I
was moving around some quart size jars that have pressure canned chili in them
which were sealed up a few weeks ago when I noticed that the lid on one of the
jars was no longer sealed. This reminded me to write about the importance of
checking your jars, and cans for that matter. Lids pop up when the seal has
been broken, or when bacteria that did not die during processing have filled
the space with their gaseous byproducts. Either way, this is bad news.
If a
jar does not seal within an hour or so of removing it from the canner, you can
sterilize everything again, use a new lid, reheat the food, and completely
reprocess the jar. Or, as frequently happens at my house, I put the unsealed
jar in the fridge and use it within a week. Since my chili was canned a few
weeks ago, and all of the jars sealed at that time, I can only say that the
specific jar in question got contaminated at some point during the process, or
the lid got knocked pretty hard by something which broke the seal. Regardless,
I emptied the jar into the garbage disposal and cleaned the jar with bleach
water after inspecting it for cracks and chips. This will happen on occasion,
and while it is annoying, it should not stop you from canning.
Jars
and home-canned things are not the only things susceptible to this type of
spoilage. As a prepper, I usually try the sniff test on cans (store-bought)
which may be a little past the expiration date. But take a good look at the can
as well. If the can itself is rusty or degraded in any way, or the seal is
popped, throw it away! Botulism is a
nasty disease that you can get from eating improperly sealed food. When in
doubt, throw it out is a good motto to live by. In a TSHTF scenario, having
food poisoning from unsealed and tainted food can kill you.
Light,
air, humidity and bugs can ruin dry goods, which I keep in 5 gallon buckets. I
am working on a post with pictures about storing dry goods that I hope to have
posted within the next few days.
Thanks
for reading, and Happy Prepping!
