― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link
I read somewhere that improvements in canning has made this conventional wisdom mostly obsolete. After that I no longer avoided dented cans and I will even sometimes choose a lightly dented can because I know it will go to waste otherwise. And I feel sorry for it.
This is the best I could come up with on a quick Google search:
It’s okay to eat the food from dented cans...as long as the dent isn’t sharp enough to have pierced the can or isn’t on the seams that run down the side or around the top and bottom. But if the contents of a can (dented or not) spray when the lid seal is broken by the can opener, the food may harbor Clostridium botulinum—a bacterium that secretes the neurotoxin that causes botulism, a frequently fatal disease. Wipe up the sprayed contents immediately with a paper towel. Note any code or batch number that’s on the can before (carefully) throwing it in the trash. Use a disinfectant cleaner on the counter top and use a paper towel to wipe it up. Then report the incident to the manufacturer and to your local Health Department.
from: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/11_00/gk_an5.html
― WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot (unclejessjess), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― latebloomer: Ambassador With Training In Righteousness (latebloomer), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link
*according to The Man
― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― latebloomer: Ambassador With Training In Righteousness (latebloomer), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― disappointing goth fest line-up (orion), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:59 (eighteen years ago) link
I STAND CORRECTED. ewwwwww.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 11 September 2006 04:10 (eighteen years ago) link
cold pizza is amazing if you eat it within the first day of getting it; afterward it's a bit too cardboardy. i've never tried eating cold canned stuff and never want to.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 11 September 2006 04:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― disappointing goth fest line-up (orion), Monday, 11 September 2006 04:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― rattusnorvegicus (ratty!!), Monday, 11 September 2006 04:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Adrienne Begley (sparklecock), Monday, 11 September 2006 05:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― 31g (31g), Monday, 11 September 2006 06:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Why does my IQ changes? (noodle vague), Monday, 11 September 2006 06:46 (eighteen years ago) link
i eat the crud in my eyes when i wake.if i have a scab i'll peel it and chew it for awhile. i've eaten my butt lint. and just to be normal here..i smoke and sleep too much.. -- kevin enas (masterblank...), July 4th, 2001.
!!!
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 11 September 2006 18:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 11 September 2006 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link
WTF
― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 September 2006 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― So Close To Posting That On The Wrong Thread (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 September 2006 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 11 September 2006 19:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― A B C (sparklecock), Sunday, 28 January 2007 07:04 (seventeen years ago) link
I hate the fucking internet.
― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 28 January 2007 07:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― bobby bedelia (van dover), Sunday, 28 January 2007 07:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 28 January 2007 07:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― A B C (sparklecock), Sunday, 28 January 2007 08:05 (seventeen years ago) link
(eating navel lint -- whether or not it really is butt lint -- is still pretty nasty.)
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 28 January 2007 08:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Sunday, 28 January 2007 14:32 (seventeen years ago) link
i like how we were clowning on latebloomer for eating cold condensed soup, and yet (until much later) let slide the INFINITELY more disgusting instance of a poster eating ass-lint.
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 26 April 2008 17:29 (sixteen years ago) link
...and yet... let slide ran from the thread in stark horror when confronted with the INFINITELY more disgusting instance of a poster eating ass-lint.
fixed
― Aimless, Saturday, 26 April 2008 17:51 (sixteen years ago) link
When yr cooking soup and you have a little taste to see if it's hot yet, but it's still cold...
URRRGGHHH
― Bodrick III, Saturday, 26 April 2008 18:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm at work, trying so hard not to rofflepuke.
I live with a guy who does this with refried beans.
― BigLurks, Saturday, 26 April 2008 19:02 (sixteen years ago) link
i really have only done this with campbell's chicken noodle, vegetable and manhattan clam chowder.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 26 April 2008 19:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Progresso works. A must when camping.
― Other, Saturday, 26 April 2008 21:55 (sixteen years ago) link
i still heart this exchange:
Well no one would slurp condensed soup cold, at least not without adding water for god's sake. We're not animals.
-- Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:31 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link water dilutes the flavor.
-- latebloomer: Ambassador With Training In Righteousness (latebloomer), Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:33 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link OK some of us are animals.
-- Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:33 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link *licks paws*
-- latebloomer: Ambassador With Training In Righteousness (latebloomer), Wednesday, April 12, 2006 3:34 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 26 April 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Took the first spoonful of "Gourmet Minute Five Mushroom Creamy Blend" soup cold at lunch today. Soup smelled and tasted OK but was unmistakeably *carbonated*, with little bubbles all the way through the "creamy blend", no matter how slowly I stirred with a spoon, and all before I'd microwaved it. This was sold from a large chain grocery store deli counter, soup packaged in a clear bag that now that I think of it was bulging when I scissored it open (didn't notice, distracted). Soup never sat out, went from grocery to fridge to office fridge without warming up, and it's well before the Best Before date of March 1. Of course I stopped eating after that first spoonful.
