

Pat

 

[PamsPride]

I agree with Pat.

 

[freemotion]

Grab the teabags, if they are kinds that you like. Put them all in tightly closed glass jars (one flavor per jar) and they will still flavor your water for quite a while, and won't become harmful, as long as they aren't allowed to get moldy. You might not want them for years and years, but you could possibly get a year or two of iced and hot tea if you get them into glass jars. As long as they still have some decent flavor to them.......they are free, after all, so if you have to use twice the number of bags, so what! Snag 'em!

(I don't feed my chickens or other animals food that is made from things I wouldn't eat in large quantities, like white flour. I have turned down several offers of free white bread for this reason. But I am a bit "out there" and am not desperate.....extreme financial hardship, and bring on the white stuff for the hens to process into eggs and meat!)

 

[TanksHill]

Thanks, I kinda figured the same thing. there were several large bags of a macadamia nut muslix, I had a neighbor try it out.(nice not to have to test it on my kids) He said he thought the nuts had gone a bit rancid. We both agreed it would be fine for the chickens.

Thanks gina

 

[everyonesmomtwo]

Out of date does not necessarly mean something is bad. That is a date that the manufactuor has to put on an item to give it a reference to use it by.
By all means if it's rancid or clearly bad don't use it, but otherwise it's still good. That is why you will notice they have changed the dating on the cartons of milk. People thought it was automaticly bad once it hit that sell by date.
My family purchases in bulk and we rotate it so that it stays fresh, but some times I find heck of a deal on items like cereal for .25 box because the date is the same month. The cereal is still good. When it starts to get old (you can tell by smell)I use it quick by baking muffins or something and than freeze them. Same with lots of other items you just need to be wise about it, rotate it and remember it does lose some of the nutritional value over time. I reseal and use oxygen packets and that helps alot as well. having a large family does too.
Ruth

 

[FarmerChick]

So I grew up pretty poor and any food was good food. Maybe we just did not know the difference. Anyways, my children's private school has a church based pantry. The collect donations and distribute to needy family's.

Today my friend who is sampling and organizing literally a pallet of crackers, granola and tea gave me a call. She said the crackers were stale and if I wanted them for my chickens I could take as much as I like.

I of course said yes and loaded up my mini van. But while helping myself to the crackers I noticed the granola, teas and a couple other things. I asked for some of these items as well to share with family and neighbors. She said sure.

I guess I have two questions, would storing food that has already expired be a good idea for emergency rations? Like in case of a disaster does it matter if the cracker is stale? I mean really, if it's free your really not loosing any money.

What do you think? Should I save some of these items for human consumption or just crush the crackers and give them to my hens? I know it's a lame question but I would love to hear your thoughts.

don't store older foods, not worth it cause in the end it all goes to the chickens anyway.

but a box of stale crackers.....I rarely eat crackers in this house and 1 box has the last pack always getting alittle state, so I crush them up in soup sometimes. A stale cracker is fine if needed and you could make breadcrumbs also from stale crackers. But don't store up a ton cause they sure do "go over the top" in taste if left too long.

Eat what is good and use up the rest wherever you can.