I purchased sun dried tomatoes, all natural/no oil, in a bulk food store that is not in my area a year ago. They are packaged in ziplock bags with no Best Before date. One package is still unopened, stored in my pantry. There is no sign of spoilage or mould. Are they safe to eat? Should they be boiled?
2 Answers
If they are not moldy, nor have any other signs of spoilage, they should be fine to eat. In fact, if they are not moldy after a year, I'd guess that they dried hard; foods which are almost completely dehydrated will last almost indefinitely as long as they don't get wet or insects.
That's not to say that they'll taste good; dried foods do lose flavor over time, and you may find those tomatoes have lost most of their tomato flavor; check before you depend on them for a recipe.
You don't need boiled water to rehydrate them, warm/hot tap water will work.
answered Nov 10, 2019 at 0:17
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2> You don't need boiled water to rehydrate them, warm/hot tap water will work. keeping in mind the usual advice about cooking with hot tap water, depending on the plumbing in your home.– BobCommented Nov 11, 2019 at 2:14
I agree with @FuzzyChef that they are probably safe to eat, I would point out that if they were bad boiling them would not be a way to make them safe from all foodborne pathogens.
As for whether to rehydrate them or not it depends on the recipe and how you want to eat them. Some recipes expect them to be dried when used and have extra moisture to compensate. You also may want to keep them mostly dry, it's the concentrated tomato punch that makes them tasty.
