I get emails with questions about canning mistakes from people quite often. And one day while answering emails, I noticed that I had received three emails that described almost the same exact problem: “I messed it up, what do I do now??” I decided to go ahead and just share those questions with you here because it’s a common thing that people ask!
What happens is that they have an issue with something that they’ve canned, and they notice that issue two or three days later. Or maybe they just notice it the next day, so they’re wondering if they can go ahead and re-can their food, despite those mistakes.
This Page Includes:
- Canning Mistakes: When You Use the Wrong Canning Method
- Canning Mistakes: When You Make Errors in the Process
- If You Make Canning Mistakes, Act Quickly!
- How to Decide What to Do with Your Canning Mistakes
Canning Mistakes: When You Use the Wrong Canning Method
Let me talk about another common mistake. This lady said that it had been five days since she water-bathed her green beans from the garden. They were still all sealed, but she did not know they needed to be pressure canned. She wondered if she could do it at this point.
No, unfortunately she couldn’t.
Again, it’s another case where the green beans have been in the jars for five days without being properly processed, so they’re probably spoiled. There’s a possibility of botulism, because she used just a water bath. Green beans have to be canned in a pressure canner.
Canning Mistakes: When You Make Errors in the Process
So the first person said that a week ago, she canned sauce using the correct procedure. However, she learned afterwards that it required bottled lemon juice, not the fresh-squeezed lemon juice she had used. (She also added onion, garlic, celery, basil, and carrots in quantities that were more than specified in that tested recipe.) In her e-mail, she wondered if she could go ahead and just use it anyway, or maybe put it in the freezer.
In a case like that, there were errors in her processing that were not going to work. So really, her food was not safe.
Now, at this point, it had been been a week since she did it, and I always hate to be the bearer of bad news. But I recommended that she toss the food. Throw it away. It’s not worth the chance to risk making anybody sick!
Now, if she had caught the canning mistake within 24 hours, then she could’ve just gone ahead and taken the food and frozen it or put it in the refrigerator and used it up right away. She wouldn’t have had to throw it away. But since it had been five days, I didn’t recommend going back and doing that.
If You Make Canning Mistakes, Act Quickly!
The only times that you can go ahead and reprocess your food if you’ve found a mistake that you’ve made is if you catch your mistake right away, within 24 hours. If you realize within that time that you’re not sure if the jars are processed properly, you can go ahead and reprocess them.
I want to emphasize that. It has to be within 24 hours. After that, you need to throw your food away. It’s just not safe.
If it’s within 24 hours, go ahead and follow the same processing that you would have done if you were canning the fresh food. Whatever the regular canning directions are, you would follow that. Usually you’re going to end up having to reheat your food too. To reprocess, you’re going to empty all the jars, reheat the food, and then fill all the jars again, because it would be difficult to reheat the food just in the jars.
Some Food Will Handle Reprocessing…Some Not So Much
Some foods tolerate this reprocessing, but some don’t. If you’ve made a mistake with green beans, for example, and notice it right away, you could reprocess them. However, your green beans are going to get pretty soft and mushy if you process them again. (That’s what happens if you overprocess in canning.) Quality-wise, they’re not going to be very good.
Other foods will be similar: green beans or carrots or beets, fruit like apples or peaches. These are foods that just won’t hold up to that kind of cooking, so I would suggest putting them in the freezer and preserving them that way.
There are other foods that are soft anyway, like applesauce. Applesauce handles reprocessing pretty well, because it’s a soft food anyway. Apple butter, or other sweet spreads, often will work with reprocessing.
Another Option is to Freeze the Food
For food that won’t hold up to more processing, you can go ahead and freeze that food. I don’t like freezing in jars, so I’d take the food out of the jar and put it in freezer bags, label, and freeze. IF you want to leave it in the jars you’ll need to empty some out of each jar. There needs to be room for swelling as the food freezes.
Or Just Put Your Food in the Refrigerator to Use Soon
You can just put your food in the refrigerator for immediate use. It just depends on whether you’ve made a mistake with a whole batch of something or just a few jars. Ask yourself, “What am I going to do with seven jars of something?” But if it’s just one or two jars that didn’t seal, for example, put them in the fridge.
How to Decide What to Do with Your Canning Mistakes?
