A hamper containing sandwiches, hams, cheeses, luxury shortbread biscuits and a roasted chicken was brought by Les and Beryl Lailey in 1956, to treat their guests on their wedding reception. The contents of the hamper were eaten on the very same day, except the roasted chicken, which was cherished by the couple on their 50th Marriage anniversary.
Well, I wonder all the guests present on their marriage were also present on the couple’s Golden Jubilee. A bit of flashback says that the tin was preserved to be opened on the birth of their first child, but Lesley, their son and his brothers have attained manhood and till date were kept away from the roasted chicken. But after Les heated the 50 year old 3lb chicken for 15 minutes and ate with potatoes and vegetables; he found it delicious, except a pinkish tinge and salty flavor, which comes when the chicken is not properly rinsed off its preservative.
Les a corporal in the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, wanted to prove that chicken the chicken will not deteriorate in quality or become unfit for eating, even if it is consumed after a long period. This chicken was brought at a period when the food tins were sold without any expiry date. You have to put two factors together to believe this, the primary by Prof John Mitchell, of Nottingham university,
proper canning of the food product
and the secondary by Canned Food UK, the representative body for manufacturers ,
protection of the tin from junk, dents and other mishandlings
can make it last for an indefinite.
In a nutshell, the food packaging industry could be better off if it follows the footsteps of the Britain canning industry in the post war period, which preserved the food in their juices and canned it to perfection to make it a non-perishable product.
