In the spring of 2017, new SureTight™ lids were released for home canning by the Jarden (Newell) company. A press release at the time said they would be sold under the Ball® and Kerr® names.
The SureTight name corresponds with the ‘Sure Tight™ Band Tool that Ball released in 2012.
These new lids, Ball said, would replace all their existing lids. Stocks of their existing lids would continue to be sold until they are gone, and in the future, only the SureTight branded lids would be made and sold. Sales began in May 2017.
To be clear: “Current lid supplies are safe to use and will be sold until they are gone.” [1]Blakeslee, Karen. New Ball® Sure Tight™ Lids – 2017. Kansas State Extension Service. 28 March 2017. Accessed 5 April 2017 at https://www.rrc.k-state.edu/preservation/doc/suretightlids2017.pdf So if you’ve got stockpiled lids from end of season sales, go ahead and use them up with confidence.
- 1 What is changed about the new Ball lids
- 2 Ball extends shelf-life recommendation from 12 to 18 months
- 3 USDA / Extension System are sticking with 12 month shelf-life recommendation
- 4 Some observations
- 5 Where are SureTight lids made
- 6 What Ball said previously about why jar seals may fail
- 7 Consumer complaints
- 8 Spelling confusion
- 9 What does this mean for Bernardin lids?
- 10 Further reading
What is changed about the new Ball lids
Ball said that the changed lids represented the most significant improvement in home canning lids in the past 30 years. [2]Ed: This being 2017, we’re not quite sure what changed 30 years ago around 1987. The change from rubber to plastisol gaskets was made in 1969.
The changes were:
- Doubling of the tinplate coating;
- Additional rust resistance;
- A storage life for unused lids for up to five years from purchase;
- A new guarantee of a seal that would last up to 18 months.
The public press release read,
“…the most significant improvement in canning closures in over 30 years, Ball® and Kerr® Sure Tight™ Lids will now feature twice the tinplate coating providing additional rust resistance, ensuring the life of the seal for up to 18 months. With over 130 years of research and testing, Ball® and Kerr® home canning brands offer the most trusted lid on the market, always BPA-free and made in the USA.” [3]Rokose, Wendy. Beloved Ball® Canning Jars Get New Look For 2017. Press release. 5 April 2017. https://ir.newellbrands.com/investor-relations/press-releases/press-release-details/2017/Beloved-Ball-Canning-Jars-Get-New-Look-For-2017/default.aspx
In October 2017, Ball’s Facebook team mentioned “additional tinplate coating to the underside“: [4]Ball’s Facebook Page. 20 October 2017. Accessed October 2017 at https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/posts/10155973422122892?comment_id=10156712366537892&reply_comment_id=10156727159232892¬if_id=1508508677617639
Despite the doubling on the tinplate coating, Ball emphasized that consumers will not see a visual difference or feel a weight difference.
In December 2017, a Ball representative posted this information to their Facebook page:
We’d like to share some information about the modification to our lids to help dispel any misconceptions you may have. Let’s begin with the construction of home canning lids. Ball and Kerr lids are made up of five different materials. We start with a core base of steel sheeting, applying an ultra-fine tinplate coating to the top and twice the tinplate coating on the underside. A BPA-Free base coating is then applied to the underside and a BPA-Free top coating is applied to both the top and underside of the lid. The sheets of tin-plated steel are stamped out to create regular and wide mouth lids. Lastly the plastisol is poured into the channel on the underside of each lid.” [5]https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/videos/1489624831085501/?comment_id=1490402501007734&reply_comment_id=1512934088754575¬if_id=1513284241738928¬if_t=video_reply&ref=notif
Ball extends shelf-life recommendation from 12 to 18 months
The new “good for 18 months” seal seemed to imply that Ball was also extending the shelf life of home canned goods to 18 months. So we asked Ball outright, and got this answer:
When using the new SureTight lids & following a tested/approved recipe for safe home food preservation, the new shelf life will be up to 18 months.” [6] Ball Canning to Randal Oulton via Facebook. 5 April 2017. Correspondence on record.
