On 02/11/2011 18:37, D.M. Procida wrote:
An elderly neighbour has kindly given us a couple of cans.

One contains 4 Goblin "Hamburgers With Onions and Gravy", with a 49p
price sticker still on it.

Their other is a Heinz treacle sponge pudding (28 pence from Tesco).
It's old enough not even to have a barcode.

We're not planning on consuming either of them, but I wonder whether
they'd be safe to eat.

Experience suggests that the treacle pudding has long since shrivelled
to a hard lump inside the tin.

Colin Bignell

On Nov 3, 1:12*am, Nightjar wrote:
....

Experience suggests that the treacle pudding has long since shrivelled
to a hard lump inside the tin.

I found one (it might have been a different flavour, if it makes a
difference) that had got missed during a move & forgotten. It was
only a year or two out of date & it rattled like
it had a rock inside it.

I don't understand why, though. Surely there's no way for moisture to
get out of a sealed tin?

Hognoxious wrote:
On Nov 3, 1:12 am, Nightjar wrote:
...
Experience suggests that the treacle pudding has long since shrivelled
to a hard lump inside the tin.

I found one (it might have been a different flavour, if it makes a
difference) that had got missed during a move & forgotten. It was
only a year or two out of date & it rattled like
it had a rock inside it.

I don't understand why, though. Surely there's no way for moisture to
get out of a sealed tin?

Not if its sealed, no

BUT puddings may shrink, in tins..
And tin cans can rust..

On 05/11/2011 20:37, Hognoxious wrote:
On Nov 3, 1:12 am, wrote:
...

Experience suggests that the treacle pudding has long since shrivelled
to a hard lump inside the tin.

I found one (it might have been a different flavour, if it makes a
difference) that had got missed during a move& forgotten. It was
only a year or two out of date& it rattled like
it had a rock inside it.

I don't understand why, though. Surely there's no way for moisture to
get out of a sealed tin?

I inherited a lot of out of date food when my mother died. I threw away
the tin of fruit with hemispherical ends, but looked at some of the
others. Without exception, all the tinned sponge puddings had gone the
same way. I don't know the mechanism of the ageing, but it looked as
though the puddings had collapsed upon themselves. I presume that was as
a result of the gas in the cavities inside the sponge permeating out.

Colin Bignell