It feels like we haven’t gone a week without some sort of enormous food recall coming from the Food and Drug Administration. And while the worst recalls in history are not limited to perishables, they do make up the majority. Whether you’re adding canned food to your culinary rotation because of the ease, affordability, and longevity or because you’re trying to avoid the latest round of recalls, there’s one major thing to keep in mind when fetching the can opener: spoilage.
Yep. Just because something is canned doesn’t mean it’s impervious to going bad. One of the clearest signs of canned food spoilage is what happens when you open it. If you hear a hiss and see a squirt of liquid or foam when you break the seal, you probably want to avoid eating out of that can. There are other tell-tale signs your canned food has gone bad, but the build-up of gas inside the can is a major one. While we highly recommend you keep your pantry stocked with canned staples like tomatoes, beans, and chickpeas, it’s crucial that you always check to make sure the can is intact and its contents haven’t spoiled. If you do eat spoiled food from a can, you’re in danger of contracting botulism.
What to know about botulism
Do not go tossing out all your canned food. Botulism is very rare, especially in professionally canned foods. Meanwhile, canning your own food has a lot of benefits, but it also opens the door to more mistakes – so take extra caution. Botulism, or Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum), grows when there isn’t any oxygen, so sealed and canned foods are the perfect environment for this bacteria. A swollen, spurting, food container is a sign that there’s some sort of toxin or abnormal bacteria growth in your can.
There are many scary things about botulism, and one is that, much like gas, botulism is not something you can see, smell, or taste. However, just a small amount of it can have major, even deadly, impacts. The toxin attacks your nervous system, so on top of having traditional food poisoning symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, it can cause muscle weakness and even paralysis — definitely not something you want to risk when eating canned food.
As we mentioned, instances of botulism are rare, especially in canned food you can pick up in the grocery store. But you can never be too cautious.