This is absolutely a change for Ball. Ball had always hewed to the USDA guideline of 12 months being the “best before” date.
As recently as 2014, Jessica Piper from Ball said,
The shelf life of your canned food is one year. So again, if you decide to hold onto that food longer, you are losing possible colour, quality, and most importantly the nutrient value. We always adhere to USDA guidelines and that is, once you’ve preserved that food, you have one year to eat that to get the best nutritional value out of that.” [7] Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 08:30. Accessed March 2015 at https://ball.yourbrandlive.com/c/lids/
So it would appear that Ball is now diverging from the USDA guideline on shelf life.
USDA / Extension System are sticking with 12 month shelf-life recommendation
Kansas State was the first cooperative extension to weigh in publicly on the new lids. Their response to the shelf life change is as follows:
The USDA recommends that for best food quality, store home canned foods in a clean, cool, dark, dry location at a temperature between 50 and 70°F [10 to 21 C.] It is also recommended for food quality purposes that you can no more food than you will use within a year; however, there is no specific shelf life for home canned foods.” [8]Blakeslee, Karen. New Ball® Sure Tight™ Lids – 2017.
Healthy Canning has communicated with a few other USDA / extension sources on this, and though they have yet to release their responses as of time of writing, it appears that the USDA and the extension services will not be changing their shelf-life recommendations.
To be clear, those recommendations are and remain: for optimum quality, try to use up your home-canned goods within a year. After that, just rotate them to the front of the shelves to make sure they get used up first and not buried behind newer stuff. They are perfectly good as long as the seal remains intact (and were processed using a tested recipe, of course.) By no means throw them out (unless your audience has decided they hated that particular item and will eat no more of it for love nor money.) You might just start to experience lessening of colour, nutrition and maybe texture as time passes — in short, the same as for store-bought canned and bottled goods!
For an in-depth discussion, see: What is the shelf life of home canned goods?
Some observations
This is the first time that we are seeing an official firm statement in writing that unused lids are “good for up to 5 years.” Previously, the recommended “stock ahead” period for unused lids was a year ahead, or occasionally someone from Ball would admit to the possibility of 3 to 5 years shelf life before using.
In 2014, Jessica Piper from Ball said:
We recommend using the lids within a year of purchase, although you can still use them 3 to 5 years later. [9] Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 6:58. ….. The lids don’t really have a shelf life per se…. whatever’s the oldest, use that first… Again, we recommend within a year, but if you have some that are 3 to 5 years, you’re going to be okay.” [10] Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 7:39.
Some industry insiders have expressed surprise to us that rusting lids were a major consumer complaint needing addressing. They said that what canners did complain about was impacted gaskets from lids that shipped on top of jars. And when people did mention rusting, it wasn’t the lids, it was the screw band canning rings, which tend to start rusting after just two or three uses.
There was also confusion amongst industry insiders about “ensuring the life of the seal for up to 18 months.” Ball had never before said that there was a limit to how long the seal would hold. The assumption for decades was always that the seal would hold (for decades) until the jar was deliberately opened unless the jar was damaged, or, gases from improperly processed food items destroyed the vacuum inside the jar.
Previously, any seal guarantee restriction from Ball centred around “one-time use”: they’d only guarantee a seal on unused lids. From a 2014 video:
If you want to guarantee the best food safety, for everything you are putting into your jars and you are putting away for the winter that you plan to share with your family and friends and loved ones, one-time use, that’s all we can guarantee with this.” [11] Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 15: 45.
