How To Tell When Your Canned Foods Become Spoiled?

We have found the occasional home canned product that the lid has come unsealed.. Depending on the product, they will have a petre dish look on the top to a full white Santa beard on the product.. Most things go to the chicken yard...

My 2 other experiences was with a can of sweet, caraway sourcrout that rusted a hole in it.. Leaked a little and left a brown stain on the shelf.. The other was a can of store brand tomatoes that had not started to leak, but was kind of swelled like you would imagine a pipe bomb going off in slow motion... I was very careful getting it outside before puncturing it with a 22 rifle.. It made quite a splash...

My personal preference is anything containing acid or fermented products in jars only. I no longer purchase and store tomato products in metal cans. I try to grow and can all my own tomato products in jars only or frozen or dehydrated. If I do purchase in cans it is to use immediately. Kraut I ferment at home in jars and keep in the fridge. I can grow cabbage here 8 months out of the year. Kraut will keep in the fridge for months no problem. Same with fermented pickles and veggies.

I have canned at home a long time and lids are going to come unsealed occasionally and tin cans are going to fail from time to time. If it is dented or swollen throw it out. If it smells bad throw it out. If it tastes off throw it out. If it looks off throw it out ( discoloration and mold). I try not to buy tab top cans because I do not trust them.

True fermented foods in the states such as kraut can be bought in the refrigerated section of the grocery in sealed plastic bags or in jars. Same with kosher pickles fermented in salt. They can be found in the refrigerator case in both plastic and glass. Pickles and Kraut purchased from the aisles and not refrigerated are products pickled in vinegar and salt solutions and not fermented.

Yeah I wouldn't trust a water-bath fermented food as far as I could kick it o.O seems like a risky choice! I make fresh kraut when the whim takes me. It's always better than the jarred stuff. We do have commercial jarred stuff at the supermarkets but it's never quite right for some reason.

I'd offer to send you some good kimchi from down here Tim but it'd probably be so fermented from shipping conditions it'd be liable to explode when it got to you! Lol.

The commercial jarred stuff that sits on the shelf in the supermarket and has a long shelf life has most likely been heat treated - the commercial equivalent of pressure canning. There is probably no point in eating that for probiotics. If you want one that still has the live goodies, it will have a shorter shelf life and be in the fridge section of the store.

And - you can water bath a form of pickled veg but only if you are making it highly acidic - you add the measured amount of vinegar. That is an approved method (last time I looked) on all those US govt etc sites that have the up to date canning rules and bu vacola in Australia. You definitely cannot just do veg and salt and then water bath them!!!