Fresh cranberries only need to be cooked if you are using the cranberries in baking.
You cook the cranberries on the stove first and then use them in the baked goods.
However you can eat fresh cranberries without cooking them first as the cranberries are edible raw.
But the cranberries taste better when cooked.
Canned cranberries are already cooked and ready to eat or use in baked goods.
Opened cans of cranberries last for up to 7 days as long as the canned cranberries remain refrigerated.
Sealed cans of cranberries can last up to 10 years.
Unopened canned cranberries can last for around 8 to 10 years before it could go bad.
As long as the can of cranberries remains sealed and the can has no holes and no rust then the canned cranberries will last a long time.
It's best to use or eat the canned cranberries within a few years of buying them for the freshness but they can last longer than that.
Just like sealed canned cranberry sauce.
I've had sealed cans of cranberry sauce last 10 years before I used them because I have forgotten about them at the back of the pantry.
It was still good although not as fresh.
Canned food can last a long time.
The reason that cranberry sauce labels are upside down is that it makes the cranberry sauce easier to come out of the can.
The rounded edge of the cranberry sauce is at the top, and the sharp, can like edge is at the bottom because the rounded end of the cranberry sauce can is filled with an air bubble vacuum, which makes it easier to get the sauce out.
If the cranberry sauce was put in the can the other way around or you opened the can of cranberry sauce the other way around like a normal can of food would be opened then it would be harder to get the cranberry sauce out.
I used to think that the label was accidentally put on the can upside down but I found out later that the cans of cranberry sauce are purposely put upside down with the label a different direction for easier removal of the cranberry sauce.