Where are SureTight lids made
In a press release announcing the availability of the lids, Newell (the owner of Ball) said, “Ball® and Kerr® SureTight™ Lids will now feature twice the tinplate coating providing additional rust resistance, ensuring the life of the seal for up to 18 months …. always BPA-free and made in the USA.” [12]Newell Brands. Beloved Ball® Canning Jars Get New Look For 2017. 5 April 2017. Press release. Accessed November 2017 at https://ir.newellbrands.com/investor-relations/press-releases/press-release-details/2017/Beloved-Ball-Canning-Jars-Get-New-Look-For-2017/default.aspx
What Ball said previously about why jar seals may fail
Previously, Ball had said that jars would not come unsealed if food was processed according to USDA guidelines
We always recommend following current USDA guidelines. So, all of our recipes follow those guidelines, they’ve been thoroughly tested here in our quality labs. We know that if you follow those recipes they’re going to be safe. And because they’re safe and processed correctly, you don’t have to worry about lids coming unsealed.” [13]Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 04:40.
Ball had said the causes for lid seal failures were (1) using untested recipes, (2) not following recommended processing methods, (3) adjusting the screw-bands after processing, and (4) not leaving correct headspace.
Can you talk about the major reasons lids may come unsealed after processing? Sure! The number one reason why lids come unsealed, based on the calls and everything that we get into our consumer affairs department, is when someone is using a personalized recipe, something that is your own, it’s not been tested…. [Not] following a tested recipe including the proper processing is the number one reason why lids come unsealed. Lids can also come unsealed if after you remove them from your canner… and notice your band is a little loose and you go, oh I’ll just tighten it a little bit…. Also too head space can cause things to unseal.” [14]Jessica Piper. Video: Canning Lids 101. 25:34.
Presumably, all these causes of seal-failures are still valid concerns, despite the double tin-plating.
Consumer complaints
In December 2017, a Ball representative said, on their Facebook page, that the new lids have not resulted in any increase in seal-failure complaints:
…there has been no significant increase in consumer contacts to our Consumer Affairs Team pertaining to lid failures since the introduction of the SureTight Lids.” [15]https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/videos/1489624831085501/?comment_id=1490402501007734&reply_comment_id=1512934088754575¬if_id=1513284241738928¬if_t=video_reply&ref=notif
Spelling confusion
There was confusion at first in various press releases as to whether the spelling was Sure Tight (with a space) or SureTight (no space) but it’s the no-space version of SureTight that has been printed on boxes and on the lids themselves.
Note that Ball’s jar lid tightening tool named “Sure Tight” does have a space in the name: Sure Tight Band Tool.
What does this mean for Bernardin lids?
The biggest non-secret in the room over the years has been that Ball, Bernardin and Kerr lids are the same; they are just stamped with different branding on them. They are presumably made in the same factory.
Newell’s (formerly Jarden) three branded lids, L to R: Ball, Bernardin, Kerr.
Presumably, then, Bernardin lids would get the same “upgrade” as for the Ball and Kerr lids.
That raises some questions though, that we’ll have to dig for the answers on and get back to you.
- Will Bernardin move to an 18-month shelf life recommendation, too? Traditionally, Bernardin has been more conservative than Ball and even exceeds USDA standards on some things (e.g. Bernardin requires acidification of applesauce for safety.) Bernardin is also more conservative about changing recommendations than Ball is (Bernardin still advises warming lids.)
- Bernardin already has a decades old “slogan” for its lids: “Snap Lid” (presumably to describe the sealing “ping”.) Would they give that up for the SureTight moniker instead?
Bernardin “Snap Lids”
Further reading
What would cause a canning jar to lose its seal?
