If you want to have ground beef, but are not in a position to provide refrigeration, say on a boat, or camping etc, then this product can be a decent substitute for fresh ground beef. Don't expect it to taste like something right out of the sauté pan. The only reason I didn't rate it a 5. It is a canned meat after all, and the initial odor when opening the can certainly isn't like cooked ground beef at home. That being said:
You will find chunks of white fat throughout which you could save for use to fry something, or to leave in to provide flavor. It's not a product you would eat right from the can, though you could if needed, but it works out great as a mix-in like for spaghetti sauce with meat, or chili with meat etc. I even sprinkled some onto a salad. Of course, once opened, you'd have to use it all with a day or so. KeepIng in mind that anything processed in a can is commercially sterile, so won't deteriorate immediately, but unused portions should be carefully stored immediately.

This stuff was surprisingly good! Mind you, it is not the least bit appetizing AS IS, straight out of the can, but it fixes up really well into whatever you normally do with loose fried or stewed ground beef.
It is "edible" straight from the can, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you were using it in a power outage and had no way to heat or cook food. Direct from the can, it smelled like corned beef and tasted a bit like it too. Blegh. I'll allow that it sort of looked like dog food at first "” it's a lump of ground meat in a can, after all; but that resemblance disappears once you mince and loosen it up with a fork.
You'll want to separate the liquid and the globs of congealed fat before you crush the meat. Then don't just dump it in a pan and heat it - that would be gross; it's plain meat steamed with no seasoning other than salt. First mix in whatever seasonings you would ordinarily use for your ground beef recipe. Heat up some (or all) of the fat, fry some fresh onion and garlic in it, then add the seasoned meat and cook it the same as if you were working with raw hamburger meat - just with far less time and none of that tedious chop-chop-chop to break up the chunks. If it needs liquid, add back the juices you set aside earlier. This is also where you would add sauce if you're going for that kind of dish. If you want the meat to taste like the seasonings are really cooked in, leave it on the lowest heat and let it slowly simmer.
I used the 28oz can for my first test and it was quite a nice feast for two. The 14oz will suit us better for a single meal. I'll be adding this to my Subscribe and Save and not just for emergencies. It saves a lot of the hassle of working with raw ground beef, and conveniently separates the fat so I can have a far less greasy end product.

Very nice, convenient, product. Not a lot of flavor, but then, ground beef doesn't have a lot of flavor unless you season it yourself as you cook it. So I just add a little seasoning when I heat it up.
The 5 yr shelf-life makes this a "must have" in your pantry for emergencies
(IE: snow storms, car broke down, can't get to store etc...).
In the 28oz can there is a little solid fat (that can easily be removed) and about 5 oz of beef broth (good for flavor or making gravy etc). So you end up with about 22oz of cooked quality ground beef. You'd need aprox 2 lbs of fresh 70/30 hamburger to equal 22oz cooked.
The convenience of not having to cook & drain your beef before really starting a recipe is wonderful. It's great for those days you just don't feel like cooking or are running late. Perfect for a fast easy spaghetti meat sauce, soups, stews, chili, Hamburger Helper, pizza, sloppy joe's, omelets etc..."¦.
Because this is pre-cooked (boiled) - if it cooks for a fairly long time, such as.... simmer in chili for a couple hrs, it can get a little mushy. So I suggest adding this ground beef, to whatever you're cooking, last.
I will continue to reorder this to always keep some in the pantry.

im so happy to have this in my pantry for emergencies

I have not opened the can yet but everyone I talk to says it is the best canned meat to purchase.