TINNED FOODS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4670, 14 December 1944, Page 3

TINNED FOODS

(By the Health Department)

Just in case you might be in some doubt, it is useful to know that tinned foods —the useful household standbywill last almost indefinitely, provided, always, that the container has been properly prepared and is intact. Some people may still be using the emergency stores of tinned goods that they were advised to lay by when the Japs were heading our way, and the question as to their keeping qualities has arisen. History provides examples of the keeping qualities of sound canned goods.

In 1824, for instance, a ship well provisioned with tinned foodstuffs was wrecked in Prince’s Inlet. Eight years later some of them were found. They Amro still good. Sixteen years after another lot was discovered in good condition, and in 1868 —44 years after the ship was wrecked, the remaining tins were opened and the conte its found to be in perfect order. In England in 1938 two canisters of food prepared for Parry’s voyages to the Arctic in 1824-26 were opened. One was roast veal, and the other contained carrots and gravy. The meat was in excellent condition, tasted all right, but had lost its flavour. Young rats were fed on it. They kept healthy and g-cw normally. Part of the vitamin B complex was found as well as vitamin D. The can of century old carrots was almost as rich in varotene —the precursor of vitamin A —as fresh carrots.

Incidentally, these old-fashioned con

tamers wore made of wrought iron coated with tin, and the prudent housewife of those days used them as casseroles.

It looks, therefore, that the keeping qualities of modern tinned foods need cause us little worry—provided the tin is undamaged. It is wise, in every case, to examine the tin thoroughly for rust or damage before using it, though.