the following info. was taken from the book fabulous fallacies by tad tuleja (the food chapter of course): "the fear of being poisoned keeps many people from putting half-empty cans of food back into the refrigerator. once you open a can, it's thought , you should empty the unused contents into another containter; if kept in the can, the metal (which is really steel with a tin coating) wil spoil the food. this injunction, which must make the tupperware people happy, has no basis in fact. food in an opened can will spoil no faster than food in any other vessel. provided you keep the can covered and refrigerated (to guard against airborne bacteria), your unused beans will keep just as well as they would in a glass, china, or plastic container. uncovered or left too long, they will rot just as fast in these containers as in their original can. acid foods sometimes take on an unpleasant taste if kept in opened cans, but as montagu and darling point out, that is not the taste of poison." ashley montagu and edward darling, the prevalence of nonsense (harper &row, 1967).
