Can You Sterilize Canning Jars In The Dishwasher In 2023?

To maintain your family’s safety & healthy life, sterilizing canning jars is highly essential. In this covid pandemic situation, you already know the importance of sterilizing to avoid so many diseases.

Many people ask can you sterilize canning jars in the dishwasher.

We know it’s a bit tricky to sterilize canning jars in the dishwasher & the answer depends on some factors.

So let’s read the article to get your answer & find the best way to keep your family free from harmful bacteria.

Can you sterilize canning jars in the dishwasher?

The answer depends on your dishwasher brand & model. If your dishwasher can reach up to a high temperature that is ideal for sterilizing jars, then you can surely do sterilizing in the dishwasher.

For effective sterilizing to kill 99.99% bacteria from canning jars, your dishwasher needs to reach at 150degree Fahrenheit with a rinse.

Besides, temperatures the cycle length is also important. Good quality dishwasher allows running an antibacterial rinse cycle for over 1 hour. 

You can easily check the NSF certification level to identify whether your dishwasher allows sterilizing of canning jars or not. 

If you don’t have an NSF-certified dishwasher, you can do sanitization instead of sterilizing.  But it is better to buy NSF certified dishwasher.

Why sterilize of canning jars is important?

First, let us explain what sterilization means. Sterilization is an effective way to kill harmful bacteria to maintain home safety. Read about the symbol of dishwasher safe.

You can make your home jars germ-free through sterilized canning jars. So, it reduces the chance of getting bacteria attacks such as foodborne illnesses, etc.

You should remind that to get a healthy food preserving experience sterilizing is a must.

Bacteria & microorganisms are not any visible objects. So, you can’t remove it through manual scrubbing or cleaning. 

You can prevent microorganisms from devolving around food by sterilizing the jars. In Short, sterilizing your canning jars is the best solution to get a healthy food storing ability.

But if your dishwasher does not allow sterilizing, you can follow the alternative approaches.

Alternative of sterilizing canning jars in the dishwasher

We already mentioned the importance of sterilizing. But many budget model of the dishwasher does not allow sterilizing the canning jars.

To solve your problem now, we also will talk about sanitizing approach to keep your jars clean.

• Place your dish racks, glass jars upside down in the dishwasher
• Press high-heat with dry cycle
• Lock the dishwasher door

Now see all the jars become sparkling & shiny. But the high-heat cycle is unable to kill all types of microorganisms from glass jars. That is why sterilizing is important.

Know about most reliable dishwasher brand

Is sanitizing & sterilizing the same?

Yet most people make this mistake but sanitizing & sterilizing is not the same. 

Sanitization reduces the chance of microorganisms making your dish germ-free. But it is not capable of preventing 100% germ in the glass.

Sterilizing is an effective way to kill all types of bacterial microorganisms through heat, chemicals, or other formulas.

It can kill up to 99.99% of germs from glass. So, sanitizing a jar is can say as a deep cleaning that is helpful but not 100% healthy.

Boil Water method

Sanitizing canning jars in the dishwasher is not the same as sterilizing. So, you can apply the water method to get rid of germs.

What do you need?

To apply the boil water method, you need a canning kit to sterilize the jars. If you don’t want to buy a canning kit, you can use the below things:

• A large pot to boil water
• Jar lifter
• Glass canning jars

You should choose a pot that is 2 inches larger than your glass jars. Otherwise, you can’t place the jars perfectly in water to apply to sterilize.

After managing all the equipment now, it’s time to start sterilizing.

• Place the canning jars on the right side of the boiling water pot. Do this step carefully so that you don’t contact hot water.

• Completely drown the jars in the water. You should make sure that the water level is one inch above from your canning jar.

• Now take the water pot on the oven or stove to boil it on high heat.

• After the water starts to boil, you should start your stopwatch to calculate the sterilizing duration. You need to boil the canning jars for 10 minutes after they start boiling.

• After 10 minutes, turn off the heat & take out the canning jars with a lifter. Place that jar on a clean surface to dry it perfectly.

• You can re-use the hot water to sterilize your remaining canning jars.

It is a manual solution to say goodbye to germs from canning jars.

Is it essential to boil lids & rings of canning jars?

It is a common question that people frequently. Luckily there is no need to boil lids & rings.

Rather it can reduce the lids sealing ability.  Moreover, the rings usually don’t get in contact with food. So, you can wash them in warm soapy water to rinse perfectly.

FAQ About Sterilize Canning Jars In The Dishwasher

So, we suggest you sterilize canning jars before storing acidic food.