shelf life – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Stories filed under: "shelf life"

DailyDirt: Keeping Food Around Longer… And Longer

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Civilization has greatly depended on the our ability to store food for long periods of time. Without various food preservation techniques, our daily lives would be much different. Perhaps we’ve strayed a bit too far away from fresh foods, but the benefits of refrigeration, preservatives and food packaging probably outweigh the costs. Here are just a few articles on the topic of food preservation to ponder while you enjoy your next processed meal.

• Twinkies are back on stores shelves with a new and improved… shelf life of 45 days. Previously, Twinkies had a shelf life of just 26 days — and not an indefinite lifespan that most people assume. [url]
• Canned foods can last a really long time, and some folks actually prefer the taste of canned items that have been aged. The definition of a shelf life is not about when a packaged food is inedible, but when the food acquires a noticeably different flavor compared to a newly-manufactured item. [url]
• About 70% of the food we eat is stored or transported at chilled temperatures. And if you think that’s a high percentage: “An astonishing 80% of the nation’s potato output is cut, processed, frozen, bagged, and distributed as French fries.” [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aged, canning, flavor, food, frozen, inedible, packaging, preservation, refrigeration, shelf life, twinkies