The Ultimate Canned Food Tier List - Ask a Prepper
In 1968, a salvage crew dug the steamboat Bertrand out of thirty feet of Missouri River silt, more than a century after it sank on its way to the Montana gold fields. Among the cargo sat cans of peaches, oysters, plum tomatoes and mixed vegetables, and in 1974 chemists from the National Food Processors Association opened them up and ran the tests. The food had lost its smell and most of its vitamin C, though there was no microbial growth in any of it, so the verdict was that the 109-year-old contents were still safe to eat.
That story gets passed around every prepper forum as proof that canned food lasts forever, which is the wrong lesson to take from it. Your pantry is only as good as what you chose to put on it, and the difference between a shelf that feeds your family in year six and a shelf full of rusted disappointment has nothing to do with the date stamped on the lid.
What Actually Decides the Tier
Four things separate a great …