1977 MCI Case Review

I just picked up a couple of cases of 1977 MICs this morning and took a bunch of photos. From the looks of it, all the fruit cans have either already exploded and/or leaked…or are in the process of leaking in a very smelly way. The entrees seem to be following closely behind the fruit.

Here are some pictures of the two cases and my own mini-review:

Here is the first case. Both cases were packed in December, 1977, by Dri Mix Products in Mobile, AL.

Everything looked fine on the outside of the case, but once I took the sleeve off the case, I noticed a slight staining at the top that could only mean one thing…explod-a-cans! And sure enough, once I opened the case, I knew I had to move my MCI review activities outside. As you can see in the pics below, the cans have started leaking all over. Based on the “flow” of the leakage, I’m guessing this case was stored upside down because none of the bottoms of the individual meals were stained – just the tops.

At least the P-38s are still good! There are four per case.

This is the first meal I examined – Beef w/ Spiced Sauce. The can of apricots looks like it did the most damage but something was also happening with the Beef Slices based on the way it was rusting all over. Check out the hole in the side of the apricot can.

Here’s a look at the case with a couple of meals removed. Notice the leakage pattern looks like it went from bottom to top.

This is the Tuna Fish meal. The can of Quartered Pears leaked so badly the Peanut Butter was glued to the cardboard divider. But at least the Tuna entree still looks good.

This is the Ham and Eggs, Chopped. The outside of the box looks really bad but I think this was mostly spillover from nearby meals. The contents hadn’t exploded yet, but they were close. The Quartered Pears were bulging and the seams along the side of the can were rusting or deteriorating. The Ham and Eggs can was just barely bulging…I can’t wait to open that one and see the mess inside.

Bean w/Meat Balls in Tomato Sauce. This one was weird. The Pineapple Jam in the top of the meal was just starting to leak – but it was leaking through the lid somehow. Keep in mind this case was probably stored upside down so the acid in the jam just ate away at the bottom of the can…which in this case was the top of the can. But notice the almost complete lack of staining inside this MCI box…and then look at the state of the Beans can and the giant hole in the bottom. The can was completely gutted and whatever was left in there was just rattling around….but no staining anywhere…almost as if a hole opened up in the top and the contents just decomposed away.

That was as far as I got into the first case before it started raining outside…but it was good enough to show me the state of the cans. Later in the day, I checked out the second case. This second case looked better because there wasn’t any staining on the outside of the box at all…even with the sleeve off.

But alas…once I opened the case, I saw things were almost as bad with this case. Actually, things might be considered worse here because these cans were just starting to bulge/leak/explode…and it smelled like it! I was checking this case out inside my house but as soon as I opened one MCI, I had to close it up and I’ll wait until tomorrow to take the case outside to do a post-mortem on it.