please, can someone tell me for how many years will unopened jars of homemade jam last, and still be safe to eat? thanks.

I've eaten home made jams that are 8 years old. They get thicker and darker but taste just as good.
(I don't clear my cupboards out as often as some people! )

If it's not gone mouldy and looks / smells OK then it's fine. Cleared my jam cupboard out on Friday and found a jar of blackberry & apple and rhubarb & ginger from about 3 years ago and they both tasted mighty fine on toast on Saturday morning

Yep, with you both there, it seems to get better with age like wine and as long as there's no mould, it's fine. I do have a jar from last year, but the rest of it went within months (grandchildren).

Like cheese you can remove the mould from jam and eat without any ill effects

We've recently finished the last jar of damson- made 1992

It got left and left because I'd not removed the stones and it was almost dangerous to eat!

Good flavour- perhaps a bit more chewy

I currently have a jar of Mme Pastis' redcurrant jam in my cupboard, dating from 2004, and its perfectly scrummy.

Originally Posted by PAULW

Like cheese you can remove the mould from jam and eat without any ill effects

I''d quite forgotten that Paul, my mum used to do it with jam and she did it with cheese come to think of it.

thanks for all of your replies.. my jam ussually gets eaten in the year, but i had some left over. got confused as i read something about it only keeping for a year, but i too can remember my nan just removing the mould off of the top, and we had no harmful effects. i just wondered whether my memory was at fault.

I think what has caused the confusion is that shops now have sell by and use by dates on everything, so instead of relying on our instincts we have all become convinced that we will poison ourselves if we eat anything that is a minute past it's "sell by"

That's good to know... I've only made jam twice (both this year) and wondered exactly the same thing. On both occasions I re-used old jars with the popper things on the top and managed to get the poppers to go down (if that makes sense). I figured that meant it would be properly sealed but still wasn't sure how long it would last.