Food safety

mete

mete

Joined
Jun 10, 2003
Messages
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I've been coming across problems with pop-top cans so I'd like to review safety proceedures and get comments about your experiences . When I was a youngster , a long time ago, I was taught about food safety concerning cans.
Disgard the following -- bulged can [ bad things have been growing inside ],
can that doesn't make a 'psst' sound when first opening [ vacuum has been lost ]
if the contents look different ,smell different , taste different
Don't risk eating from these cans , it's not worth it !! A dented can is not necessarily bad but should be checked very carefully.

If you have any other comments please make them. But I would like comments also about how often you find bad pop-top cans , my percentage seems rather high. The pop-top is made by cutting partially through the metal .As one of my back-up and emergency foods is Dinty Moore I wonder about typical QC problems .Cutting through steel is a metallurgy problem so I'mm well within my training as a metallurgist ,LOL !!
 
After a run of bad pop-top cans I decided to try to get some statistics.If you want to play the fool [troll ] go elsewhere. If you had 25 cans of pop-top how many should you expect to have bad tops ??
 
mete said:
After a run of bad pop-top cans I decided to try to get some statistics.If you want to play the fool [troll ] go elsewhere. If you had 25 cans of pop-top how many should you expect to have bad tops ??
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None. And I don't recall any. Is there a difference in the shelf life between the 'pop top' and non 'pop top' cans?
 
I have not, If I was getting some from a certain location, I'd be informing them, and shopping elsewhere. Another option would be to store the cans inverted, and see if any showed signs of leakage. I wonder though if relying on the hiss is as valid as it once was, I don't know that cans are necessarily all vacuum sealed. I suppose more research on that is needed.

Biggest concerns for me would be tomatoes (botulism) and of course any meats (but in that case contamination would be from production). All other forms of decay should be pretty obvious.
 
I just had a can of spam that was bad. Otherwise, it's pretty uncommon for me. Still, if it's even questionable, I won't eat it.
 
I must have hit a bad batch of saller Dinty Moore beef stew cans. All those years of QC and metallurgy experience have come back to haunt me !!
 
So it is mostly just you and one product? The tech for scored cans dates to 1964 so it isn't as new-tech precision as one might think. I know I have had the rings come off on occasion over the years and a sharp rap will open them, albeit inward, not outward. So the batch of cans you are buying may have been mishandled at some point between sealing, shipping, stocking and your grocery cart assuming not by yourself at home.

Hopefully you took them back to the store for a refund. It is then up to the store to inform the distributor or eat it. In the future inspect the cans before you buy, not just when you get ready to open them.

My experience is that compromised cans usually flex slightly when squeezed if they don't just expel contents making it obvious. But then I have only had this problem with canned soft drinks.
 
Mine were 'picked up by a friend' so it was really a reminder to be carefull with food.
Recently a friend got food poisoning from a restaurant and spent a few days in the hospital .That was a big reminder and he had no can to check.
 
Food Safety II . Well I came across some more Dinty Moore beef stew cans . I didn't notice this before but The smaller 15 oz can is not made the same as the larger ones !! The smaller cans are made in two parts The sides and bottom are one part , with the top added ! Larger canes are three part , top, sides , and bottom !!
The process for the smaller one is not good as this last batch ,I tried two cans and both had lost vacuum !! They need a QC man !
 
Sounds like it. I don't find too many bad cans. The bright side is that they are cheap, so it's not a huge deal if one ends up being bad. But botulism isn't something I'm going to risk.
 
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