safe disposal of canned food-lid opened

Homemaker · January 5, 2009

As I was doing an inventory of my canned food I came across a jar of bbq sauce I had canned. The lid had failed. How do I safely dispose of it? Do I need to boil it before dumping it?

I've never had a failure like this before, only ones I noticed right away and knew they wouldn't be poisonious.

Jasminegirl · January 5, 2009

Have the same question. Found a quart of green beans that had loose lid on it in one of my jar boxes and wondered what to do with it also.

susie · January 5, 2009

Feed it to the dog or the pig? Compost it?

Homemaker · January 5, 2009

Well, I was actually concerned about the botulism toxin. I've been kind of spooked lately after a local couple, a doctor and his wife, died of it from eating home-canned green beans.

JCK88 · January 5, 2009

Disposing of spoiled food ttp://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/case66.html

Every home canner will occasionally have jars that spoil on the shelf. The need for safety here can’t be overemphasized. The organisms that spoil canned food are uniformly poisonous to humans, especially in the quantity present in a bad jar of canned food.

The most potent spoilage organism in low-acid foods is botulism, which produces a powerful neurotoxin that will shut down your nervous system. Low-acid foods that have spoiled should be disposed of with the utmost caution because he botulism toxin can be absorbed through the skin. I’m going to detail the most cautious handling methods I know.

First, when you find a spoiled jar, put it down immediately and wash your hands. Prepare a sanitizing solution of ¾ tsp. bleach to 1 cup of water, preferably in a spray bottle. Sanitize your hands with this solution and then put on rubber gloves. Now you can dispose of the spoiled food one of these three ways:

Disposal method 1: Put the jar in a heavy plastic bag, twist the bag shut, turn the bag inside-out to cover the jar with a second layer of plastic, and securely seal it shut. Then send the whole shebang off to the local dump. Use the sanitizing solution and a paper towel to clean up any dribbles or splatters, including on the shelf where the jar was stored and on the sides of the surrounding jars. Then wash and sanitize your rubber gloves while still wearing them.

Using this method, you’ll lose your canning jar, but this is often the best way to handle the situation.

Disposal method 2: Put the jar in a plastic bag, and take it to the bathroom. Carefully open the jar over the toilet and pour its contents into the bowl, flushing several times. Put the jar back into the bag, and carefully clean both your rubber gloves with your sanitizing solution. Use the same solution to clean the toilet, which may have gotten splattered with canning liquid. Then take the bag with its jar and soak it in more sanitizing solution (a ratio of 1/8 cup of bleach to each gallon of water). After 15 minutes or so, drain and dispose of the bag, and wash the jar.

Disposal method 3: Put the jar in a plastic bag and take it outside. Dig a deep hole (2 feet or more) and bury the contents. Clean the jar and your gloves as described above.

This last method has at least two major drawbacks. First, conditions may exist such that you may not be able to get outside and dig the hole right away (such as with frozen ground). Second, a determined animal may still be able to dig up your buried jar. If the animal gets any of the spoiled food on its fur the botulism toxins can be easily transferred to other surfaces. In the case of a pet, this is a real danger to humans who pet it. For this reason, spoiled canned food should never be composted or put into a worm box, either.

JCK88 · January 5, 2009