Cloudy Canning Jars

Hello,

I have some canning jars, mostly quarts, that have developed a cloudy haze to them. See photos.
I do not use hard water. It is not mineral deposits.
I have washed them multiple times. It seems to be on the inside.
Any ideas what is causing it and how to remove it?
I can various things. The jar shown had potatoes in it.
Thank you.

Whether you are using hard water or not, it's possible minerals are leaching out of the food or the salt in the jars. I'd test to rule out mineral deposit. To check if that's the issue, fill one jar with straight vinegar, let it sit for 24 hours or so, then pour the vinegar off (keep it for other jars, it's not used up!) If that cleans up the jar, it's minerals. Most jars will not need to soak for that long, that was just a test, if that doesn't work, it's definitely not mineral. A shorter soak or diluted vinegar won't give you the same accuracy of testing.
Try it, and tell us the result!
:D

I appreciate your quick reply! I will try the vinegar test and report back.
Thank you!
Joy

I keep a box of those steel wool pads impregnated with soap for times like this. They also help with removing label residue from glass.

You might want to try baking soda. I use a baking soda and dish soap paste to clean cloudy glass and stainless steel pots. I have never canned though, so I do not know if it will work for the problem you have.

I use a lot of vinegar for cleaning, as we're on a deep well.

So I thought I'd mention that the regular grocery store "vinegar" is 5% acetic acid. During pickling season, you'll often get "pickling vinegar" for the same price, but it is 7% acetic acid per volume - if you want less strength, just add water, and the same jug will go further.

However, to take it a step further, our hardware store occasionally puts "cleaning vinegar" on sale. That one is 10% acetic acid and for cleaning our toilets (which believe they are limestone caves and want to grow stalagmites) the cleaning vinegar is very helpful and really speeds up the job. I suspect that nothing bad would happen if I used it as "food", but I'm not desperate, so I do use the official food grade ones if I'm making pickles.

I realize Joy may not need this info, as she identifies she doesn't have hard water, but plenty of us do, so I posted for all the other people who may be reading this.

Looking forward to Joy's experimental results!