References
SnJuanitaReyes
Hi good morning it is November….. And I would like to And I would like to inform And I would like to inform you and I haven’t had any for quite a few you’re lids have been losing have been losing the white and resting and going into the food I have lost a lot of jars this way I don’t know I don’t know what what the problem may ask… I don’t know why it is happening but I am I am really thinking of changing and turning around and do toddler lids… but I’m not quite sure but I’m not quite sure what to do I prefer the blade that you have better that you have better but that you have better but not in my in my food in my in my food… I don’t know what it is you use but I do know the rest is not good for the body…… I am 66 years old … I do a lot of canning a lot of a lot of candy and team’s fight this should not happen it’s a waste of money especially and team’s fight this should not happen it’s a waste of money especially I now I came down with I now I came down with I now I came down with cool Vic and what I have I now I came down with cool Vic and what I have put me a lot and my family… So please let me know if you guys have done let me know if you guys have done something different. Already or have heard is he a lot of people say that the lids are rusting what they mean is what they mean is what they mean is inside for in the inside for the food is not around the sides where the lid is touching it. My phone number is my phone number is 361-720-0387 if you would like to give me a call I would greatly appreciated thank you so much my name is Janie Reyes thank you so much my name is Janie Reyes my legal name is very long so I go by Janie
Peggy Rouleau
Wow! Did not realize so many people are having such serious issues. I am experiencing slow sealing and some sealing (processing) failures, but not at as high a rate. Have contacted Ball and frankly, would rather go back to the old seals that required hot water than continue to wonder why I don’t get 100% seal rate. I am a by the book canner who’s never had issues so I’m pretty sure it’s not me, but the “new” lids. Even more troubling are the ones that take overnight to seal. Miss the happy pinging of successful canning!
sandra g
sadly the new sure tight don’t seal. people who try to can to preserve their garden supply for winter is loosing tons of time energy and cash. why reinvent the wheel when the blue box lids were perfect? very sad ……….
Jill Nading Boland
Please go back to the original lids. I have never had a problem with them sealing. I don’t need to keep food five years.
Khyva L Starkey
Do you heat the Sure TIght Flats in water like I have always heated the flats?
Richard Emerson
Ugh. We just bought 288 of these lids and we’re following the same recipes we’ve followed for the past decade for jams, salsa, and tomatoes. I’m consistently getting a 40% failure rate with these SureTight lids. Right now I’m looking at 21 unsealed jars. What a waste!
cheryl hurrle
Do NOT like the new style lids -don’t like putting unsterilized lids on jars for one thing and don’t like not hearing the pop to know they’re done , Everyone I know who cans has said the same. Ruined 2 batches of jelly with the new ones and I followed the new directions explicitly. Bring back the older style!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anne Kimmins
Hi there…. love the ball name and products.. but thinking you want to wat h some of the Facebook chat rooms… there are lots of us having issues with the new lids who have not had issues with the old ones… maybe you could do a zoom meeting or 2 with us to hear what is happening.. it is not a few people with bad or dangerous techniques! Canning is huge this year.. you want to keep us engaged. Banker by day.. canner by night… Anne
Sheila
I recently had to use the” when in doubt throw it out” saying , because I had canned some chili back in December2019 ( from the ball book of canning and preserving ) using what I didn’t realize at the time were sure tight lids , a few days ago I went to open a jar of chili and while the jar was still sealed the lid came off quiet easily and usually I have to struggle a little bit to get the lid off ,I had the proper headspace ,(and yes I did remove the air bubbles) , wiped down the rim with a paper towel moistened with vinegar as suggested and processed it for the required time suggested in the book , now because of this I’m a little worried that all the canned food in my cupboard that have the sure tight lids on them may have to be tossed out because it may have gone bad. Which makes me very unhappy because that was a lot of work and I don’t like to waste food especially with what is going on in the world today .
Sherry
Your new flats do not work. I’ve been canning for several years and I’ve never had a problem until I used your product. Why did you change something that worked?
hill margaret
My friends and I have been canning and jamming for years.
This year with the new sure tight lids our seal rate is maybe 29 to 30 percent.
It is frustrating to put all the work and money into a project to not have the lids seal!!!
I think I will we looking for different lids from this point.
Cathie Rickert
I have been having so many problems with the jars not sealing after putting them through a waterbath. I have been canning forever and never had this problem before! And it’s not just me, other people I know are having issues also. I don’t know what you have done, but your lids are not good anymore!
JANIE ASHBURN
I purchased 10 dozen Ball Sure Tight canning lids in June of 2019. I canned 5 – 25# boxes of tomatoes, the same as last year…..
