Bernd Wuestneck / AFP - Getty Images

A 64-year old tub of Swift's Bland lard is pictured on February 1, 2012 in Rostock, northeastern Germany.

Bernd Wuestneck / AFP - Getty Images

Hans Feldmeier, 87-year-old owner of a 64-year old tub of lard, presents his Swift's Bland Lard.

Retired chemist Hans Feldmeier, 87, told AFP he had received the pig fat as a student in 1948 near the northern city of Rostock as part of the post-war US aid program. "I just didn't want to throw it away," he explained. Finally, after 64 years, he took it to food safety agents and was astonished at their appraisal.

"There is of course a slight lack of smell and taste," sniffed Frerk Feldhusen, from the office of agriculture, food safety and fisheries in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

However, "all in all, given its level of freshness and its material composition, the product is assessed as satisfactory," Feldhusen said, adding it would stand up to today's definition of being fit for the dinner table.

-- Agence France-Presse contributed to this post