Canning Cautions

Cleanliness

Simply put if you can food in a filthy environment you will most likely make yourself (and your family) sick. Keep your work area, utensils, and canning equipment clean.

Attention to Detail

Along with keeping things clean, its a good idea to pay attention to detail as you both prepare for canning and during the canning proceudre. You need to be careful because like uncleanliness sloppy canning practices can lead to making people sick. So what are the things to look for? First off check for cracks, nicks, and chips on your jars. The rim of the glass is where the seal with the lid forms. That seal needs to be as tight as possible without any possiblity of air leaking into the jar (or other gases escaping). If you see any kind of defects recycle the jars.

Along with checking for irregularities on the jar rims you need to keep the rims of canning jars spotlessly clean. The easiest way to ruin your canning efforts is to try to seal the lid with a big blob of food on it. Food on the jar rim will work like a crack or chip because it prevents the lid from sealing tightly with the jar. Keep a few paper towels handy to wipe the jar rims if you need to. If you are canning something with alot of sugar, like jelly, you should keep a little hot water handy to dunk the paper towel in. Ring out the paper towel after dousing it with hot water and use just a damp towel to clean the rim of your jars.

Just like the other two bits of advice make sure you check your canning lids for any irregularities like dents, dings, or any damage to the rubber sealing ring. Do not use any lid whose rubber ring is even slightly damaged. In a similar fashion make sure your tightening rings and rubber sealing gaskets are in similar good shape.

Simply put if anything looks janky don't use it.