canning question. kinda technical regarding botulinum toxin.

[smilingcat]

BACKGROUND:
About a week ago I was canning my second batch of tomatoes. Adding lemon juice per instruction, water bath for 85 minutes plus. all according to ball canning book. Instead of regular canning jar top with metal and BPA coated (underside of the lid) with rubber seal, I decided to use Tattler reusable canning lids. Made out of BPA free plastic and comes with reusable rubber seal.

The issue I'm having is that 4 of the jar lost bit of liquid during canning so that it now has about 3/4 inch head space instead of 1/2 inch. Okay so my finger tight on the band when the jars went into the water wasn't quite tight enough. Today I pulled out one of the jar and decided to check its seal. Took a good deal of force to pry open the lid. Made a typical popping sound. Still I'm not comfortable with it because I managed with my fingers and not a can opener. Not sure if this was because the plastic lid was easier to get a good "grip".

PROBLEM:
I know I have certain character flaw. Lets just say I'm painfully cheap. Lets face it engineers are known to be a major PITA and super cheap. I am an engineer with all the typical faults associated with engineers. I WANT TO SAVE the tomatoes and hours of work going into it.

FACTS ABOUT BOTULINUM TOXIN:
Most feared thing about canning is botulism poisoning by botulinum toxin. Technical papers says LD50 is around 50ng for type A botulinum to around 3200ng for type D1. I also remembered that botulinum toxin can be rendered safe by heating to boiling point of water. 85C for 10minutes or so according to tech papers. but to kill the C. botulinum bacteria requires heating to 116C (240F).

WHAT TO DO or WHAT WOULD YOU DO?:
Would you try to re-can it using regular canning lids and meet the requirement to render it safe? or would you just toss away 4 jars of tomatoes?

[Blueberry]

I wouldn't throw them away. I would probably bring them to a boil, and then freeze them until use in another container.

[Irulan]

I'd call your local county extension agent and ask... not a mistake you really want to make! Phone calls are free

[OakLeaf]

What does your canning reference say? I've always read that you can re-do a jar with a failed seal within 24 hours. But honestly, I can often use my hands to open jars with the single-use, BPA-coated metal lids. I don't worry about the estrogenics because the lids aren't in contact with the food once they're removed from the water bath, and I don't worry about the seal since the vacuum is preserved (the lid is "down"). I wouldn't consider your situation a failed seal at all.