Apricot Sludge

 The title may not be very appetizing.  However, it's a reasonable way to characterize what I found when I recently opened a jar of apricots that were canned a few years ago. Would 'Viscous Apricot Syrup' be any better?

I've written before about canning apricots.  It's a pretty straightforward process.  And I have written before about the storage life of canned food.  It's more than a year.

These apricots were canned in the summer of 2016, so were about four years old when opened.  As you can see, they're a little darker than when fresh, but the flavor was fine.  What may or may not be easy to see is that the syrup has turned into more of a gel:

I assume this is the action of the pectin, present at varying levels in many or most fruits.  There are no problems with quality, either of the syrup or of the fruit itself.  I don't know how long canned fruit is good for, but it seems to stretch at least four years.  As I've noted before, as well, I've opened four-year-old jars of peach preserves, too, and found them to be fine.  One exception is some sugar-free peach preserves I made with Whey Low one time; I didn't write about the effort at the time, but I followed my normal process, except substituting Whey Low for sugar.  The Whey Low, after about three years, had granulated, making the preserves somewhat disturbingly crunchy (although the flavor was okay).

I haven't seen this same gelling process with pears, which have more pectin, but I don't have any that have been canned for as long as the apricots.  The same thing may happen with them, as well, if they are on the shelf for a couple more years.