Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
FOOD |
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Posted: January 29 2006 at 4:29pm |
Important information regarding food. Ideas about what to purchase for pandemic supplies. How to Store. Tips on sources. |
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Originally posted by marjo: My favorite tool (need MS Excel) is a Food Storage Planner that can be downloaded for free (in US and Metric versions) - it is more than just food and is completely customizable (not "protected") for your family size, # of months for storage, etc. The calculations are done automatically making it easy to inventory, shop and track needs. |
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Originally posted by wannago: Hi, I am an ex-cruiser (sailboat) and when we bought the huge bags of rice, cornmeal and flour, we "decanted" these into smaller ziplock bags (double layer) and lost only a very few to weavils and other bugs. It was recommended we zap the bags in the microwave for a second or two which also kills anything still living in the drygoods, but we didn't have one. |
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willow41
Valued Member Joined: January 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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I've been buying lots of canned beef stew, chicken-n-dumplings, ravioli, beefaroni, and ready-to-serve soups. The soups are wonderful and you can get everything from steak and potatoes to turkey pot pie flavors. These things only need to be heated up, and can actually be eaten right out of the can. And they will not tap into your water supply. Of course, we will have rice/vegies/fruit etc. But these canned items will be the main lunch/dinner staples. They are all reasonably priced at Walmart/Meijers, and even cheaper at Aldi's/Save-A-Lot. At least check them out. |
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Ella Fitzgerald
Valued Member Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 586 |
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Don't forget some comfort foods like chocolate. Stay away from caffeine because it is a natural diuretic and could make you dehydrated if water is limited to begin with. Also limit salt on food because that just makes you thirsty.
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willow41
Valued Member Joined: January 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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where can i find canned butter and cheese, or individual butter packets that can be stored without refrigeration?
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mini-mouse
Valued Member Joined: January 29 2006 Status: Offline Points: 105 |
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ShophiaZoe, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place for this question but here it is. At one place you said you have a list prepared for very last minute purchases because you didn't trust your memory - I also have a list for a last minute shopping scramble for the same reason. When you catch up from this crazy day will you share what is on your list with us? Thanks.
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sure...maybe that even warrants its own thread.
Edited by SophiaZoe |
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Ella Fitzgerald
Valued Member Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 586 |
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I love the Dollar Tree store. I just went this morning and found 5# bags of white enriched rice for $1. They had a bunch of stuff I needed and spent $100 (100 items for $1 each). They had bags of beans, canned goods, cleaning supplies, paper products, batteries etc. I thought Wal-mart or Sam's clubs were cheap...ha! I plan to go back with my husbands money this weekend. |
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willow41
Valued Member Joined: January 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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Thank-you, Libby! I reviewed that website last night, but was hesitent to order, never ordered food online before. I will now. |
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willow41
Valued Member Joined: January 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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do you have to refrigerate the butter once the can is opened?
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libbyalex
Adviser Group Joined: December 20 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 795 |
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Well, it says to refrigerate the butter. However, with regular store butter, I have sometimes just had it out on the counter or on the table in a butter dish. They say the cheese also does better if it's cold, but I think if power was off, it would be fine (if softer) with not refrigerating it. THough the web site also said that they liked the cheese so much that once they opened the can, everyone ate it all! Hope you like it! -- Libby
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willow41
Valued Member Joined: January 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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Thanks-Libby I ordered a can of the butter, cheese, and hamburger to sample. If we like them we'll order a case of each. This website offers several types of canned meat. Cooked hamburger and pork, which I've never thought of. You can use the hamburger, canned butter, powdered milk, and a little water to make Hamburger Helper meals. |
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htpp
Valued Member Joined: January 20 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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What is everyone using/storing to replace eggs? A lot of recipes call for eggs and that isn't something that can be stored in large quantities and used before the expiration date?
