How to Sterilize Large Jars With Bleach

Use large jars for pickling vegetables, jams or homemade herb oils.

Many people are choosing to replace throw-away plastic containers with glass ones in an effort to cut down on waste and avoid harmful chemicals found in plastic. Glass jars are durable and perfect for reuse as cups and to-go coffee or tea mugs and as vessels for canning fruit, jams and pickled vegetables. Glass containers can harbor microorganisms that will cause illness and food contamination, so they first must be thoroughly sterilized.

Things You'll Need

• Liquid dish soap
• Scrub brush
• Large bucket or tub
• Bleach
• Rubber gloves
• Measuring cup

Instructions

1. Soak the jars in a mixture of hot water and liquid dish soap for at least ten minutes. Scrub the jars thoroughly as you pull them out of the soak tub and rinse them in running hot water.

2. Fill your bucket or tub with two gallons of hot water. Put on your rubber gloves and measure out 1/4 cup of bleach. Add bleach to the tub and as many jars that will fit completely submerged.

3. Soak jars for at least fifteen minutes in the bleach solution, then rinse in hot running water. Allow them to air dry. If you have more jars, you can reuse the bleach solution. Soak additional jars as directed.

Tips & Warnings

• Thoroughly rinse jars with hot water, as bleach is a corrosive agent and can be hazardous to your health. While bleach is a very good sterilizer, cleaning with only hot water and bleach may be insufficient to kill all fungi and infectious bacteria.

References

• BT: Methods of Sanitization and Sterilization
• Clorox: How to use Clorox Bleach