[PDF] Safe Home Food Storage

[Watchman]

This is a PDF document published by the Texas Agriculture Department. Everything to your own experience. Some of these I would question and know I'll get into an argument, but there are two tests we use for safe storage: (1) Smell and (2) if the can bulges even slightly I will open it and then smell it. I trust my schnozz. We routinely use 10-year old commercially canned food but it has to pass the test above. We don't even taste the slightest bit unless it has been cooked for 20 minutes. On home-canned food, we have used things upwards (yes, you read correctly) of 10 years old. I don't recommend nor refute anything that anyone does. Caution is the word! We have taken a bunch of sausages we had in the freezer and then home-canned them and ate them about 8 years later (ten total). We're talking survival. If you are hungry you might risk the runs.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/store/texas_storage.pdf