Hi Sue, 

Thanks for reaching out. The lemon juice added to most canned tomato recipes is an essential ingredient for safety because tomatoes are often not acidic enough to prevent the growth of bacterial spores that cause botulism poisoning. If you are using a recipe that calls for lemon juice, and you finished your canning without lemon juice more than 24 hours ago, the contents are potentially unsafe and should be discarded. 

The specific recipes endorsed by the USDA for home canned spaghetti sauce, however, do not call for acidification with lemon juice, because they use a tested pressure canning process to keep the product safe. Here's an example of a spaghetti sauce recipe that does not need lemon juice: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/spaghetti-sauce-without-meat/

Could you share what recipe you are using? If you were using a recipe like the linked one, you would not need to add lemon juice and would not need to dispose of the lemon juice. Be cautious, however, because some tomato recipes call both for adding lemon juice and give an option for pressure canning. In those cases, lemon juice is an essential ingredient for safety.

Happy to help more if you care to share your specific recipe.

Jared

Hi Sue, 

Thanks for sharing the recipe! This does sound like a tasty sauce, but it raises some red flags for safe canning. Because tomato-based sauces have a combination of low-acid ingredients (onions, peppers, etc.) and borderline acidic ingredients (tomatoes), the final pH of the product is essential for preventing the growth of the bacterial spores that cause botulism. 

Recipes from the USDA, Extension Services, or trusted canning companies like Ball all use lab-validated recipes that can guarantee an appropriate pH for canning. The recipe you're using does include lemon juice, but I don't see any indication that it has been lab tested to show that the sauce and any chunks of low acid vegetables in it have all reached a safe acidity after canning. I would recommend freezing this sauce in the future if you decide to make it again!

For the jars of sauce you have already canned, if it has been less than 24 hours, you could open the jars to break the vacuum, repackage, and freeze or refrigerate the product. If it has been more than 24 hours, enough time has gone by for bacterial spores to germinate and produce toxin. Those jars should be treated as unsafe and should be disposed of. Full instructions for safe disposal can be found here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/storing-home-canned-foods/

Thanks for reaching out to prioritize safety!

Jared

Hi Sue, 

Yes, I'm sorry for the loss of your time and produce! I'm also glad that the previous times you canned this recipe it was not harmful to anyone. It is all a matter of probability and risk. A home canner can use a recipe that doesn't cause any harm for many years, but there can still be a risk that the recipe could cause harm if the produce had been contaminated with the wrong bacterial spores and the recipe did not have sufficient acid or heat used to control their growth. The tested recipes the Extension Service recommends have controls in place that ensure that it won't make anyone sick even if the bacterial spores are present.

Thanks for reaching out.

Jared