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food preservation

How do I get rid of this white film on canning jars?

Matt McSpadden

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posted 2 months ago

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I was given a box of old canning jars. Most cleaned up and looked great. But two of them have this white/cloudy film on Them. I have run them through a dishwasher. I have tried hand scrubbing, scraping with my fingernail. It does not want to come off. It does not smell like anything or feel like anything.

Has anyone run into something like this before? Any way to deal with it?

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r ranson

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posted 2 months ago

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Could be from the minerals in water. Try soaking in cleaning vinegar overnight and rinse with boiled water.

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Matt McSpadden

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I'm not familiar with the term "cleaning vinegar", is that the same as white vinegar?

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I also think it's from minerals in the water. We use well water for everything here, and there's even a residue that dries on the windshields of vehicles parked too close to the area-effect of our garden sprinklers.

That said, citric acid and water solution works well to remove the residue on our jars. And windshields.

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Christopher Weeks

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Matt McSpadden wrote:I'm not familiar with the term "cleaning vinegar", is that the same as white vinegar?

White vinegar at the grocery store is 5% and cleaning vinegar at Home Depot, etc is 30% -- stronger acid, mildly dangerous.

I'd also try washing with an acid.

If that doesn't do anything, try to determine if the surface of the glass is covered in tiny scratches, which means it can't be cleaned off.

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r ranson

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Matt McSpadden wrote:I'm not familiar with the term "cleaning vinegar", is that the same as white vinegar?

It's usually twice the acidity. Enough to sting the skin, but not so strong to easily damage it. We usually get 8 or 9% from the grocery store. It's either with the vin or in the laundry aisle. 12% is better but hard to find here. I think eating white vin here is usually 4 to5%.

White vinegar might work in a pinch. If this path, boiling the jars in vinegar would be my preference. More vinegar and energy so I like cleaning vin best.

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r ranson

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10%. I was close.

I don't like more than 12% as stronger than that is industrial and usually has hidden ingredients. the acid is also strong enough to damage skin and stuff around the house.

10 to 12 % food grade is perfect.

Cleaning-vinegar.jpg

Common-uses-for-cleaning-vinegar.jpg

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Michael Qulek

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You can also try Lemi Shine. I add it both to the dishwasher when I run it, and also add a spoon-full to the canner when I'm processing some jars. One thing that works extremely well on rusted cookware is to sprinkle some Lemi Shine on a steel-wool pad, and clean off the rust with that.

In your case, you might try a sprinkle on a wet green scrubbing pad, and scouring off the film with that?

Matt McSpadden

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r ranson wrote:10%. I was close.

I don't like more than 12% as stronger than that is industrial and usually has hidden ingredients. Cthe acid is also strong enough to damage skin and stuff around the house.

10 to 12 % food grade is perfect.

Interesting. My stores do not sell anything like that. We have the 5% at the grocery store, and then it jumps to 30% or 50% at home depot. Nothing in between. I wonder if that is a regional thing or a canada vs US thing.

Christopher Weeks

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The hidden ingredients comment worried me, so I looked up the manufacturer of the 30% stuff we get at the big-box store. According to https://pfharris.com/harris-30-vinegar-128-fl-oz...

Pure - Absolutely no dyes or chemicals included.

and

Ingredients
30% Vinegar (Acetic Acid) CAS#64-19-7, 70% Water CAS #7732-18-5

So unless they're lying, this stuff seems OK at least.

We normally use 5% kitchen vinegar unless it seems like that's not working. Then the 30% stuff can be diluted with water as needed.

Matt McSpadden wrote:I wonder if that is a regional thing or a canada vs US thing.

That's what I see in Minnesota, too.

r ranson

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Nice.
The safety data sheet often has more information about processing.

It may be a personality quirk, but I'm very fond of only using food safe ingredients for cleaning food related stuff.

I understand citric acid crystals are easy to get in the usa. It was mentioned earlier in the thread.

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r ranson

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Funny thing is cleaning vinegar has been here forever and I never saw it on the shelf until shopping with a friend and she got it from the shelf. It was a life changing moment.

Although it's really annoying that they aren't consistent where they put it - laundry or food aisle. And it's out of stock half the time. They don't get it in because it sells out too fast...I also don't understand that logic so I often special order it.

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Christopher Weeks

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r ranson wrote:They don't get it in because it sells out too fast...I also don't understand that logic so I often special order it.

Ha! When I worked in retail and we had stuff like that, we'd just order a bunch more and maybe just drop a pallet of it at the door instead of taking the effort to shelve it.

r ranson

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Wow, when I look up cleaning vinegar on usa amazon, that's a lot of different products called that from industrial stuff to mild vinegar with a shit tonne of essential oils added. I couldn't find any regular food safe cleaning vin.

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Pearl Sutton

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I buy the Harris from Lowes. It's good stuff, strong, respect it as an acid, wear gloves and be careful. Goes through da ishwasher well, especially if you can make it run longer before it drains out.
Only vinegar in grocery stores here is 5%

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Jay Angler

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I would like to add to not only be careful with your hands with the stronger stuff, but also your lungs.

A rag soaked in vinegar is the best way to get deposits from our well, off the walls and floors of the shower stall. But it's a fairly enclosed space, so I make sure I take a deep breath and hold it while I quickly spread out 2-3 cloths, and then close the shower door and go breath out of the bathroom. I'm using the 10% stuff.

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Carla Burke

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I've only ever used regular grocery store white vinegar & dawn, for this - with a steel wool pad. Probably takes a little more elbow grease, but it's not difficult.

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r ranson

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I can't find it now, but I remember vinegar is a word restricted to foodsafe acids of a specific type and strength here. So people don't accidentally drink or cook with these other cleaning products.

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Thekla McDaniels

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From time to time I come across a very old canning jar that appears filmy, but it’s not a deposit and cant be removed with vinegar.

I always thought it had spent a few years lying on the ground in the sun and rain. I use them anyway.

Best luck: satisfaction

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Jay Angler

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Thekla McDaniels wrote:From time to time I come across a very old canning jar that appears filmy, but it’s not a deposit and cant be removed with vinegar.

I always thought it had spent a few years lying on the ground in the sun and rain. I use them anyway.

Those are the canning jars I use for dried herbs or dried fruit, but I don't like putting risky jars in my canning kettle.

This story is about china, not glass, but the same principle applies. I had a beautiful Chinese pattern serving plate from my Grandmother's house. It lived on a plate rack at the top of a built-in bookcase. One day myself and a few others were standing around in the room when I heard a strange and suspicious noise of something breaking. As usual, it was #2 Son who spotted the problem first. The plate had cracked and broken all the way across one third of it. The moral... old things build up stresses. Sometimes those stresses get to be too much and things just break. Unless someone has a better explanation?

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Thekla McDaniels

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I find your theory satisfying, Jay.😊

Another thought about old jars and china and all that remains from bygone days.

They were not made of standardized industrial supplies. The old glass that turns violet, filmy and or iridescent under years of sunlight, including ultraviolet rays was not made of standardized materials. Sand used in glass making would have contained trace minerals depending on the rock it had broken down from. And the same is true about old china, and the parent material the clay utilized weathered from.

No wonder they confound us frim time to time with their unexpected attributes and surprising behaviors … which I enjoy witnessing.

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Me, again, it must be the weather

Use percarbonate as a whitening agent for textiles.
Had some mixture left over so iffy jars and glasses went in. Good result, cleaned the scale off.
Not bad with getting certain labels off too.
I have also used the liquid on outside plastic and wood furniture, sorry! but it do a nice job.

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