Here's a very interesting quote from an entry on the
Salmonella Blog.
With product dating, food's days are numbered
....Properly canned vegetables will keep "forever," Gilson said, adding, "It's a quality issue. It's not a safety issue. They will get unappetizing in appearance and maybe in taste."
http://www.salmonellablog.com/2005/0...red/print.html
MAYBE that is why the food manufacturers don't evidence much concern about the funny codes on the canned veggies, they are already aware that only very very very very few ever go bad.... and hence, instead of expiration dates, there instead exist all those warnings re: bulging cans, rusted cans, leaking cans, dented cans.