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Ella Fitzgerald
Valued Member Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 586 |
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Gosh, my preps take up the whole corner of my bedroom. The sad thing is that I am not done shopping yet. I've utilized our suitcases to store things in. They are really coming in handy. |
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One of my major food preps was a large variety of sprouting seeds. We love sprouts and the will be easy fresh greens until we can bring in a garden. A large supply doesn't take up an inordinate amount of space and nutrition vs cost vs taste can't be beat. Sprouts go well with many things, including beans and rice. Scrambled (dehydrated) eggs and tuna or salmon wraps. |
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Hnery Miller
Valued Member Joined: February 06 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1 |
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Hi--I am ready to order food in bulk and wonder if I can get some feedback on what is best between dehydrated--freeze dried--and canned. Suggestions on where to order appreciated also. Thanks! |
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Ira
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meewee
Valued Member Joined: December 13 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 595 |
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one of the best places to go to get those questions answered is a www.survivalacres.com the guy who runs that business is very helpful and can direct you to make the best possible choices. I don't work for him but have ordered from him and was very pleased with his insight and knowledge! Meewee |
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God Bless us all!
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zoe...please explain this group buy thingy.
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I am a team member over at AR15,com, the survival forum puts together group buys about every two-three months. I have been in on the last three, very well done. The prices cannot be beat anywhere 40-60% off retail. Free shipping on orders over $500.00. The people who put the buy together do it for the people in the survival forum, it is not about money to them. The #10 cans have a very long shelf life. I use alot of the 1/2/4 serving pouches. The food is tasty, but of course, high in sodium.
here is the Mountain House website linky http://www.mountainhouse.com/ |
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fritz
Adviser Group Joined: February 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 332 |
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Zoe17, What part of the U.S. do you live in. I am in Northern New Jersey and have been looking for a group. At one time I was very interested in working with Walton Feed (www.waltonfeed.com) but they did not have trucks coming to deliver to anyone in this part of the country. Very disappointing for me. To be truthful I have been ordering on my own for so long that I gave up on the idea and I haven't really looked into it lately. I would be curious to know if there is any interest out there for those who are living in the NY,NJ.eastern PA area. Let's Talk.
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"I am only one; but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." -- Hellen Keller
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I am in the Southeast,sorry.
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AuntBones
Adviser Group Joined: December 09 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 274 |
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I have a butter dish,has been on my kitchen counter for years. Comes with a lid,dish for the stick of butter, and the bottom holds water. The idea behind it is, the water from below evaporates keeping the butter fresh.You could use this idea for your tins of butter once opened. Just check the water level every few days. More so in the summer. |
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I'm sending orders out to NY, PA and NJ all the time. But I'd like to comment about the trucking and group buys.
Group buys require you to wait until everyone has ordered (usually) and paid their money. Then the orders go in and you pay whatever the group 'buy' price is. I have always been able to beat these prices, but don't do group buys very often simply because they are a hassle for all concerned. Group ordering for freight is similiar, you have to wait until enough people have ordered to either fill up a freight truck or enough orders accumulate to single drop off point (minimum 1,000 lbs) to qualify for freight shipment. In both cases, you're having to wait on enough people getting on board, which is fine under normal circumstances, but I don't think these are normal circumstances right now. In fact, I think we are all in dire trouble. The fastest way is to get people you know to order all at the same time and get a freight shipment going, combining the orders to a single destination point. A 1,000 lbs is really not a very big order and can easily be "wished for" by a single family (or even an individual), but I acknowledge that it isn't cheap or easy for people to just up and do. We are just not used to buying food like this in advance. I would like to caution people on what is happening now with food shipments - at the moment, freight shipments are five weeks out (orders going in now). This is only going to get worse and worse. Having survived the Y2K rush, I can tell you that we expect to exceed that demand by a thousand fold - which is really only another way of saying, "forget it". Once shipment times reach several months (and they will), those who have waited that long to try to stock up will be in a very very, risky position. This is ill advised in my opinion. UPS times are not too bad still, 2 - 3 