I'm moving my food storage to a closet, and I wrote the expiration on the outside of the cans. I opened a previously plastic wrapped case of peaches from a case-lot sale, and one can felt empty and had mold all the way down the side. Is it possible the can punctured??? I've never seen anything like this. As a side, I'll always be opening and inspecting all cans in cases, as I also had a half-case of extremely (unopenable) dented cans in the middle of one case last year.
I would think that it is totally possible that it might have been punctured, or it might have been a faulty seal on the lid or along the seam side. It is a great idea to check the whole case when buying at case lot sales.( I watch people go thru and pick and choose their cans when a good sale comes thru here) I don't eat much from cans any more, just a texture thing for me. I just freeze most of my garden produce or do my own canning. But there are a few things I really like in a can even with the BPA problems, like the Cream of Mushroom soup from Campbell's(I know it is full of sodium and other stuff)- it makes anything edible, so we keep it on hand and some of the canned chilies like Chipotle in Adobo sauce. so when they go on sale I pick up quite a few.. one thing about cans tho, I do hate the new trend to put those nasty pull tab tops on everything, makes it hard to get stuff out of the can and I would not trust any cans with dents and pull tabs.
It is very likely that there was a pinhole somewhere in the can. Most likely at the top of the mold line. There is nothing wrong with dented cans unless a pinhole occurs. So you will need to monitor these ones closely for tell-tale signs like bulging, bad odors, or mold. I would probably keep them a bit segregated to avoid any contamination of your other foodstuffs.
Hormel recently had a recall for cans that had faulty sealing. It happens. Also, the newer 'pop top' cans sometimes don't seal as well or last as long as the 'old-fashioned' cans needing a can opener. I also prefer steel cans over aluminum. Stouter and they don't need the inner plastic coating to prevent the food absorbing nastiness from the can itself.
I had this very thing happen to me this weekend. I am a big (BIG) fan of Jolt-cola, so I purchase by the case-lot. I was bringing my gamma-sealed buckets upstairs to refill and noticed a weird scent, kind of like the inside of a bottle-depot for returns. So, I looked around and noticed that one of the cans of pop leaked. I couldn't find any place on that can where the leak would have come from. The top was still clean and sealed and there was no markings on the sides showing a leak-point and the bottom was in perfect condition. I was disappointed because, I had one completely empty can, one can with about a 1/4 left and the rest of the case-lot was perfect. Now my wooden shelf has green-stuff trying to grow on it :gaah:
