A, If I had canned diced tomatoes in store bought tins that had expiration date approaching, could I open them and re-can them in glass jars in a pressure canner? B, or should I make sauce first out of them and re-can?
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Cans in the UK don't have an expiration date at all. I once opened a can of condensed milk found in the back of a cupboard we estimated had been there 15 years or more [don't ask, the time estimate was good… the rest you don't need to know ;) The contents were fine, though much of the sugar had crystallised. – Tetsujin Nov 27 '23 at 19:13
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@Tetsujin the ones I have here do have a date, typically about 3 years after I bought them. Of course it's a best before date and not worth worrying about – Chris H Nov 27 '23 at 19:54
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The expiration date on canned goods is for quality, not safety. You can safely eat canned goods years past the expiration date, but the quality will suffer. Re-canning the tomatoes will not improve their quality, but will only reduce the quality of the tomatoes. Your best bet is just to leave them in their original cans and use them sooner rather than later, accepting the loss in quality. Realize that the quality doesn't go from good to bad on the date stamped on the can, but is rather a process that takes time, so shortly after the date (on the order of months rather than years) the quality will likely be close to that of a brand-new can.
Esther
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