Mary Ellin D'Agostino wrote:
>
> At 10:15 AM 6/26/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >This can was opened in such a way as to suggest the contents were
> >either a fruit or vegetable.
> >
> An opening suggesting a liquid I can understand, but how do you open a can
> to suggest its contents were either a fruit or a vegetable?
>
> Just curious,
> Mary Ellin
 
Mary:
 
As I am sure you are aware, cans that contain fruits and vegetables must
be opened by removing the entire top or by removing or bending the lid
far enough back so that the large fruit/veg fragments can be extracted.
In old cans this was most often done with a mechanical opener or lacking
this instrument, by an X or T knife cut and bending the resulting flaps
back or a knife cut 3/4 around the rim.  Unfortunately, I am not aware
of how to tell if an old can (or even recent can without its label)
contained fruit or vegetables.  Thus, such opened cans are lumped under
a fruit/vegetable catagory.  The f/v can, however, generally differs
from meat and fish tins by size and shape, but are often opened in a
similar manner resulting from the lose of the key strip key.  Hope this
answers your question.  Would greatly appreciate any insights you might
offer?  Thanks.....ww