Have you ever let your stash go out of date?

I'm not sure if chickpeas even do really 'go off' but I started prepping in March 2011, and some of my first tins have now expired with a date of March 2016.

I know the standard procedure is to rotate your supplies, so that you use the stash, and your shopping replenishes the food so that you're always eating in-date food, and the use-by date on the stash gets progressively further out, but I didn't stick to that quite so religiously, and now I find my very earliest good just starting to hit their use by dates.

 

Oh that's a shame! Yeah, don't go opening that can of chickpeas. A grotesque, sticky monster might come sloughing out... Be a good science experiment though!

Rotating supplies. I usually do a yearly check on what has to be used. I'll bring those goods into the pantry to be used then restore what I took after going grocery shopping. Keeping an inventory list is also helpful. You can make an excel spreadsheet (or something similar) and input the details of everything you have. Then you can see the expiration dates in a systematic line.

 

Too late I'm afraid. It certainly was edible, but tasted distinctly different (and worse) to a fresh can. It taught me a lesson about not rotating occasionally, but I also know that I could theoretically depend on it if my life depended upon it (and at no other time).