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Julie Bove[_2_]

wrote:
> A friend had a house fire. The roof burned above their apartment.
> Parts of the ceiling fell into their apt. but most of their stuff was
> not burned, just mostly water and smoke damaged. We helped them
> salvage and move their stuff out today. They had a lot of canned
> food in a cabinet, which was not harmed by the fire itself or even
> wet inside the cabinet. But the fire was earlier in the week and
> since the weather has been cold, and there is no roof on part of the
> house, the house has not been heated. Thus these canned foods are
> all frozen. They said to toss them in the trash, but we decided to
> save them.
>
> Most are canned soups, and many are the expensive types. Is there any
> reason that they should not be eaten? The cans are not damaged or
> bulging, in fact they look like they came right out of the grocery
> store, and dont even smell of smoke, at least not that I can notice,
> but after being in the place all day, who knows.
>
> Besides that, there was some new jars of peanut butter, cooking oil,
> cans of beer, household cleaners, lightbulbs, etc. Those I know are
> ok. We are wipeing all the cans off with a wet cloth, to remove any
> smoke odor that might be on them.
>
> I have a thing about avoiding wastefulness, and this all seems usable
> yet. We also got other stuff for helping, that I thought the people
> should keep, but I think they are just all stressed out, and all they
> wanted to salvege was the big stuff, and toss the rest. For example,
> pots and pans, and all their silverware and cooking utensels were
> frozen in the plastic silverware tray, and the drawer so they said
> take it or dump it. We just brought the whole drawer home. All that
> needed was a sink full of hot water and it's good as new. Hell, that
> silverware is a whole matching set, better than our odds and ends set
> that we have.
>
> Now that those cans of beer seem thawed, I think it's time to have a
> few....

I don't think the quality of frozen beer would be good. I think the only
potential problem with frozen cans of food might be if the cans would burst.
It's possible that the quality could suffer but they should be safe to eat.