The ex-soldier was curious to see what the ancient meatballs would taste like (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
A man who loves the Tesco yellow sticker section tried what happens if he eats more than a decade old tinned meatballs.
Jim Hakwins, from Devon, played culinary Russian roulette by cooking up a can of old meatballs when he was ‘bored and hungry.’
Luckily, a tin of Tesco Blue Stripe meatballs that went off in 2013 had been waiting in his cupboard for years.
The vintage tin has seen five UK prime ministers and it even survived a house move before feeding the fearless foodie.
The no-frills Tesco Value meatballs in tomato sauce (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
The 60-year-old engineer decided to put his digestive system to test (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
The 60-year-old said: ‘I was bored and hungry so I delved into the deepest dark recesses of the tin cupboard. It tasted just like I remembered but a lot blander.
‘An in-date tin of meatballs would get a rating of 4/10 as it’s the ultimate cheap processed food, only brought for camping really, but I would only give this one less: 3/10, despite being 11 years out of date.’
To give the meal a bit of flavour, Jim garnished it with hot chili sauce and peas and enjoyed the whole portion with cheese and rice.
He said he was not concerned about eating the well out-of-date food, but he was slightly put off by ‘the formation of a circular skin that had jellified on the underside of the removed lid.’
While cooking up the ancient meatballs was a ‘rash decision’, Jim would have ‘never known it was that old,’ he said.
The inside of the tin may suggest the meatballs were canned some time ago (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
The best before date on the tin (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
Jim decided to whip up the meaty meal while his vegetarian fiancé was away (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
The dish (Picture: Jim Hakwins/Cover Images)
The engineer confessed he is used to consuming strange tinned foods after serving in the military, describing himself as an adventurous eater.
He said: ‘No one tried to discourage me from eating them, because my beautiful fiancé was on a work trip, so I was home alone; always a recipe for disaster. She is a vegetarian so wouldn’t even touch real meatballs let alone blue stripe ones and is definitely not daft enough to mess with sell-by or best-before dates.’
Tesco’s own value brand was launched in 1993 with its blue-and-white striped packaging before it was rebranded in 2012 over fears customers were embarrassed to buy it.
Jim revealed he is a big fan of the discount isle.
He added: ‘I am a sucker for the yellow sticker section at Tesco. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your digestive system; never a dull moment. So I quite often eat food that is past its sell-by. Although the dates are usually a few days over not a decade.
‘I currently have a 5kg tin of corned beef sitting in the cupboard that’s even older, possibly 15 years past its date, enough to make 100 sandwiches, and I’m pretty sure there’s a tin of pineapple in there that’s over ten years old. I may try them next.’
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