Why did a can of fruit suddenly explode?

Question

Yesterday evening I was sitting in the kitchen watching the TV. When suddenly I heard a loud bang! For a moment I thought somebody had shot at my window. Seconds later the bang was companied by a noise of dripping water. I searched the kitchen to find out were this noise was coming from. Shortly after my search I found one of the top cupboards with water dripping out of it. It was almost as if a tap had been turned on from inside the cupboard. I opened the top cupboard and was met by an airborne can of fruit cocktail. It landed on the floor. I picked it up to examine it and found that this was the culprit. I could see that the top and the bottom of the can had expanded so the explosion had happened from inside the can. A rip was visible at the top of the can so this is what caused the dripping water. But what I don’t know is what caused the explosion of the can of fruit cocktail. Do you?

Answer 1

Yip this incident is more common than you think where fruit is involoved!  Its the fermintation process building up gasses, that have to escape to somewhere...POP!

Answer 2

bacteria had gotten into the fruit causing it to ferment - this fermentation produced gas which caused the can t eventually explode

Answer 3

You placed your question in the science section so here goes.

For the tin to explode a pressure must have built up and up  inside the can until this was sufficient to split the seam of the can.  The pressure could only build up by the contents generating a gas of some form.

Once there was a hole in  the can the pressure inside the can would be momentarily greater than outside the can.  Gas at high pressure will move to an area of lower pressure and at the same time spray any liquid or small solid matter through the hole.

The effect of this was clearly visible inside your cupboard!

As to what caused the gas?  First, if the can was near a source of heat ( a hot water pipe at the back of the cupboard?) any gas already inside the can would expand and build up the pressure.  However, most cans can resist minor temperature changes otherwise all cans would start exploding in summer.

The most likely explanation is that the fruit contents had started to ferment or decompose.  This would generate carbon dioxide and other gasses to cause the effect described.    However, the contents of the can should be sterile so the decomposition would have to be by straight chemical means rather that caused by bacteria or yeast.

Answer 4

It's not a can of fruit; it's really a jack-in-the-box.

Ok seriously, it could be 1) the can is supposed to be stored at a lower temperature. It could be that it was too hot in the cupboard, causing the air inside the can to expand and explode.

2) Fermentation. The fruit has fermented as it had passed its expiry date or the can wasn't sealed properly. Carbon dioxide produced from the fermentation caused the can to explode.

Answer 5

Possible that some of the fruit had fermented in the can.Take the remains back to place of purchase and complain.

Answer 6

haha that is soo weird!!! lol sorry i dont know... the other ppl here seem to hav the right idea though!

Answer 7

What happened was that the fruit in the can started to ferment. This caused the cherrys to get drunk. Cherrys are a bit peed off anyway cos like there the minority in the tin, even tho there the best ones, well cos they got a bit drunk they got a bit bolshy and started largeing it with the apple, and cheaper more inferiour fruits.

This caused a massive kick off, that ultimatly ended in the tin exploding. I'ts not un-common. It's a well known fact that cherrys cant handle there drink and get lairy wen drunk.

In future, open yr cans and take all the cherrys out to prevent this from happening again.

You don't know, today they took yr kitchen, Tommorrow...

The world....

Answer 8

The sugar/yeast in the fruit fermented and pressure caused the can to expand and explode, wow that is pretty crazy!! I would get a hold of the manufacturer lucky you were not holding the can when it happened!!

EDIT:Robert has the right idea with the sanitizing of the can..

Answer 9

This was an assassination attempt on your person don't be fooled into thinking anything else

Answer 10

Once my jam did that. If it is not securely pressured, the bacteria can get inside. It can make the tin - pop.

Luckily I didn't eat the jam! ha.

Answer 11

I agree with Robert that it was fermentation and yeast is the most likely culprit considering that grapes and other fruit were likely in the can.  Yeast grows on the skin of grapes.  They must not have heated it sufficiently to sterilize it.  It could be fermented by bacteria but the sugar in most canned fruit keeps them from reproducing.  It would smell like alcohol if it were yeast.

Answer 12

Mine did that after it reached its expiry date

Answer 13

Fermentation!

If the can had been improperly sterilised before being sealed, or yeast had entered through a nick or crack in the can then fermentation would have produced much carbon dioxide, leading to a build up in pressure.

Answer 14

It had probly had gone off.  Did u check the expiry date?

Answer 15

Maybe it was contaminated with botulism.