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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.
Hansen said he's seen rising interest in emergency preparedness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But while the retailer's most popular package -- a supply of dehydrated food to feed one person for a year -- is selling well, customers' level of concern is much lower than in 1999. Then, Americans stockpiled massive quantities in anticipation of a Y2K disaster.
Ted Labuza, a food science and engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, said research has shown that seeds can last for thousands of years if they're not damaged. Processing and improper storage practices that expose items to heat or oxygen are what cause deterioration.
"I've had canned chicken that was stored in a military case for seven years," Labuza recalled. "It was still very edible."
Pike said there are myriad reasons for ultra-long-term food storage, including maintaining surplus food stocks for humanitarian aid or national emergencies. He also doesn't discount the likelihood of individuals keeping stockpiles for years or decades.
In some cases, they already are. To get samples for edibility testing, Brigham Young researchers put an ad in the LDS Church News, a Mormon publication, asking for donations of old packaged food that had been stored under stable conditions. Pike said he chose the periodical for soliciting donations because the church advises members to store a year's supply of food in preparation for hard times.
But even he was surprised to receive samples decades old and still in good condition.
"It's really unique to have food around that long," he said.
