Urgent food warning and advice requested

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Awrrr
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#2412911 5-Feb-2020 11:28

networkn:

If they had labels that showed the age, I doubt it would make any difference, as once people put them in the cupboard, they are usually forgotten about till it's time to eat them. Do you go through your cupboards annually to ensure you are rotating your stock and ensuring you eat items within the safe timeframe? I doubt it, which isn't really a problem as I don't think anyone else does as well.

I think expecting stuff like a tin of food to be safe after 10 years is probably unrealistic.

If Watties issued a public release saying people should ensure they do rotate their items to avoid exploding tins, no chance it would make 95% of households change their behaviour past maybe year 1.

I seriously doubt MPI will be doing anything significant given the age of these containers.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, it sounds horrible, but I am not really sure what realistically you expect Watties or MPI to do ?

I get what you are saying but these tins really are dangerous. They exploded when they were barely touched. The explosions may or may not have permanently affected my hearing, but they could have easily done other major physical damage. In a country as risk-averse as this one is, surely that is not acceptable?

I still think the lack of consumer-readable date information on the label is extremely questionable. I can't speak for other people, but I do read the labels and if I saw the tins were 10 years old, or even 5 years old, I would have immediately discarded them. What is wrong with providing people that information?

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Oblivian

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#2412913 5-Feb-2020 11:30

Being within the requirements is due to the 2014 act.
Anything with an expected shelf life of 2yrs does not require dating.

As pointed out watties have the vague 'at least 2' to skirt it. True mileages vary.

Self sanity option is not hindered by this however.

“1.2.5—3 Food for sale must be date marked on labels
(2) The date marking information is not required if:
(a) the *best-before date of the food is 2 years or more after the date it is
determined; or
(b) the food is an individual portion of ice cream or ice confection.
(3) Despite subsection (1), if the food is in a small package, the only date-marking
information required is the *use-by date (if an

networkn

Networkn
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#2412921 5-Feb-2020 11:33

sbiddle:

Yes you can argue it shouldn't happen, but science..

This pretty much sums things up.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#2412923 5-Feb-2020 11:34

Batman:

When did you purchase the can?

I don't know. I probably didn't purchase it, unless by accident. Multiple people buy food and put it in the cupboards. We don't always coordinate that. Yet another good reason why there should be dates on such products. I don't care about 'best by'. Those are weasel words though at least they indicate something. Just put date of manufacture on it and let people decide for themselves. A big part of my complaint here is just lack of information.

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Fred99

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#2412924 5-Feb-2020 11:36

I just checked the canned foods we've got here. None of the Watties branded stuff has a BB or "use by" date printed on the can or label - nor any able to be obviously deciphered batch number that could indicate manufacturing date. Most of the other branded stuff does have a BB date. I couldn't find any with a "use by" date marked.

Some of the Watties stuff, I've got no idea how old it is. So FSA say "Canned foods that have a shelf-life of more than two years do not need a best before date".

There's stuff that we brought to put on our boat that we don't normally eat at home, so it could have been in the cupboard for many years. I think I'll have a clean out.

I used to be involved in import of some canned produce. Some of the overseas canneries were dodgy. Though I don't think we ever had a product safety issue with canned stuff, at the cheap end of the market (ie for "home brand" relabelling) they'd cut corners to save cost to increase margins. This wouldn't happen all of a sudden, the samples and initial shipments would be perfect, then down the track there'd be a problem - typically with canned fruit, the drained weight would start falling below spec (and thus label). That's a very easy cheat for them to do at the factory - probably by turning a couple of knobs on a control panel - less fruit/more juice - so they could tweak it at will to suit.

OTOH, some of the "home brand" stuff is as good or better than branded, and some of it's identical.

Batman

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#2412931 5-Feb-2020 11:37

Rikkitic:
Batman:

When did you purchase the can?

I don't know. I probably didn't purchase it, unless by accident. Multiple people buy food and put it in the cupboards. We don't always coordinate that. Yet another good reason why there should be dates on such products. I don't care about 'best by'. Those are weasel words though at least they indicate something. Just put date of manufacture on it and let people decide for themselves. A big part of my complaint here is just lack of information.

Yes but having a go at the csr is not fair on them and achieves nothing for you and me.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#2412933 5-Feb-2020 11:37

sbiddle:

NZ and Australia are covered by a joint food standards law.

For all canned products with a shelf life of under 2 years no date is required to be printed on the can. You'll find now many products in recent years now do have packed on dates on them - this was certainly not common place 10 years ago, but is now relatively common but not legally required.

I'm not surprised about a 10yr old can exploding due to the acid and metal reacting, especially with ham in it and it's it's been somewhere that is warm. Yes you can argue it shouldn't happen, but science..

If a child gets blinded by an exploding 10 year-old can, I bet the standards will change very quickly, just like they did with the helmet law.

