If in doubt, throw it out. trust your instincts

It's fine. Use it. I found this on the Hellman's website:

"We have developed a new cap on our 15 and 30 ounce jars. The cap is designed with a tamper evident ring, similar to beverage bottles. There is no inner seal as the tamper band ensures a safe product.

By eliminating the need of the tamper band we have created a more environmentally friendly cap thus preventing 145,000 pounds of PVC waste from entering the waste stream."

Lori

Great detective work Lori. So Beverley, looks like it's safe to eat :)

Yup, I'd eat it, and I remember when things didn't all come with those seals anyway. However, if it makes you uncomfortable at all, toss it, it's not worth worrying over.

Annie

Wow, who would have thought Lori! Thanks to everyone. I had forgotten about the days with no seals. Of course that was before someone started adding poison to the Tylenol and putting needles in children's Halloween goodies. Just afraid it wasn't sealed properly.

Beverly

My mother always swore that her mother kept the opened Hellman's in the pantry, unrefrigerated. Nobody died. I never really believed this, then spent a week in the Virgin Islands where mayo bottles were left on restaurant outdoor tables all the time. Made me reconsider my disbelief (but did not prompt me to eat it.)

Now wait a minute here, the old jars weren't "unsealed" any more than a canning jar is unsealed when properly canned. Doesn't anyone remember the rubber liner inside the metal cap? Remember trying to open them? Far different than a plastic cap. Who cans with plastic caps? Well, apparently Hellman's does now! So I stand corrected.

It's interesting that they've removed the liner. Apparently they're putting some sort of a seal inside the lid now.

My problem with mayo and salad dressing is that it sits on the shelf so long that I don't feel comfortable using it. Yes maybe it's OK, but for the little bit it costs, I'll toss it and buy new to be safe.

And mayo being out for a while, well that's the way it is. How many picnics are mayo salads properly refrigerated? They've discovered it's not the mayo in potato salad that makes people sick when it gets warm, rather it's the potatoes (and sometimes eggs and other ingredients) that do it! Mayo actually has preservatives in it so it's a myth that mayo makes you sick.

Cynic, that's true, the lid itself was sealed, but the plastic or foil or whatever seal wasn't underneath on the old jars. Ostensibly, the jars could be knocked about in shipping and some would come "unsealed", and the seals under the lids could be sold as "tamper proof", which nothing ever really is.

Actually, if you're scared of mayo on the shelf, you could make your own, but the eggs in the grocer's case have probably been there long enough that you don't really want to know how old they are either!

Homemade mayo was made with raw and unrefrigerated eggs, and so spoiled more easily than today's processed and preservative laden stuff.

Annie

My main concern was how could a plastic bottle possibly be sealed with just a plastic lid and nothing more.

I've been eating Mayo with the blue plastic lid for some time now and I'm OK. Go for it.

I've been making my own mayo lately so that I can use up the olive oil that I have. It tastes distinctively different, but it's supposed to be better for my cholesterol, and I've come to prefer it. Now that my lemon tree finally has ripe lemons, it's that much easier. I use it mainly on the sandwiches I make for lunch, and since I go home for lunch, it doesn't stay out of the fridge for long. I still like Hellmans/Best Foods, but even the olive oil version has very little olive oil in it.

Lars