46-year-old can of soup donated to foodbank, expired sometime around 1971

CARDIFF, United Kingdom — Everyone knows someone who's a hoarder to some degree, right? But, seriously, who in their right mind would keep a can of soup for decades only to donate it to a food bank as if it was a good deed?

British tabloids were all over the story of Cardiff Foodbank, in one instance, receiving Green Giant canned corn niblets from 1982, opening it, admitting it "looks like it's okay," smelling it and realizing a "very strong metallic […] sweetcorn" isn't so sweet after all.

And yet, it gets even worse.

The food bank received a can of Heinz soup that the company confirmed had been discontinued more than 35 years ago. The "10d" on the soup can is indicative of a pricing system not used in the UK since 1971. You do the math.

So, how does this happen?

Helen Bull of the food bank speculated when commenting to the Sun that “probably what’s happened is that it is harvest time and lots of people clean out their cupboards and donate items that they have never used and don’t really look at them.”

She also said that when "an older person dies the family will clean out the cupboards and they want to donate and don't necessarily realise that it was out of date."

Cox Media Group