pantry conditions for canning jars

I once met somebody that had a lot of trouble storing canned goods (like stuff canned in glass jars) in their basement.  They were dead certain that stuff in jars in their basement would go bad, but stuff in the kitchen would not. 

Anybody have any ideas on why this might be?

I imagine that would largely be due to humidity. If relative humidity in the basement was high enough, maybe from a faulty water heater, mixed with a slight weak spot in the jars seal. The upstairs cupboard might be dry enough that said weak spot in the seal would be relatively stronger........preventing spoiling for significantly longer.


Or I might be completely wrong......that's just what popped into my head, based on experience.

My grandparents kept all their canned goods in the basement. I think humidity would be the determining factor. They lived in South Dakota and didn't have near the humidity that we have here in Oklahoma. We can't have basements around here anyway. shucks.

paul wheaton wrote:I once met somebody that had a lot of trouble storing canned goods in their basement. 
Anybody have any ideas on why this might be.

When I was a kid we did LOTS of canning for a large family and those jars were stored on shelves in the basement.
That was actually a more stable temperature than having items stored in the house as house temps go up and down all year. The basements usually had a constant temperature year round.

Did the contents keep? Usually, YES! But there was spoilage at times probably due to cleanliness of jars and country kitchen. I have seen my mother skim off mold on top of the contents and then use the contents, which were usually cooked. Although, these days I would NOT recommend that to anyone!

I still do canning and much of that is stored in my 'garage turned into a workshop' where the temp is more stable than the house and the jars are stored in containers on shelving units. They keep well and I usually do a turnover when items get to be 6 to 7 years old, and even then the contents seem to smell fresh and taste good. I'm just being cautious with this process.

We have been canning for many years, and have mostly kept our canned goods at pretty much room temperature, which in our log cabin can change quite a bit.
We have canned applesauce, tomatoes, green beans, maple syrup, salsa, jams, jellies juice and preserves.;
Some of our canned goods are probably 5 years old.
And we have to the best of my recollection never had anything go bad as long as the seals were intact.
We've had some slight surface rust on some of the lids occasionally.
We've used pressure canning,  water bath, and for some things like syrup just pouring the hot liquid into hot jars and sealing.
I'm not sure how long those folks kept their canned goods in the basement that went bad, however I don't believe the basement storage was  to blame unless the lids actually rusted through which would be unlikely unless the basement was dripping wet.
Possibly the jars that went bad did not seal properly.
If a jar lid ever pops up on us, we go by the old saying of   "when in doubt throw it out!"

This is a slight tangent: there is a difference between "bad" and "healthy". I've been told that canned food can still gradually loose nutritional value, even if the food is still "safe" to eat.

The usual culprits affect how fast or slow this happens, with light and heat decreasing shelf life.

That said, if for some reason, the original basement that caused problems tended to cycle between hot and cold, I suppose that could have stressed the seals enough to crack them.