Skagit Canner
Assistant Cook
My local suppliers are out of canning supplies, so I ordered $100 worth of lids & bands from an outfit called ballcannlids.com recently. Their website is one of the 1st ones that come up on a search with Google or Bing. I didn’t notice the suspicious ‘double N” in the word “can,” or I would not have ordered from them. The website says “proudly made in America” & features US flags. Yesterday I received the package from China. The lids are NOT genuine Ball lids; they’re made in China, and many of them have small dents. The gaskets are all white, without the typical brick-red sealing gasket that we expect on Ball (and Kerr) lids. Now I see multiple bogus websites for canning supplies, including one that says it’s “official,” and includes warnings about counterfeits--but the website contains the misspelling “officicial” on the header! I’d love to hear if anyone has had success with Chinese lids and bands. I reckon I’ll return them, so as not to have to worry about botulism.