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networkn

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#2412935 5-Feb-2020 11:40

Rikkitic:

I get what you are saying but these tins really are dangerous. They exploded when they were barely touched. The explosions may or may not have permanently affected my hearing, but they could have easily done other major physical damage. In a country as risk-averse as this one is, surely that is not acceptable?

I still think the lack of consumer-readable date information on the label is extremely questionable. I can't speak for other people, but I do read the labels and if I saw the tins were 10 years old, or even 5 years old, I would have immediately discarded them. What is wrong with providing people that information?

I think the operable word is IF you did read them, which I seriously doubt most people would do. I mean, it is a relatively minor thing for tins to have added so no harm, but, I seriously doubt it would make much difference to 90%+ of households, mine included. Ideally, we would go through our cupboards and throw out the old stuff, but well, life is busy, and it's a pretty low priority item. Usually, occasionally something might happen that prompts us to examine stuff, but day to day, it's not something I think about.

MileHighKiwi

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#2412938 5-Feb-2020 11:43

I'm very sorry to laugh at your misfortune but this thread has made my day! I can imagine it giving you a hell of a fright. Hopefully the cleanup wasn't too bad.

networkn

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#2412939 5-Feb-2020 11:44

Rikkitic:

sbiddle:

NZ and Australia are covered by a joint food standards law.

For all canned products with a shelf life of under 2 years no date is required to be printed on the can. You'll find now many products in recent years now do have packed on dates on them - this was certainly not common place 10 years ago, but is now relatively common but not legally required.

I'm not surprised about a 10yr old can exploding due to the acid and metal reacting, especially with ham in it and it's it's been somewhere that is warm. Yes you can argue it shouldn't happen, but science..

If a child gets blinded by an exploding 10 year-old can, I bet the standards will change very quickly, just like they did with the helmet law.

I propose to 100% get around the risk of that, we set up a Tin register. All tinned/canned products must be registered at time of purchase, and MPI will be responsible for sending agents to households to force the removal of tins beyond a certain age to ensure no child is harmed as a result of people holding onto tinned foods longer than what would be considered safe.

In 40 odd years you are the first person I've known to talk about an exploding can. It happens, obviously, but it's not that common. There are probably many more risky and common things in a household that could blind a child than this.

sbiddle

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#2412941 5-Feb-2020 11:46

Rikkitic:

sbiddle:

NZ and Australia are covered by a joint food standards law.

For all canned products with a shelf life of under 2 years no date is required to be printed on the can. You'll find now many products in recent years now do have packed on dates on them - this was certainly not common place 10 years ago, but is now relatively common but not legally required.

I'm not surprised about a 10yr old can exploding due to the acid and metal reacting, especially with ham in it and it's it's been somewhere that is warm. Yes you can argue it shouldn't happen, but science..

If a child gets blinded by an exploding 10 year-old can, I bet the standards will change very quickly, just like they did with the helmet law.

No they won't.

In an earlier life I was involved pretty extensively with the creation of HAACP food safety programs and had a lot of dealings with FSANZ. I know a lot about why things were created the way they were especially the development of the first ANZFA joint food standard.

If you have issues with the law then write to FSANZ or your local MP and ask they push for the changes you want.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#2412966 5-Feb-2020 12:01

sbiddle:

In an earlier life I was involved pretty extensively with the creation of HAACP food safety programs and had a lot of dealings with FSANZ. I know a lot about why things were created the way they were especially the development of the first ANZFA joint food standard.

If you have issues with the law then write to FSANZ or your local MP and ask they push for the changes you want.

I am prepared to do that. Since you know a lot about why things were created the way they were, can you explain to me why there is no date of manufacture requirement? I really don't understand that. It seems pretty obvious to me. Even if most consumers don't bother to read the labels, why withhold this information from those that do?

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Rikkitic

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#2412969 5-Feb-2020 12:04

networkn:

In 40 odd years you are the first person I've known to talk about an exploding can. It happens, obviously, but it's not that common. There are probably many more risky and common things in a household that could blind a child than this.

Actually, it was four exploding cans, three that did and one on the verge. All the same brand from the same manufacturer at the same time. Surely that says something?

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networkn

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#2412972 5-Feb-2020 12:08

Rikkitic:

networkn:

In 40 odd years you are the first person I've known to talk about an exploding can. It happens, obviously, but it's not that common. There are probably many more risky and common things in a household that could blind a child than this.

Actually, it was four exploding cans, three that did and one on the verge. All the same brand from the same manufacturer at the same time. Surely that says something?

It does, but probably not what you think it does.

I think the course of action now is the wait for MPI (though I believe they will take little to no action here due to the age of the cans).

You could contact the relevant authorities and push for dates to be added to cans, it may help.

Beyond that, not really much more than can be added...

hsvhel

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#2412976 5-Feb-2020 12:11

I just read 4 pages of conversation about cans.........and i don't know how i feel about that😂

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