Should i eat dented food cans

Is it safe to use food from dented cans? Information Knowledge Article. If a can containing food has a small dent, but is otherwise in good shape, the food should be safe to eat. Discard deeply dented cans. A deep dent is one that you can lay your finger into. Deep dents often have sharp points. A sharp dent on either the top or side seam can damage the seam and allow bacteria to enter the can.

Discard any can with a deep dent on any seam. Related Information Title. So much of this is because canned vegetables have a bad rap; part of this comes from our realization that a number of canned vegetables, such as asparagus, spinach, and beets, taste nothing like their fresh counterparts. We've also seen studies showing that a chemical that has historically lined cans is harmful to brain development via How Stuff Works.

There is also the belief that canned goods are high in sodium via Have a Plant. But if we choose wisely, canned goods can also deliver on taste and nutrition — canned chickpeas can be the base of a great hummus via Epicurious while its liquid, also known as aquafaba, is prized by vegans as an egg-white substitute via Self. Canned tomatoes are a great starter ingredient for a memorable pasta sauce, and canned tuna is a go-to for people on high-protein diets. So do canned goods deserve their reputation?

We may need to debunk a few canned good myths, but we definitely think canned goods should be considered nutritional good guys because in many cases, that's what they are. Before you disregard any suggestions involving the use of canned vegetables because you've read somewhere that they just aren't as nutritious as fresh veggies, you might want to give those canned beans and tomatoes a second chance.

One of the reasons why this method of food preservation became a thing was to maintain the integrity of an ingredient, which means that most of the proteins, carbs, and fat, as well as minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K are able to survive the canning process.

In some cases, like those involving tomatoes and corn, canning can end up encouraging the release of even more antioxidants, making them a better way to obtain antioxidants than their fresh counterparts via Healthline.

Canned goods can only be nutritionally compromising if they have high levels of sugar or sodium, so you may want to check the nutrition labels before making your purchase. The greatest worry is the bacterium Clostridium botulinum because it is anaerobic and produces botulin, a nerve toxin. The toxin is destroyed by boiling but the spores can survive boiling for 5 hours.

You actually need higher than boiling temperatures to destroy them. The answer is a pressure cooker which can reach temperatures of C. The canning process is very effective and cans which were produced over a hundred years ago have been opened and eaten.

One giveaway is a bulging can. Bacterial activity produces gas and any can that bulges should be thrown away. Dented cans are a different story. The concern here is that denting puts strain on the metal and microscopic cracks may develop. The sterility is then lost and microbes and molds can enter.

The risk is very small because usually dents do not produce holes. Dented cans do not necessarily have to be thrown out but their contents should be boiled to kill any microbes and destroy any toxin that could have been produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacteria. It is noteworthy that the can opener was not developed until about 50 years after the invention of the can. Canned foods were mostly used as military rations and soldiers would open them with their bayonets or at least in one case, with a rifle bullet.