My tomatoes are boiled for ONE hour BEFORE they are put into cans and BOILED an additional TEN minutes in a HOT WATER bath. Then I remove the quart jars carefully as they are hot and place them on a soft towel on the kitchen counter waiting for them to seal.
I have ONE can that has NOT popped open. I still have 4 dozen can lids that I WILL NEVER USE AND WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE LIDS concerning the BALL name. I have NEVER had a problem before with cans sealing and opening til this year with the Ball sure Tight lids (BPA free) I am out $50.00 dollars on the tomatoes and $32.10 on the canning lids. I am on a fixed income and this means I will have NO tomatoes to get me through the winter. I am really aggravated at this mess and feel that the company should reimburse me for my loss….THEY WILL CONTINUE TO LOSE CUSTOMERS AS NOBODY IS GOING TO PUT UP WITH THIS JUNK.
Healthy Canning
Janie, your tomatoes are literally rotting in your jars on you because the jars have been grossly underprocessed, and that is causing the lid seals to fail. Please see this page of directions on the National Center site for proper tomato processing directions. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_intro.html
Darlene
The up to 18 months mean what I can is only good for 18 months. If that’s the case what’s the point in canning for long term. I have canned goods from 2017 and have eaten other canned food older than that and was still fine. I feel like I’ve wasted my money and time on what I’ve canned with the new lids. So disappointed. Will look for different lids now.
Katrina
They only guarantee 18 months this is increased from 12 months which was the original guarantee.
Properly canned goods as long as they remain sealed and the recipe used is still considered safe will be safe to consume until gone whether thats within 18 months or takes 50 years. After 12-18 months the nutritional value, color and texture of the foods may start to degrade some people more noticeable then others depending on the food.
Healthy Canning
Your lids are probably unsealing because the food inside the jars has gone bad. 10 minutes for processing tomatoes is grossly inadequate. The minimum processing time would be 45 minutes for quarts in a boiling-water canner. Honestly, I would say be grateful the jars lost their seal. What scares me is the jars in which the food goes quietly bad, but the seal holds anyway, and then you feed it to people. I would urge you to please pick a more up-to-date, lab-tested method. It’s 2020, none of us is ever too old to learn and improve our methods. Here’s one on the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s site: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/tomato_crushed.html Sorry to have to be so direct, but I also hate to see your product going bad on you.
Healthy Canning
The seals on your jars are failing because you are using processing times which were found to be grossly and dangerously inadequate decades ago. If you had a lucky run before of seals holding (and people not getting sick) despite that, your luck seems to have run out. Your food is going simply rotting in the jars, causing the seals to be lost. There has been literally decades and decades of information printed, published and posted attempting to inform people of correct processing times for jars of tomatoes. I can’t see why there would be a battle against simply adopting a correct technique. There are so many other things in life – genuine injustices in the world – that need battling against, but not this. Never stop learning. My grandmother always said that the day we say we are too old to learn and change, we might as well curl up and die. And, you are not writing to Ball. You are on the wrong website. You’ll need to go to their website or Facebook page directly. All the best.
Joyce cook
I hate these flats!! No more!
Bonnie Turner
I canned 16 quarts of tomatoes today using water bath method. Of the 16 quarts, I used 4 regular Ball Lids and 12 SureTight lids. None of the 12 SureTight lids sealed. Lots of time and work went into the canning. If SureTight is the only lid Ball is offering, I will have to switch brands.
Can anyone explain what happened? Does the SureTight lid seal differently from the old Ball lids. For example, the “dimple” in the middle of the lid never “popped” when it cooled. The old lids began “popping” almost as soon as air hit the jars.
I’m not happy with SureTight lids. I have waisted a day of work and money on worthless lids.
Matt
Bonnie,
I didn’t can as much tomatoes as you did but I had the same issue you did. I don’t know if they are sealed or not.
Jake
What is the black/brown stuff in the nooks and crannies of your brand new SureTight lids?
