Canning question???

[barfife]

I have the opportunity to pick up about 100 jars of "old canned jars" still full of foods. They may be 10 - 15 yrs old! My question is can I empty the jars, sterlize them and reuse them with new lids and rings without incurring health issues?

Also, what is the expected shelf life of food I put up in canned jars?

Also, how best to store dehydrated food and expected shelf life?

Thanks
Barfife

[crossbow]

I have the opportunity to pick up about 100 jars of "old canned jars" still full of foods. They may be 10 - 15 yrs old! My question is can I empty the jars, sterlize them and reuse them with new lids and rings without incurring health issues?

Also, what is the expected shelf life of food I put up in canned jars?

Also, how best to store dehydrated food and expected shelf life?




Thanks
Barfife

Yes, dump the food, scrub them use them, or if you know who canned them and it's food you like , eat it.

they have found canned food that was canned in 1909 that was good and that was with the old glass tops and rubber gaskets.It just depends on how and where it was stores, dark, dry and cool would be the best.

I store my dehydrated stuff in vac sealed mason jars

[Irish-Tech]

I agree with crossbow. make sure the seals on the lids look good. if not you can buy those separate. you can always run the jars thru the dishwasher a few times, that steam in there should kill anything on the jar.

[MustangGal]

I vote compost the veggies and run the jars on the "sterilize" cycle of the dishwasher (if you have one). Otherwise, wash them really well and sterilize them in boiling water. Personally, I would buy new lids, but the rings might still be okay. Mom has some she has been using for years and years.

[runtothehills]

I'm a collector of old Ball Jars. How old are the jars? Who's the maker? If you could post a pic, that would be great. If they are newer jars, and can still get the lids, yea no prob! Just clean them out and boil them. Some of the older jars, back in the day, we don't even know how they sealed! They were very crude. I'm betting alot of people died from eating contaminated food, and they didn't even know it.
I'm a jar nut! Fruit and canning jars, made America what is today. Back in the day, you couldn't go to the store and buy a can of beans. You canned them yourself, or you died! lol!

[ThePreparedMom]

I'm not so sure I would eat the food in those jars :) But, I would definitely empty them out, clean them, sterilize them, and use them again. Just make sure you check the jars for any signs of chipping or damage. It is not recommended that you reuse lids, because the wax may not seal and you can have bacteria growing on your canned goods, but the rings are okay to reuse.

As a general rule of thumb, "they" say that you should use your home canned jars within one year from when you can them. They do last longer than that, but they start to lose nutritional value after a year. At least that's what I've read in many of the sources I've used to research home canning.

[barfife]

thanks for all the responses folks

[claymore]

I would dump it if that old; its not a paw yet. Any questions talk with your county extension office or check out a Ball Blue book. I'm with runtothehills, the old ball jars are cool to collect.

[crossbow]

I have the opportunity to pick up about 100 jars of "old canned jars" still full of foods. They may be 10 - 15 yrs old! My question is can I empty the jars, sterlize them and reuse them with new lids and rings without incurring health issues?

Also, what is the expected shelf life of food I put up in canned jars?

Also, how best to store dehydrated food and expected shelf life?

Thanks
Barfife

I should have mentioned and you probably know, dump the food from the jars on your garden if you have one,It's great worm food and worms are great for the garden, it'll be good fertlizer anyway. you can reuse the rings, but not the lids, actually the rings should be taken off when you store the food, we always wash the rings thoroughly and put them in a small tote, we probably have some that are over 50 yrs old. we started saving the lids in the past couple yrs and have reused them on occasion just is case we may need them someday and none are available..

I don't even worry about eating our own home canned food if it is under five yrs old, It will lose some nutrition, but it'll still fill an empty belly, I ate many cans of food in the early 40s that was canned in the 20s and they were the old jars with the zinc screw on tops and some with wire hold down and rubber gaskets.Almost everything we're eating now was canned or bought in 2008.It's very easy to tell if a jar is no good, if you've seen one or smelled one,you never forget the smell, it's just like hearing a rattle snake, you never forget the sound
In the past few weeks we've canned over a hundred qt jars of each beef,turkey,chicken,chile and different tomatoe sauces for pastas and rice. there is no way we would ever eat all of them in a yr, but the price will never be any better. 90%beef10% fat ground beef is about 3.39 a pound around here, if it went on sale for anything below 3 bucks, we would be there loading up a cart full, it takes a little over 10 pounds of GB to fill 7 qt jars and our canner, so if we can save 4-6 bucks on 7 jars, we don't wait til we've used up anything we have, we just keep canning.next yr beef will probably be up another dollar a pound because of one excuse or another, flooded farms,droughts,fires,frosts ect. I was in an ALDIES a couple days ago and their 90% beef was marked $2. off per package, most of the packages were over 2 pounds and a little over 8 dollars, without hesitating, I grabbed all 9 packages, a saving of $18 which paid for the canned fruit that i went in there for.

[barfife]

thanks for the info
barfife