Attention Canners! New Changes in canning!

Luckily, I had only put up 9 quarts of tomato sauce when I was alerted to a message about new canning procedures.

From the Ball Facebook page:
Ball Facebook

We know there have been some recent questions about our canning lids and wanted to clear the air for our fans. After extensive testing by our Quality Assurance Team we have determined that it is no longer necessary to to pre-warm lids before use. If you desire, it is still safe to “simmer” your lids before use however, you should never boil them. To prep lids we recommend simply hand washing them in hot soapy water. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns! We always love to hear from our awesome fans.

I was always taught to sterilize the lids and rings prior to placing them on the jar by boiling them. Now they are saying if you do this,
the plastisol may thin out and you won't get a proper seal at the time, or a few weeks, or months later and will lose all your
canned goods and all your hard work will be wasted. ;(

Some of the packaging still sold in stores does not mention the new procedures, ( none of the packs of lids I bought had the new procedures)
so even though I have to re-process my 9 quarts, it could have been MUCH worse!

I hope I saved someone from seal failure!

V

a reply to: virraszto

I don't can, but can see this as very informative advice for those who do. Thanx for the Share!

Using Paraffin is safer (you're not eating it); using beeswax is even more safe, and you could eat it, if you chose . Zillions of other things you can use beeswax for too, around the house.

Bees' wax jar sealing!

Paraffin jar sealing.

I lived with my god parents for 2 years and learned a lot about canning with them. They simply just brought a pot of water to a boil, dropped some lids into the water and waited about 2 minutes. Then removed them, followed by simply placing them on the jar let them cool a bit and then sealing them with a tight twist.

I think the boiling water is to simply sterilize the lids, it has nothing to do with the 'seal' of the lid to be honest.
Stuff like this takes practice and experience, and from what I saw my god parents knew exactly what they were doing, they still give me jars of pickles from those two years, and that was about 4 years ago.

a reply to: strongfp

This is NOT about sterilization.

This is what they are saying now. NOT to boil the lids. Whatever they are using for the little rubber gasket ring around the
lids will now get too soft and will spread and flatten and it won't seal properly. I believe its because of whatever new thing
they are using for the lids.

Boiling can over soften the compound on the lids which can lead to seal failures.

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a reply to: strongfp

Yeah- that reminds me. The hot air seal should be fine, shouldn't it? that's one way my great granny used to seal. You have to get the lids like what they use on jam jars- they have an air space at the top that gets sucked down when applied to a steaming jar.

There's science involved! Check into it! lol

a reply to: virraszto
That just makes me think that they're admitting to using crappy material now, like they do for every thing else. That's why I posted the thing about the waxes.

Sorry- I'm out of it today. My senior cat is very ill (may or may not make it).

a reply to: virraszto

I agree with you. But it doesn't take a team of people to figure out that placing lids and sealing them right after they have been hot isn't a good idea. People have been doing this for years. And been passed down for generations, hence why I mentioned they place the lids on the jars, let the cool a bit THEN tighten the seal. I think the boiling of the lids for two minutes was to rid of any bacteria and to get the seal nice and soft.

Is this about the old type of seals, that have the metal clamp on the lids? Or are they referring to the new screw-on type of lids?

a reply to: w8tn4it

They are referring to the flat lids that have the seal on the underside.

These: