i don't often eat jam. back in london, a single jar could last me several years.

here, i use jam once, and when i take it from the fridge to use again, it is mouldy. i'm now on my 4th jar of jam - one jar per breakfast so far.

what's going on? isn't the whole point of jamming to preserve the stuff???

Jam with a lower proportion of sugar goes mouldy quicker. I keep mine in the fridge and have no problem, but I probably eat a lot more jam than you do!

that is bizarre - but if you leave a lot of butter in with the jam, that makes it go off faster. maybe you should try a different brand i think here, quite a few jams have a higher fruit-to-sugar ratio than in the UK, which possibly makes a difference...

Just scoop out the mouldy bits and use the rest

You had 4 breakfasts since you came to Switzerland?

Don't know why your jam is getting mouldy, mine doesn't. Are you putting the lid on again? Use a clean spoon to get the jam out?

Seriously, I've read that you shouldn't remove just the bits that look mouldy - the toxins or whatever they are, go much deeper than the bit you can see. Might not be true for jam though.

I find that everything here go mouldy faster! I am putting this on the fridge! They are not really good to keep the inside dry....

More information about mould on food.

Whoops, guess I will be binning the jam in future then!

I keep my jam in the fridge and it still goes mouldy, I also wonder why jams are called preserves

I saw a difference between industrial and homemade jam.

industrial get mouldy faster.....

I wonder if the fancy folks had the best idea?

I have a habit of taking out the variety of jars of jam that we may want with our breakfast and leaving the whole jar on the table until clearing away... meanwhile, I believe the folks who do the fancy thing have little dishes of jam out instead of the whole jar.

Maybe having the temperature fluctuate so much increases the chance for mold?

Also, as someone else pointed out, if you've got butter or bits of bread or peanut butter or whatever on the utensil you're using to scoop the jam, perhaps it is getting into the jar and causing it to spoil more quickly as well. (Hubby gives me funny looks when I come out with a spoon for each jar plus butter knives for each of us but I really am a bit finicky about crumbs on my butter and crumbs and / or butter in my jam jar. )

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The Joys of Opticianry

If you don't eat jams very often, then buy the single serve ones. They come in little plastic containers just like the ones you get at hotels...

The taste of many jams benefits from a little shot of alcohol. And it helps to preserve the jam.
Not suitable for minors, people with a bit of a drinking habit etc.

The raspberry jam from Co-op used to go mouldy if you even looked at the unopened jar.

More artificial preservatives = less mould. I inject myself with preservatives so that I can live forever and never go mouldy.

OT question. Phil, bit of a Farscape fan?

Try not to sneeze on the jam before you put the lid back on...