weeks. We've made a huge amount of progress, but we're working 7 days a week right now (at least I am). We can't go any faster, and I fully expect these times to increase to what we saw pre-Y2K (10 months or more). So - you decide what your "pucker factor" is (how long you can wait) before you panic or start to "lose it". I'm already seeing this now with people wanting it yesterday but ordering tomorrow and getting it next week and still aren't happy. We really are doing the best we can. I've been warning those who will hear that the food pipeline is only so big and can only produce just so much. We "there" right now. Shipping times are now going to continue to increase as order volume goes up. Availability of goods is going to do the opposite as manufacturers get tapped out. This is not something limited to just the canneries. I've noticed a lack of certain supplies in particular in the major stores. I can't find a ham for example, to save my life. Well, yes I did, but I had to drive 30 miles to get it (so I bought more then one). Same with brown sugar and some other basic staples, Costco was sold out. I also have heard about the major distribution centers - they are running as fast as they can too. We're "there" right now and it will be interesting, scary, disturbing, you name it, to see what happens next. I'm not looking forward to the other shoe dropping. What is REALLY going to be scary is when sustained H2H makes the news, then all bets are off. I have heard from many various officials in unconfirmed reports. I don't think anyone is making a mistake by prepping. Buy what you eat, eat what you buy. Don't wait and don't fool around. It's a cheap insurance policy that you can cash in and probably will. |
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Trigger
V.I.P. Member Joined: January 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 77 |
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Thanks Libby: I just placed an order from the internet grocer. Nice, got lots of stuff for a great price. Does anyone have any knowledge where to buy powered mailk and powered eggs that have a good shelf life? |
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Trigger
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Order now to avoid back orders. If and when the media picks up the H2H, wherever it may be, the stores will be depleted quickly.
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Trigger
V.I.P. Member Joined: January 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 77 |
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Thank you Spoon. I found great stuff, including eggs and milk at www.survivalacres.com , at www.internetgrocer.com . Two great places, one has what the other one does not. SurvivalAcres is a great guy. He walked me through all my items and suggested items that were better and some for less money. He knows his stuff. Might I suggest the MRE's. Ready to go meals, very portable, ready to eat and easy to heat if you want too. One MRE a day has enough calories for one whole day. Imagine that. I'll be back to buy more soon. I just have to find a spot for the 300+ pounds of food I purchased yesterday. It was a great experience. Thanks again. |
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Trigger
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i cannot order the stuff....i have tried but i am in canadier eeh....
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worriedlilchic
Valued Member Joined: February 14 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 20 |
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I have also found a list of foods to buy to stock up on. The website is www.planforflu.com here is the list that is on there but I would encourage you to check out the site... Emergency Pantry: The List Baking mixes (Pie crust mix plus canned pie filling =cobbler) Hope this comes in handy! |
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worriedlilchic
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RotroShaggy
Valued Member Joined: February 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 42 |
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Hi everyone. This is going to sound like a really dumb question at first, but hopefully not. What is the shelf-life of canned goods? The reason I ask is because I went shopping today for supplies and the canned goods like canned vegetables, fruit, ravioli, etc. Said BEST BY OCT. 07 or BEST BY DECEMBER 08. I was thinking canned goods lasted indefinitely. I want to be certain before I fill my garage up with cans. What about pasta? What is the shelf life of spaghetti? You can buy a box of it for $0.50 at WalMart. I want to buy a boatload of it but, again, don't want to have to throw it out or find out that it is stale when it is too late to go back out and stock up again. Any thoughts? |
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RotroShaggy
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Rocky
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There were some good "egg substitues" mention for baking under the
topic of Powdered Milk. I would recommend reading some of those postings. Now, for my terrible experience with powdered whole eggs. I wanted some brand that could be used for occasional scrambled eggs. I wonder if there is a brand someone has tasted that was edible. I tried a sample from one company and it stayed in my mouth about 1 second. It was horrendously awful. Bleh!!! Please, if you have actually eaten and mostly enjoyed some scrambled eggs made from whole powdered eggs, let me know where I might obtain some. I am not too picky because I have eaten fresh egg whites as scrambled eggs (with a little milk) for quite a while. Many thanks. Rocky
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Rocky |
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You can also freeze milk, until there's no power. Just make sure to shake it up well after thawing.
