I saw a reel from a ForJars partner creator saying that their lids don’t need to be heated which goes against their box instructions. I have been diligently heating ForJars lids but not Ball lids so I reached out to the company to clarify and I got the most non-committal answer. You should heat your lids “just to be safe” but also they will seal just fine without heating. I found this answer to be especially frustrating because I like to have a scientific/data driven explanation for each step of my canning process and this just isn’t it. What do we think? Are they just adding this step to satisfy the old school canners who are married to the idea of heating their lids? I had assumed that ForJars used a different sealing compound than Ball or maybe even a thicker layer that required pre-heating. Does anyone have any insight or resources on where this recommendation actually comes from?
by alpenrosee
7 Comments
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I cannot help you on the lid question. Maybe reach back to ForJars again and ask for greater support and clarification?
I can tell you that particular “partner” of ForJars is on our “Do Not Recommend” list for promoting improper techniques.
I would like to hear a second opinion from their official email address. Maybe they have a goof off handling the social media. Support@forjars.com
Definitely reach out to support, from what I’ve seen/ heard the social media people are not well trained. For what it’s worth I use ForJars lids and I find they work better and have a better seal rate when I heat them unlike ball lids where it really doesn’t matter.
I have only my own anecdotal data, which says these need to be heated. I got lots of failures to seal before I heated their lids and now I get approximately the same amount as I did with Ball lids (non-heated.)
The risk of heating/not heating jar lids isn’t a safety issue, it’s a reliability issue. If you don’t heat the lids and you should, they might not seal correctly. But because you’re doing everything else right, an unsealed jar is very obvious and can be thrown out. But if the jars do seal, they’re as safe as any other.
It’s possible that during their initial development process, they did heat the lids and added that recommendation to their packaging, but later did more testing and found that it wasn’t necessary.
From a sanitation POV, it’s not necessary to pre-sterilize your lids assuming you are processing for 10 min or longer.