University of Georgia Home Canning Expert says… Several popular food-preserving trends and products may put you and your family at risk of serious food-borne illnesses. Take a look at the following list Don’t Do This at Home! so you can avoid problems!
The fad... What it is: Not a good idea because... The expert recommends:
Many commercial shelf-stable foods are Home canning recipes developed for glass packed in shiny, flexible “retort” pouches— jars cannot be used with other shapes and Home think tuna fish and juice pouches. Now types of containers. Improperly canned Skip this one entirely!! Tested recipes for “Canning” several websites are suggesting that home home canning—followed carefully and to food preservers can use these pouches for food is susceptible to the dangerous the letter—are the only way to ensure a safe In Flexible long-term food storage just by swapping the pathogen Clostridium Botulinum. The final product. Pouches pouches for mason jars and using existing medical consequences of its toxicity are canning recipes and methods. life-threatening.
This Internet fad has you putting chopped Certain food-borne pathogens thrive in Forget the idea of vacuum-packing in jars romaine lettuce into a week’s worth of the oxygen-free environment of a vacuum and carrying the salad for lunch. You’ll be quart-sized canning jars, then vacuum sealed package. Even in the chill of a protecting yourself from potential food Salad-in-a-Jar sealing each jar. The sealed jars are stored refrigerator, dangerous—and completely poisoning while also saving the trouble of in the refrigerator until you carry the jar to undetectable—toxins can develop in the jar carrying a bulky, breakable glass jar to work work for lunch. of salad. and back each day!
Sometimes referred to as “upside-down Safe canning depends upon complete Atmospheric boiling water bath” canning, this method heating of the product inside the jar. has the home canner placing filled canning Atmospheric steam canners have not been Stick with the tried-and-true Boiling Water Steam jars on a rack sitting above hot water in a properly tested for either high or low acid Bath and Pressure Canning methods. Canning shallow pan. A dome is placed over the jars foods and there are no risk-free recipes and the water is heated to boiling, filling the available for this method of home canning. dome with steamy vapor.
Unfortunately, older is not necessarily When it comes to home food preservation, Publishers market reprints of old canning better. Even if the recipes originally came modern, safety-tested recommendations are Let’s Go recipe books, bloggers promote old- from a reputable source—and who could the only ones to use! Look at old canning fashioned canning methods, and home be more reputable than your grandma?— recipes for a fun glimpse into history, but Retro! canners use their grandparent’s recipes. choose the recipes you actually prepare many older methods and recipes have been from the latest editions of So Easy to proven to be unsafe. Preserve or Ball Blue Book.
Tested recipes and clear directions for home food preservation are found in the book So Easy to Preserve, 5th edition. So Easy can be purchased for $18 at the Gwinnett Extension office. Gwinnett County Extension Service | 750 S. Perry Street, Suite 400, Lawrenceville, GA 30046 | (678) 377-4010