How to choose canned food

Step 1. Inspect the jar

The appearance of a tin can or aluminum can tell a lot about the quality of the product inside it.

Do not buy canned food in crumpled or scratched jars. Mechanical damage indicates irregularities during transportation. If a jar was thrown or hit, there is a high probability that its contents turned into a mess.

Do not buy canned foods in swollen cans. This is a sign of a breach of the tightness of the package. If oxygen is stored in canned food, they become a breeding ground for bacteria.

The same applies to preservatives in glass containers. If the metal cover is scratched or swollen, it is better to refuse the purchase.

Do not eat canned food if after opening the jars on its internal walls you have detected rust or dark spots.

The inner surface of metal cans is usually covered with a special enamel, varnish or Teflon. Brown or black spots inside the cans indicate a poor-quality coating. Most likely, the product was in contact with the metal and oxidized.

Step 2. Shake the jar

Is he talking? Means, in a bank there is not enough meat or fish, but more water.

If you shake a jar of sardines, you hear the pieces splashing in the pouring, most likely, there is very little fish inside. Give preference to densely packed preserves.

With canned food in the glass is easier: immediately understand the ratio of product and fill. However, the glass bank is not always a guarantor of the quality of the goods.

Step 3. Examine the marking

Marking is a set of numbers and letters, according to which the consumer can learn everything about canned food. It is applied to the bottom or the lid of a metal can with paint or embossing.

The latter method is preferable. After the expiration date, the old marking can be erased and put a new one. With a metal print this focus will not work.

The factory marking on the tin can be knocked out from the inside. Marking marks, knocked out from the outside, is a sign of falsification.

According to GOST R 51074-97, the labeling of canned goods made in Russia consists of three or two lines.

In the first row, the date of manufacture of the product is always indicated. In the second and third – the product’s assortment number, the manufacturer’s number (one or two digits) and the index of the industry to which it refers.

If the factory works in shifts, then the industry index, as a rule, is placed on the third line along with the number of the shift that produced canned food. The index of the industry is denoted by the following letters:

• “A” – meat industry;
• “K” – fruit and vegetable farms;
• “M” – dairy industry;
• “Р” – the fishing industry;
• “ЦС” – consumer cooperation.

Assortment number allows you to determine what kind of meat or fish are in canned food.

For example, on a can of canned fish it is written:

051016
014157
1P

This means that inside there is a natural Atlantic herring (assortment number 014), manufactured at the enterprise number 157 on the first change on October 5th, 2016.

Orienting in assortment rooms is especially useful in the case of canned fish, as they are often falsified. For example, instead of expensive salmon you use a cheaper sardine, or together with whole pieces of pink salmon put tails and belly.

Therefore, we quote the assortment of popular canned fish.

Deciphering the labeling, you can learn the label.

Step 4. Look at the name and production standard

Food products in Russia are produced in accordance with GOSTs or TU (technical specifications) – documents with requirements to the quality of products and procedures for its verification. GOSTs are developed and approved by state bodies, TU – the manufacturers themselves.

According to the habit left from the Soviet times, people are looking for the word “GOST” on the packaging, believing that if the cans are made according to the state standard, inside it is natural meat or fish. However, it should be understood that many GOSTs do not guarantee high quality products. A large number of Soviet GOSTs were replaced or abolished altogether.

Compare yourself. According to GOST 5284-84 “Beef stew” meat in canned food should be at least 87%, and fat – no more than 10.5%. He was replaced by GOST 32125-2013 “Canned meat. Meat stew “, according to which the mass fraction of meat should be at least 58%, fat – no more than 17%.

The inscription “GOST” on the package does not guarantee the taste from childhood.

Many modern GOSTs allow the use of preservatives and chemical additives. But still they are more reliable THAT. If the manufacturer does not add anything superfluous to canned food, the portion portion of the ingredients can be highly distorted.

In addition to the weight composition of the product, the state standard regulates its name. If you do not have time to read into the small font on the label, read how the canned food is called.

Beautiful ornate names (“Spicy mackerel”, “Homemade Pork”) are usually appropriated to preserves made according to TU.

Step 5. Read the manufacturer

His name at the hearing? The brand flashes on TV every now and then? It does not mean anything. The main thing is the location of the plant.

If canned fish produce in the suburbs, then certainly from frozen fish. The quality of such a product is a priori lower. Ideally, canned fish should be made on the seashore, for example, on the Baltic and Black Sea coast, the Far East.

It’s the same with meat and canned meat. Give preference to producers located in the large livestock centers in the country (Central Chernozem, Volga region).

Step 6. Read the composition

Prescriptions of canned food very much. But the less in the ingredients of superfluous ingredients, the better.

Ideally, the carcass should be nothing but pork or beef, natural fat, water and spices. Saira in oil is only fish, vegetable oil, salt and pepper. And in the green peas should be only him, water and salt with sugar.

Step 7. Look at the date of manufacture and the expiration date

The month and year when the bank is closed plays an important role. Especially in the case of fish and canned fruits and vegetables.

It is better when caviar or lecho have a summer or autumn production date. This increases the chance that vegetables have got to the banks practically from the garden. If the labeling is December or March, canned food probably made from products that had time to lie down in the warehouse.

Remember some timeframes for fish:

• Salmonids are harvested from the middle of July to the end of September.
• Cyrus is caught from August to October.
• Kilku and Baltic herring in the Baltic are mined in July and August.

The shelf life of canned food begins on the day of manufacture. For fish, it should not exceed 2 years, for meat – maximum 5 years (stewed fish – 2 years), for vegetable – 3 years.

Step 8. Compare price tags

Processing of natural meat and fish, growing vegetables requires high costs from the manufacturer. At the same time canned food still needs to be properly packaged and safely delivered to customers.

The price of good canned food can not be low.

If you choose canned food according to the algorithm described above, the chance that the sprats will be moderately salty with a pleasant aroma of haze, and the meat jelly will not stick to the teeth, is very high.