Plastic Pop Bottles for Canning

by Jerry
(Minnesota)

My neighbor is planning on canning tomato juice in 2l plastic pop bottles with screw top lids. He plans to seal the lids with clear tape or parafilm-type material wrapped around the screw-on cap.

Will the hot tomato juice extract dangerous chemicals from the plastic? Is this a safe possibility?

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I would definitely NOT consider this to be safe. There are several problems I forsee.

1- The pop bottles would not survive processing. It could be he is not planning on processing the bottles in a canner. He may be going to simply fill the bottles while the tomato sauce is hot. I have more information on this type of canning here. see Open Kettle Canning.

2- Tape is not going to last and I would not trust it to keep the container air tight.

3- as far as the plastic safety. I don't know what to think about that. I am not an expert on platics and safety. If they are pop bottles they are supposedly food safe, but if heated that may change. I am also not sure it would keep chemicals from seeping through the bottle to the food.

I strongly recommend that your neighbor reconsider.