The Popular Canned Fruits You Should Avoid Buying For Your Pantry

What would a grocery store or pantry be without rows of canned beans, veggies, corn, and soups at the ready for all manner of basic recipes? A well-stocked pantry is a thing of beauty — and an assurance that you won't get mid-way through a recipe just to realize that you're missing that crucial can of beans or diced tomatoes. 

While canning revolutionized the way we shop and eat, that doesn't mean every food is well-suited to be stashed inside metal canisters indefinitely. One such example you might want to skip altogether, or at least plan to use up quickly, is canned citrus fruits.  Though you'll find cans of grapefruit or orange slices on grocery store shelves — and you can certainly enjoy them in colorful fruit salads, as part of a bright and juicy coleslaw, or as a quick snack — they don't store in metal as well as other canned pantry staples. 

If you already have a couple of cans in the pantry, or decide to continue buying them (which, to be clear, you certainly can), just don't leave them forgotten on a shelf. You'll want to use up any canned grapefruit, oranges, or other citrus (or any particularly acidic produce, like canned tomatoes) sooner rather than later. If left to sit, unpleasant chemical interactions begin to occur between the acid in the fruit and the metal of the can. As this deterioration progresses, the acidity corrodes the inside of the can, infusing your fruit with an unpleasant metallic tang and off-putting flavor. 

While many home cooks — especially amid a struggling economy — can take a somewhat laissez-faire attitude on "use by" dates, treating them in many cases as more of a recommendation, canned citrus is not a food where you can play fast and loose with expiration dates. A major perk of most canned foods — like soups and beans — is their exceptionally lengthy shelf life, making them an obvious choice to keep in your pantry or packed away for an emergency supply. 

But in the case of canned citrus fruit, you'll want to use DIY canned goods within a year, and industrially packaged goods within 18 months, per the USDA — before they start to lose nutritional value and take on an unpleasant, altered taste. As the acidic fruit sits nestled within the walls of the metal can, the naturally high acid content slowly corrodes the metal of the can, causing what's known as metallic diffusion. High-acid foods are more prone to this phenomenon, as the acid and metal interact.

The result, as you might imagine, is not particularly nutritious nor delicious, though not necessarily cause for extreme alarm from a health perspective. Canned foods, even acidic ones, are generally very safe to eat (as long as you follow proper canned food storage tips). Just do so within that 18 month time period to ensure that — instead of tasting like metal — your canned citrus is as deliciously bright and acidic as nature intended.