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libbyalex
Adviser Group Joined: December 20 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 795 |
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RE pasta -- again, I have some leftover from y2k days and it is fine. Just store it carefully.... |
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sweets
V.I.P. Member Joined: February 08 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 239 |
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Ok being a math dummie is killing me! Now can anyone help with food storage in a hot humid climate? may-october? Well I saw all the great sites for the food and even a site on storage But worse case is house temperature pushing 80 How could I store food safely? |
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I'm not a ribbering Jidiot!
www.exaltedshrimp.com |
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Hi I'm from sunny fla 18 years worth. Store the syuff inside the house. When the power dies it gets hot so I vent the room. We have tile floors and my next option would be put stuff on the floor. As for humidity. I have no clue. In old old fl, people used the rafters area of the cabin because of the air flow.. These are just practical guesses...I could use the info too. |
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YEA!!!! the freeze dried eggs arrived!!!! YEA!!! the freeze dried eggs arrived!!!! ......I need a vacation |
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sweets
V.I.P. Member Joined: February 08 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 239 |
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Tile floors also no rafters no breeze
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I'm not a ribbering Jidiot!
www.exaltedshrimp.com |
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valgard1
Valued Member Joined: February 08 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 17 |
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Just my two cents...I think we have reached the stage in history, where
we need not have to worry too much about "shelf life" on canned foods,
I too stocked up big time for Y2K and except for the pinto beans (now
bean rocks) none of the food went to waste, and a lot of it is still in
storage ready for use. Since I have two mechanical grinders, even
the beans will be used for refrieds...
Please don't worry about shelf life, just buy what you normally eat, and lots of it in a big hurry. |
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Do Right and Fear No One
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Ella Fitzgerald
Valued Member Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 586 |
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I agree valgard1. I am buying mostly canned goods due to my daughters food allergy to wheat. It is more expensive then the survival food that you can buy in bulk. I figure my family will be willing to eat canned food over freeze dried food. It is taking up a lot of space but it will get eaten at some point. The food that will expire first is the dehydrated stuff. I've got everything organized by expiration date anyway.
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htpp
Valued Member Joined: January 20 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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StormRider, where did you purchase your freeze dried eggs? Can they be used for baking?
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It's mountain house brand I will get the supplier. -K
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fritz
Adviser Group Joined: February 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 332 |
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HI Libby, Your pasta is fine to eat but I would guess that it doesn't contain much nutritional value anymore. Might want to be sure to take the multi vitamins when using it for main food source. Pasta does last for a really really long time but the nutrients fade away. Same w/ flour. That's why people store whole grains instead. They hold their nutrition esp. in nit packed #10 cans....can be up to 25-30yrs plus if storage temp is low.
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"I am only one; but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." -- Hellen Keller
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fritz
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aoe17, What part of the country is this shipment being del. to? Should I assume only Florida because that's who you were addressing? Would really like to know. thanx :>}
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"I am only one; but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." -- Hellen Keller
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Just a little up-date. We did our regular grocery run yesterday and I noticed a definite change: In the bulk-isle there was a line!!! People were definitely buying flour, beans, corn in quantity. Also saw an uptick in the canned vegatables & fruit isles, but not as dramatic. Definite conflict for me: On the one hand I'm glad to see it, on the other I'm afraid I may not get some of the stuff I still need. But, the sooner people are prepping, the better chances we all have for making it thru. Well, we got 125lbs of dry cat food, some more TP, yeast, whole wheat flour, coffee, splenda, summer sausage. I have thee feeling my husband may be coming around. There was no grumbling yesterday and the car was loaded to the hilt!!
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I noticed last week, that they were stocking shelves a little heavier than normal must have been 8 or 9 people stocking. Also noticed lots of cases, Like tomatoe soup, which I hadn't noticed before.
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