Kim Prieskorn
New lids are taking too long to seal. Some take over night to seal. Never had this problem with the old kids.
John Porcella
Just canned 10 pints of stew meat with all new lids and rings just bought from wally world Sure Tight and they did seal but it took 46 min from the time they came out of the canner to pop and seal.
Caitlin
Switching brands! First time using SureTight as the old lids have become impossible to find. I just finished canning 5 dozen jars of Mrs. Wages bread and butter pickles (per the instructions on the bag). Half the jars sealed (I assume), the other half did not. I’ll come back to Ball when the old style lids are made available again (a 12 month shelf life sure beats a wasted day of canning!)
Rhonna
I used the Sure Tight lids this year and haven’t had any seal issues. They do feel lighter in weight, sound more tinny, and sometimes the rubber seal is weird and on other parts where it shouldn’t be.
Richard
I bought a case of cans with lids. Canned deer meat and 9 of the 12 buckled. Did them over with regular lids with no problem. The ones I had problems was Sure Tight
New & Improved.
Don’t like the newer lids.
Please contact me with answer.
540 521 1033
Healthy Canning
Hi Richard, you need to contact Ball directly. You can do that via their Facebook page. Search in Facebook for Ball Canning. Or, to phone or email them, go to their website freshpreserving.com and look for the contact link. Good luck!
Robert Steen
have been canning for about 20 yrs to help me save my summer garden produce, just received new ordered ball lids and was surprised to see they were shipped from China many of these lids failed to seal will start looking for Made in America from now on.
M Dixon
Where are these lids being made? I’m having sealing problems too. Perhaps they are no longer made in the USA. If so we should know and it should be printed on the box just where they are made.
Healthy Canning
Ball says they are made in the USA.
Cindy
If they are made in the USA Ball should be ashamed to admit it. From comments I’ve read and my recent experience, they should have left well enough alone. The newly designed lids are very poor quality. I guess they want us to have to buy more often so they can sell more lids. I have counted on Ball brand lids for many years but not any longer. I think they are probably made in China like most things today. JUNK!!!!!
Diane
I notice new jars lids hAve imprint on them. I canned low acids foods lids did not stay sealed. Bought new lids redid them they sealed. Now I throw lids that come with jars out. Why not sell lids separate from jars.
And I’m experienced canner never had this much trouble before with lids
Rebecca Beck
Ditto – not sealing. Following Ball recipes to a T, and never had this issue before. Tons of work wasted.
Cindy
I have noticed that when I unpackage a new case of jars, the seals already have the imprint from the jar from the production. Does this make the seals useless since they’re only supposed to be used once?
Healthy Canning
Hi Cindy, here is the information we have on that: https://www.healthycanning.com/lids-for-home-canning/#lids-on-tops-of-new-jar-packs
Sharon lokken
I have made two dozen jars of jam and have processes it twice with different lids. They are not sealing.
I have made a batch using lids from last year and they all sealed. Now I have all these lids that are no the working. Why do you change things that have worked for years. Now what do I do? I have two dozen jars of jam that are not sealed. It’s get very expensive canning and then have in to re can everything. Then they don’t seal again. Help!!!!
Healthy Canning
Hi Sharon, you must be ready to pull your hair out!
I’d suggest to contact Ball directly to see what they can suggest: https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/
You may also wish to seek the help of one of these Master Food Preserver groups. They’ll be able to step through it all with you: https://www.healthycanning.com/master-food-preserver-help-groups/
Chuck Gilpen
Do not put the lids in hot water or they will not seal
latrica cochran
i ran out of jars and lids and purchase new-ones that say 18 month after canning my first case….The next morning as i was removing rings …THEY WHERE BLACK AND LOOK RUSTY……wHY did you mess with something that didnt need fixing i have had stuff that was 5 years old and still using nothing looks like this new product …i have purchase my yearly supply and NOW IM I HAVE A A BUNCH OF WORTHLESS CANNING LIDS AND JARS…..