topic Re: Question about pickles in Kitchen

Question about pickles

Mominohio — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 22:56:26 GMT

Today I purchased a jar of Nathan's refrigerated dill pickles . The were in the refrige case at the store and kept cold till I got them home.

I opened the jar and no 'pop' sound!

I'm wondering if these kind of pickles which are supposed to be refrigerated at all times, are processed differently and aren't pressure sealed with a vacuum like those on the shelf.

Anyone have any experience with this.

Holding off eating them till I can reach the company tomorrow, but I did find one other brand online that said theirs are not vacuum sealed.

Don't want to get sick, but want one of those pickles.

Re: Question about pickles

JeanLouiseFinch — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 23:09:59 GMT

@Mominohio When the pickles are in the refrigerator section of the store that's because they are "cold packed" rather than canned. The brands that make cold packed do put a band seal around the lid to prevent tampering. They must remain refrigerated. I think you're safe to eat them.

Re: Question about pickles

Ruby Laine — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 23:11:17 GMT

The Nathan's refrigerated pickles we buy have a white ribbed plastic lid and plastic jar. So ours don't pop when we open them. We love the ones with horseradish! I hope yours are ok.

Re: Question about pickles

Mominohio — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 23:15:41 GMT

THanks @JeanLouiseFinch and @Ruby Laine

These are in a glass jar with the metal lid. None on the shelf had any kind of 'safety seal' like a band around the jar.

I'm planning on calling the company in the morning.

I guess I've only bought pickles from the grocery store shelf and not the refrigerated section, and when I get some kind of final answer I'll post back here. Now after reading that other companies have refrigerated pickles without being vacuumed, I'm pretty sure they would be ok, but no other type of band or seal....I'm not sure if that is normal for this packaging and brand.

This is certainly a new area for me!

Re: Question about pickles

Ruby Laine — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 23:17:51 GMT

I bet @JeanLouiseFinch is right about the refrigerated ones. I'm sure they'll be fine!

Re: Question about pickles

Ladybug724 — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 23:33:19 GMT

Do they smell ok?

Re: Question about pickles

millieshops — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 00:24:42 GMT

I think the refrigerated pickles I buy are silent upon opening. I can't imagine yours aren't good to eat.

Re: Question about pickles

Kachina624 — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 01:23:11 GMT

I would have opened that jar and dived right in without giving the pop a second thought. I'd say an abundance of caution is being exercised here.

Re: Question about pickles

Mominohio — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 01:45:01 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
I would have opened that jar and dived right in without giving the pop a second thought. I'd say an abundance of caution is being exercised here.

You've obviously never had food poisoning. And there have been cases in the area of people dying from improperly canned/handled foods.

I don't think exercising some caution when one isn't sure is a bad thing.

In light of reading about another brand that isn't vacuumed and doesn't pop, I'm going to call the company tomorrow. No knee jerk reactions, not throwing them away just yet, but will be certain about how they were supposed to be sealed seems prudent at this point.

Re: Question about pickles

CelticCrafter — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 09:19:29 GMT

Is the lid completely flat?

If it's a "pop" lid usually there are little circles on the lid.

Re: Question about pickles

Mothertrucker — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 12:14:46 GMT

Agree, if it is a "pop" lid, you can usually "feel" it by pushing on the center..

I really wouldnt worry- I'm old enough to remember when pickles were NEVER refrigerated, but sold at room temprature from big barrels at the market..The whole reason for "pickling" IS to preserve them in that way..it would be extrememly difficult for bacteria to grow in the acidic and salty environment of a pickle jar..Yes it IS possible, but very unlikely.

Please let us know what you find out.

Re: Question about pickles

Mominohio — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:24:20 GMT

@CelticCrafter wrote:
Is the lid completely flat?

If it's a "pop" lid usually there are little circles on the lid.

Great question! I'll check that out! @CelticCrafter

Re: Question about pickles

Mominohio — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:30:46 GMT

@Mothertrucker wrote:
Agree, if it is a "pop" lid, you can usually "feel" it by pushing on the center..

I really wouldnt worry- I'm old enough to remember when pickles were NEVER refrigerated, but sold at room temprature from big barrels at the market..The whole reason for "pickling" IS to preserve them in that way..it would be extrememly difficult for bacteria to grow in the acidic and salty environment of a pickle jar..Yes it IS possible, but very unlikely.

