A man who couldn't fight his hunger and decided to tuck into an 11-year-old tin of meatballs has survived to tell the tale.

Jim Hawkins, from Devon, was 'bored and hungry' when he reached for a tin of  Tesco Blue Stripe meatballs that passed their use-by date in 2013. 

The budget tin, which has seen five UK prime ministers, had been hidden in the back of Jim's cupboard for more than a decade - even surviving a house move - before it finally fulfilled its culinary potential. 

Jim, 60, said: 'I was bored and hungry so I delved into the deepest dark recesses of the tin cupboard. It tasted just like I remembered but a lot blander. 

'An in-date tin of meatballs would get a rating of 4/10 as it's the ultimate cheap processed food, only brought for camping really, but I would only give this one less: 3/10, despite being 11 years out of date.'

Jim Hawkins, 60, from Devon, was unfazed by the 13-year-old use-by date on a tin of Tesco Blue Stripe meatballs 

The Tesco Blue Stripe meatballs (pictured, left and right). which went off in 2013, have survived a house move. Yet, despite being eleven years out of date, Jim said they tasted fine - just slightly blander 

Jim added lots of hot chilli sauce and peas to the meatballs and polished off the whole portion with cheese and rice. 

He wasn't worried about eating the old food, but he was slightly put off by the 'formation of a circular skin that had jellified on the underside of the removed lid'. 

Jim explained that he felt fine after eating the ancient meal adding: 'I would have never known it was that old'.

Jim was, however, put off by the what he described as the 'formation of a circular skin that had jellified on the underside of the removed lid'

Jim added lots of hot chilli sauce and peas to the meatballs and polished off the whole portion with cheese and rice

That said, the engineer, who works for a pharmaceutical company, admitted that eating them was a slightly 'rash decision'. 

After serving in the military, Jim is used to eating tinned foods and he classes himself an adventurous eater. 

'No one tried to discourage me from eating them, because my beautiful fiancée was on a work trip, so I was home alone; always a recipe for disaster. 

'She is a vegetarian so wouldn't even touch real meatballs let alone blue stripe ones and is definitely not daft enough to mess with sell-by or best-before dates.'

Tesco's value brand was originally launched in 1993 with distinctive blue-and-white striped packaging, but it was ditched in 2012 over fears customers were embarrassed to buy it. 

Jim added: 'I am a sucker for the yellow sticker section at Tesco. It's like playing Russian roulette with your digestive system; never a dull moment. 

'So I quite often eat food that is past its sell-by. Although the dates are usually a few days over not a decade. 

'I currently have a 5kg tin of corned beef sitting in the cupboard that's even older, possibly 15 years past its date, enough to make 100 sandwiches, and I'm pretty sure there's a tin of pineapple in there that's over ten years old. I may try them next.'