Long story short? When you make canning mistakes, look at the food and the end quality. And of course always, always look at the safety of whether it can be reprocessed or not. That’s the most important thing.
Related Pages
Misunderstandings in canning usually come from the older methods and practices of past generations, as explained on this page. SimplyCanning.com explains the science!
Canning methods come down to two styles: water bath or pressure canning. Learn which one you should be using for different kinds of foods. SimplyCanning.com uses USDA safety methods, with good reason!
Liquid loss in home canning is very common. It happens to all of us on occasion! What could be considered extreme? SimplyCanning.com answers common newbie questions about liquid loss and safety.
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Page last updated: 10/29/2021
I processed some quarts of Borscht in a pressure canner for 85 min (10 extra for safety;-) and while the canner was depressurizing I realized that i had processed them as if they were in a water bath, i.e. covered by 1.5″ of water. Should I reprocess them? I was going to do that immediately but while I was taking water out of the canner the jar lids started sealing so I’m waiting until they cool enough to put new lids on. My question is, do I actually need to reprocess them?
Hi Thomas. If you covered your jars in the water they are not processed correctly. So you’d need to redo them. However… there are some other things I’d be concerned with. First, I want to refer you to this page on how to adapt soup recipes to be safe for canning. It could be you already know these things but just in case… Adapting your soup recipe for home canning. Most borscht recipes include cabbage as an ingredient. Cabbage unfortunately is not considered safe for home canning. Take a look at that soup page and you’ll notice that any ingredient… Read more »
I was canning today some meals in a jar (stroganoff starter, chicken soup, sloppy joes, and taco meat). The first canner load was done today around 1:00pm. At 8:00 it dawned on me I had processed my quart jars for 75 minutes not 90. What are my options with my 14 quart jars of meals? Thank you so much for your help and guidance!
Hi Meghan, When you realized that you’ve made a mistake within 24 hours of processing you have options. However, if it has been longer than 24 hours and the jars are sitting out at room temperature, then I’m sorry but I have to recommend disposing of them. ACK I hate being the bearer of bad news! If you’ve refrigerated the jars then you can treat them like any other refrigerated food. I’d suggest dumping out the contents into freezer bags and freezing them. You could reprocess them but you must do the entire time again. Some foods will end up… Read more »
I mistakenly processed pints of green beans for 10 minutes! What should I do?
If you’ve caught your mistake within 24 hours, you could follow the correct processing instructions from the beginning and reprocess (though the beans will probably be a bit mushy). As long as it’s within 24 hours, you could also just refrigerate or freeze the beans for future use.
If it’s been more than 24 hours, unfortunately, you’ll have to discard the green beans.
I hope this helps! 🙂
-Rachel (Sharon’s assistant)
I’ve canned green beans for the correct time but did not account for high altitude. So canned at 10 lbs instead of 13lbs. If not safe, is is possible to take out and cook for 20 minutes, then freeze?
No, it’s not considered safe. As long as it’s within 24 hours of canning, you can just put them directly in the fridge/freezer for use. 🙂 If it’s been more than 24 hours since canning, they should be tossed. Hope this helps!
-Rachel (Sharon’s assistant)
I mistakenly processes my quart green beans 20 minutes instead of 25 minutes. The jars sealed will they be ok and safe to use.
No, per Sharon’s recommendation based on tested recipes, they need to be processed the full amount of time for your altitude in order to be safe.
-Rachel (Sharon’s assistant)
About 8 days ago, I canned cold packed tomatoes that had a lot of their own juice, after boiling them, peeling them and added 1 Tablesppon of bottled organic lemon juice into the pint jars. I then waterbath processed them for 50 minutes (i’m in Denver at altitude). I ate one of the jars last night. I now see that I processed them for the timing for HOT packed tomatoes and am terrified that I made my family and I sick! It’s my first time canning and I tried really hard to do everything right and I’m so upset I’ve… Read more »
Hi Erin, I’m so sorry I didn’t see this sooner. I hate to think of you being so afraid all night! I can say that if your family were going to get sick it would likely have started already. Next time do be sure and watch for all those details(hot pack vs cold pack). I don’t recommend using the ph strips. From what I’ve read they are not very reliable. I personally would not use the rest of the tomatoes just for the peace of mind.