Please let us know what you find out.

I agree about the whole 'pickling' thing and old days when things that were so 'vinegary' weren't refrigerated.

One thing that bothers me is that since these may not be vacuum sealed, why wasn't there a band of some kind around the lid, kind of a tamper proof type thing. If these jars are just shipped unvacuumed, with no band or seal around the lid, they could easily be tampered with in shipping/retail. I would think in this day and age, things wouldn't ship like this anymore.

I know many breads still ship with nothing more than a twist tie and a lot of ice cream brands still have no 'protective' type seal. I always wonder if/when someone is going to contaminate products that are still packaged so 'basic'. Still remembering the Tylenol tampering that completely changed the way medicines were packaged.

It's funny how all this 'protective seal' type stuff has become our new normal over the years.

Re: Question about pickles

Mominohio — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:32:12 GMT

UPDATE

I called Nathan's and they don't even make the pickles. They are made here in Ohio it seems by another company and I had to contact that company.

They said that there is no vacuum as we assumed, because of the 'fresh' and refrigerated nature. All good there, that there was no 'pop'.

BUT...it was supposed to have a band around the lid. I've decided if it was supposed to have this 'safety' feature I'm not going to use them. Anyone could have removed it and messed with the contents, or it could have been an accident in the processing plant that it/some jars missed getting banded.

Either way, I now know that 'fresh' pickles in the fridge section won't 'pop' and I also won't pick up another jar without the safety seal on the lid!

Re: Question about pickles

faeriemoon — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:40:07 GMT

I buy Claussen pickels in the refrigerated section. They don't pop, but they do have the plastic seal around the edge of the lid.

If yours are supposed to have the plastic seal and they don't, I wouldn't eat them either. Good call.

Re: Question about pickles

CelticCrafter — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:11:13 GMT

@faeriemoon wrote:
I buy Claussen pickels in the refrigerated section. They don't pop, but they do have the plastic seal around the edge of the lid.

If yours are supposed to have the plastic seal and they don't, I wouldn't eat them either. Good call.

There are a few brands of ice cream that don't have that clear plastic strip around the lid and container and I won't buy them.

The last time I did, it was years ago, I took the container out, pulled the lid off and saw that someone had taken a scoop. Well, I didn't know it was my husband that did it and threw it out, it just wasn't his normal serving size. A few days later he asked me if I had eaten it all and explained what happened.

Oops, sorry!

Re: Question about pickles

chickenbutt — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:20:58 GMT

mominohio wrote:
UPDATE

I called Nathan's and they don't even make the pickles. They are made here in Ohio it seems by another company and I had to contact that company.

They said that there is no vacuum as we assumed, because of the 'fresh' and refrigerated nature. All good there, that there was no 'pop'.

BUT...it was supposed to have a band around the lid. I've decided if it was supposed to have this 'safety' feature I'm not going to use them. Anyone could have removed it and messed with the contents, or it could have been an accident in the processing plant that it/some jars missed getting banded.

Either way, I now know that 'fresh' pickles in the fridge section won't 'pop' and I also won't pick up another jar without the safety seal on the lid!

Thanks for the info! I was reading the thread and looking forward to what they said about it.

I wasn't understanding the 'band' thing until now, as I realized it's that tightly fitting plastic that holds a lid on until the plastic is cut off. Yikes! IF that was supposed to be there and wasn't, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable with it at all.

It seems that you have to seem, to some, really paranoid about products. I also always look for that sort of thing and I always read expiration dates on pretty much everything now. Some stores will have old, or kind of older, products on the shelves routinely, it seems. It takes me a while to use some things so I always try to get the newest I can get.

Re: Question about pickles

CLEM — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 14:47:28 GMT

OP it is good that you were careful and vigilant about this. It's possible that the pickles were good, but who really knows.

Does anybody remember the Tylenol poisonings a few decades ago? Someone took some capsules and emptied them of the medicine and substituded some poison and then put them back on the shelves in the drug store. I don't remember how many people died and it was quite a while before they found out what had happened. After that safety seals were put on the containers.

Re: Question about pickles

Mothertrucker — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 15:26:44 GMT

yes, it was Chicago 1982 .7 people died..I dont think they ver solved it, did they?