Is my self canned tomato sauce safe to eat?

[DelcoMama82]

You dump jars over 2 yrs of age???? Sorry, if folks wasting food is one of your pet peeves, you've missed a step. We've used canned tomatoes that were 8 yrs old without giving it a second thought....tasted just like they were put up the day before. Two years is a pretty short cut off for canned goods. We rotate older stuff to the front each year so we don't get that issue, but have occasionally missed a jar here and there that got older than 3-4 yrs in the cycle....depending on what it was, we eat those just the same. Mostly, if I'm canning and find that certain things canned are not getting eaten each year enough to keep the rotation fresh, I no longer can as much or even can that particular thing at all so that doesn't happen.

8 year old tomatoes????
Was that using pressure canning or regular canning?
I’m new to canning and so this was a project to preserve ample tomatoes from the garden in a new way. I typically make tons of “sun” dried tomatoes in a very low oven, but then freeze them in ziplock bags.

 

[DelcoMama82]

If looks right, smell right, and tastes it is probably alright.

I have things in my pantry that are 10+ years old that are still wonderful. Usually, fruit and pickles don't hold up the best, but they are still usable. We ate some vegetable soup from 2009 the other day and it was fantastic. Tasted fresh made...

2009????
Oh my god! I’m freaked out about trying things just a couple of years old. I’m amazed canned items hold up that well for that long!

 

[DelcoMama82]

Here ya go. I remember coming across this article, and decided never to worry about how old my canned goods were. Fruit can get kinda weird in texture, but otherwise...

Scientists Found Canned Food from 1865, Discovered It Was Still Safe To Eat

In 1974, canned food from a boat that sank in 1865 was tested by chemists and was found to be still safe to eat.

funfactz.com

Amazing.
That wasn’t my canning though! Haha.
I’ve only done it a handful of times so I’m still not 100% confident in my abilities to not kill whoever eats what’s inside!

 

[DelcoMama82]

I believe the oldest honey they've ever found was in one of the pyramids in Egypt. It was still perfectly good.

Yeah I read that too. Incredible.

 

[BarredBuff]

The seals are different now. Only made to last 18 months. Although the food is safe for as long as the seal holds (if it has been packed and processed correctly). If you stock up on canning lids, keep them rotated. They degrade in storage and should not be stored for over a year.

@DelcoMama82 your confidence in your canning will grow with experience. Follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation, check your processing time each canning season because they may change, if you use a dial gauge pressure canner get it calibrated yearly. Follow recipes exactly, and if you ever decide to forge your own path for water bath canning acidic foods you can buy pH test strips specifically for canning to be sure your food will turn out safe.

When was that change made?

 

[tortoise]

2 years ago one brand increased from 12 to 18 months. I don't remember which brand, but I figure competitors will be all over that to keep up.

 

[BarredBuff]

2 years ago one brand increased from 12 to 18 months. I don't remember which brand, but I figure competitors will be all over that to keep up.

I always took that as the suggestion anyway. Ball has on its packaging 18 months strong now.

 

[flowerbug]

I always took that as the suggestion anyway. Ball has on its packaging 18 months strong now.

i think they're fine for years once sealed and not abused. i think it's just a marketing thing really. like the constant changes in amounts and packaging and then claiming "Now X% more!", etc. uh, who me cynical? heh...

 

[Hinotori]

Yes I'm bad because I stack pints in stacks of 2 because my space is very limited. Tuna is stacked in it's boxes with cardboard between the 2 layers. I remove all rings and wipe though. Rings get zip tied (or string) in bunches and hung on a wide hook to store out of the way. Zip ties make for easy washing.

I had a couple packs of lids from around 2008 I found and used last year. Not one issue with them. Just check for dry rot.

I usually keep things for up to two years. Stuff tends to loose flavor over that long. Growing up we ate canned grapes and grape juice that was several years old. It all depended on when Mom remembered we had it.

 

[Britesea]

I was told that the danger with stacking your filled jars is that if a jar loses its seal for some reason, the second jar on top could press down and "reseal" it, but there would still be a chance that bacteria had entered the compromised jar. Once it had resealed though, you would not know this had happened.
Maybe it's true, maybe not. I choose to err on the cautious side and I don't stack them. Instead, I use something like this:

I found some that were tall enough for a pint jar to fit underneath with about 1/2"clearance.