Survival Food: Kippers for Medium Term Storage - Smoked Herring

Kippers are a great source of protein, fat, and calcium.   The oil that most of the canned fish come in is a great source of calories that can help you survive in a calorie starved environment like food shortages.   Because of the means of preservation sodium is often high but in a stressful and heavy exercise environment that can be a plus.

The brand I use is Trader Joe's but they are probably sourced from one of the major brands just like their Sardines.

Yesterday, I tried a can that was dated for use by 2013.  It is now 2017.  I opened it, put it to my nose, and looked at it.  It looked the same as it would have two or five years earlier.  I detected no sign of spoilage so it became my breakfast along with a British Muffin.  It tasted fine and a day later I had no ill effects as I fully expected.  I have never gotten ill from canned food, ever.  Of course I've thrown out some when I opened it and something didn't look or smell right and of course any can that was puffy or leaking would be included in that throw out category.

Since I buy these freshly canned and they usually have two or three years of time before the expiration date I got six or more years of storage and likely I could go much further down the road with these.  Instead, I just rotate them out by eating them prior to expiration and buy some new ones.  I just happened to miss the dates on the one shown and the one I ate yesterday.  It was no big deal to me since I've done this many times before with sardines and other canned items.  I'm not suggesting that you do the same but it is good to know that this type of food can endure years in storage.

What to do:  

Try some if you never have.  If you like them add some regularly to your food storage.  These to me are much more palatable than freeze dried food and of course are a lot less expensive for the equivalent amount of high quality protein and fat that stores for a long time.