I canned tuna in 2021 and placed it in a in a cool, dark basement. What is the shelf life?
Home-canned foods are at their absolute best if eaten within one year of canning them. They will slowly lose flavor, color, and nutrients over a period of years, eventually becoming something you wouldn’t want to eat. You can slow down this loss in quality by keeping the jars stored in a cool, dark place. But you can’t fully stop the loss in quality.
This isn’t to say that the food is unsafe, though. If the food was canned using a safe process — and if it was stored carefully to prevent a loss of the seal — the food will remain as safe as it was on day one.
When thinking about your tuna, I would first make sure that it was canned using a research-based process like this one. If you're confident about the process, I would also think about the storage conditions. Were the jars ever stored in a hot room that got over 95°F degrees? Did they ever freeze? These are conditions that could have compromised the seal. If you feel confident on the first two points, you can decide if it still looks and smells good enough to eat.
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