Now I have to wait to see if I get botulism. Could not possibly be more ironic if I do -- I'm a neurologist treats patients with migraines and dystonia with Botox injections, and I keep Botox vials in the freezer of the fridge where I kept the soup (no, there was no cross contamination).
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 19:16 (eleven years ago) link
good luck, plasmon. As you wait, you could investigate whether Clostridium botulinum metabolic activity creates residual CO2, for funsies.
― Aimless, Thursday, 21 February 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
is one spoonful enough to inoculate?
― goole, Thursday, 21 February 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago) link
well this is exactly the wrong type of exciting
― This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Thursday, 21 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
I'm not sure if C. botulinum is gas producing (perfringens is, as with gas gangrene), it's just not a good sign that something is producing gas in my soup. Is "for funsies" supposed to be as condescending as it comes across? I'm not really worried, just thought it was funny.
We diagnosed a woman with food borne botulism this winter. Presented with rapidly progressive ophthalmoplegia and dysphagia, got diagnosed with Miller Fischer syndrome (a variant of Guillain Barre). Later turned out she'd come home from a long bus trip to an empty kitchen on a cold Sunday night. She was a home canner and apparently opened up one of her own creations. By the time they figure it out it was too late for the antitoxin to help. Ended up completely paralysed but aware, intubated in ICU.
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
Did you save any of it to test?
― Jaq, Thursday, 21 February 2013 21:15 (eleven years ago) link
I feel like there could be a million other reasons for the "carbonation". Sounds pretty weird though.
― go to party leather (ENBB), Thursday, 21 February 2013 21:21 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I saved the soup. No point testing it unless I get sick, which I don't expect. The screening diagnostic test we used for the lady in ICU was serum inoculation of mice, which die if the toxin's present.
I let the deli know what I found. I've had that same soup dozens of times before without incident, though I don't usually take the first spoonful cold. That'll teach me to play Letterpress while making lunch.
I'm not a food chemist, but I'm sure there could have been CO2 released from non-bacterial elements in the soup. Gas produced by anaerobic bacteria would stink, and this didn't.
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:31 (eleven years ago) link
okay don't blame your impending botulism on your need to embarrass me at word games
― This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:32 (eleven years ago) link
Just trying to level the playing field.
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:34 (eleven years ago) link
ice cold
I approve
― This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:36 (eleven years ago) link
Is "for funsies" supposed to be as condescending as it comes across?
You have my permission to shoot me in one of my fleshier parts. Or possibly you will accept my apology instead.
― Aimless, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:37 (eleven years ago) link
No worries. Sounds like you know something about microbiology? I've heard "bulging cans" as a sign of C.botulinum but no idea if that translates to a puffed out plastic bag of carbonated cream of mushroom.
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:42 (eleven years ago) link
It takes a 15 minutes of boiling to denature botulism toxin! That's longer than I thought it would take. So just quickly nuking can still be a problem.
― Jaq, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:42 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, bacterial toxins are super hardy.
We did rounds on botulism after that recent case, found out about the deaths from carrot juice borne botulism in 2006 (http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm55d106a1.htm). This was Bolthouse carrot juice, the same thing my wife drinks (I prefer their Passion Orange Guava). Got home that night, found a huge bottle of Bolthouse carrot juice in the downstairs fridge, 2 weeks past expiry date (2 for 1 deal the last time we bought it). Botulism has nothing to do with best before dates but I dumped it anyway.
I have a prior history of food borne illness. Got the worst ever case of food poisoning from Yuki-jirushi (Snow Brand) low fat milk in 2000 when I lived in Kyoto. Turned out they had Staph Aureus in the milk plant, weren't cleaning the pipes properly (I used to work in an ice cream store, I know how hard it is to clean mild contamination off machinery). They were also taking expired milk and dumping it back into the pasteurizer. I got horribly horribly sick in the middle of judging an English speech contest in a suburban high school in Osaka. It was a huge scandal in Japan, the dairy originally tried to cover up what happened, recalled milk products only a few days later. Months later I had 2 Snow Brand guys show up at my apartment door unexpectedly, both wearing dark suits in the hot summer weather, bowing and apologizing profusely, and presenting me with a box of absolutely marvelous chocolate biscuits.
― Plasmon, Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:55 (eleven years ago) link
Mr. Jaq got staph poisoning from ice cream in the Bellagio a few years ago. I've never seen a sicker person, and it came on incredibly fast. Horrible stuff.
― Jaq, Friday, 22 February 2013 00:23 (eleven years ago) link