Not looking to cheat any food safety rules or anything. Just trying to understand the difference.

When home canning, we all use two piece Ball type lids on mason jars. When I buy a jar of salsa or some similar product in the grocer store, it comes in a cheap glass jar, with one piece screw on lid. By all that is holy in a canning book, that would never, ever work, yet nearly 100% of what we buy in grocery stores is packaged that way. Glass jars, one piece metal lids. With bulk liquids like juices and drinks, plastic containers, plastic lids. No way did any of that get water bath processed as we are told do it, yet the food is shelf stable and safe. So how do they do it? How is it sterile and how do they get the air tight vacuum and maintain it with cheap plastic bottles and lids?

BTW, we were water bath canning some tomato sauce yesterday and since my run was lite, I needed something to raise the level of the water to cover the lids. Water was already boiling and didn't want to cool it off by dumping in more watere, so grabbed a quart canning jar, filled it with hot water, then used one of those one piece jar lids I saved from a jar of salsa. Put the jar in the water bath canner and that was enough displacement to raise the sea level to cover the pint jar lids. Processed it along with the sauce.

So come this morning, went to dismantle my quart jar with now cold water and that thing had sucked down TIGHT! Really don't see the difference in that vs. the Ball lids.

I've reused glass jars with the one piece screw on lids for over a decade without any problem. I also re-use the 2 piece lids.

Oh my,,,,,, chit storm ahoy lol

Next thing ya know they'll be
stackin em sideways in the cammer.

1. I think both are meant for 1 time use.
2. The sealant is the same.
3. Rings are reusable, for ever if not rusted or otherwise damaged.
4. Lids are FAR cheaper to produce/manufacture than the threaded complete 1 piece that the packagers use.
5. For the mass packaging industrial process, the 1 piece is cheaper due to the automated filling/sealing machinery.

I remember my mom making grape jelly and putting it in regular screw lid jars covered by a layer of wax. The jars were sterilized and the jelly was put in hot (before it had jelled) and the wax was poured on as liquid. The jelly wasn't that good but nobody got sick. I have no info on where she got that method.

My mom used wax on jelly too.
Lid didn't have to seal perfect.
Sometimes a bit of mold on /above the wax, but no problem.
Just skim it off go on with it.
Something about the jelly process that negates the super sealing thing.
Thanks for the memories.
Ed

The wax method was around long before canning rings/lids. A chunk O' wax was added before the water bath, which would melt and when cooled made a tight seal with the jar to block all air from the product. I believe it was for low acid foods only.

Lug lids seen cheaper than the two piece lids.
https://www.nakpunar.com/categories...OiNKaiAMVtDAIBR2wJwJTEAAYASAAEgIKxfD_BwE

Paraffin wax. Knew many ladies that canned their jelly that way including an aunt.

Like waxing traps had to be careful as one lady got badly burned when it flashed on her.

Official canning recommendation is that jelly should be water bathed. We never bothered as the jars and lids were heat sterilized and jelly has such a high sugar low water content that it's much like honey in that it is a poor growing environment for nasties.

Yeah, mom just poured the hot jelly into the clean jars then capped with the wax. Then a loose fitting lid just to protect the wax.
Good stuff. I didn't pay close enough attention to make my own now.
And .... moms gone.
I miss her AND that jelly !

Keep in mind it’s all high speed bottling. Product goes into bottler at high temps and depending on process there’s use of pasteurizers inline

That is the only way I can see this working. Pasturized before going into sterile containers....perhaps even being packaged and sealed under vacuum.

Lots of videos of Italians doing sauces, etc, where they are bottled hot, then sealed. No water bath. Pull a vacuum when they cool down. Many using the same one piece, 4 lug style lid as found on grocery store shelf products.

Just seems like a 100% disconnect vs. the packaging they do vs. what we can use at home.

Dad made the jelly. I learned from him. He learned from his dad.

High acid foods. Low acid foods really ought to be pressure canned.

The bottom line in canning is, sealed is sealed. What difference does it make if it seals?

Usually line bottling systems have automated unloading of bottles from pallets, etc. Depending on the processing system the bottles will feed into conveyor at which point they are high temp washed/sanitized and inverted to dry often with air injected to speed that up. All happening at unbelievable speed. Eventually thise empty bottles hit the filler/capper.

When we can we boil whatever we're putting in the,sterilize the jars,lids and rings then fill the jars leave about half inch of head space and put the seals and rings finger tight and leave sit on the counter to cool and start popping.the mother in law did it this way and lived to be 96 and were in our 60s and never had a problem.we never reuse the seals though just the rings.

Reading stuff like this cracks me up.

That is true, but the seals are designed and intended for 1 time use. They do not work very well when re-used. Compare a new one to a used one.
Sort of like gaskets in an auto. I'd never replace a cylinder head and use the same gasket.
Might get lucky, but I wouldn't expect it to last very long.
Meats and low acid stuff needs strict attention to details for good results.