On Saturday, 9 November 2019 17:31:41 UTC, Graeme wrote:
I'm not sure why dates are printed on tins. How did we survive before
the dates were printed?

We checked whether they were bulgy or putrifying, but occasionally we got it wrong.

I have a Big Book of Food Safety showing bulgy tins, mouldy yoghurts, decomposing chickens etc, from about the 1970s. Such things were quite common then. Food manufacturing has improved a lot and now it's quite rare to find actually defective food. Modern food might not have much taste or nutrition but it's less likely to kill you.

Owain