The times are changing and so should you. Safe home canning

You may have heard that a 54-year-old woman near Columbus, Ohio died this week and 23 others have been hospitalized from botulism (a very severe form of food poisoning). Tonight, it’s been announced by the CDC that the food poisoning happened at a church potluck dinner and, in the last hour or so, they’ve announced that the source of the botulism was home canned foods, apparently green beans.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... cases.html

I know that the person who processed and served that food has to be absolutely devastated by this. He/she can certainly use your prayers as well as all the people affected by this outbreak.

Friends, I know some of you can produce from your gardens and from the market. If you are still canning the way your mother or grandmother taught you, PLEASE realize that canning techniques have changed a lot over the past several decades and even the past couple of years. They’ve even changed the way we store our canned foods (i.e., now we know that you must always remove the bands from your processed foods and never stack one jar on top of another).

Acidic foods like most tomato products, pickles and most fruits can still be done in boiling water baths the way our mothers and grandmothers did it. But, canning low-acid foods such as green beans, potatoes, corn, carrots, dried beans, asparagus, meats, stock, etc. must be done in a pressure canner!

I don’t care if your mom canned green beans by boiling them for hours in a huge pot! It’s not hot enough to destroy botulism spores! I also don’t care if your grandmother did vegetables the old-fashioned way and “nobody ever died”! That’s simply not true and, as we see in the situation this week in a church in Ohio, it’s simply irresponsible to take that kind of risks with the health and lives of your family and friends.

There are also a huge variety of dangerous and irresponsible recipes, videos and ideas posted on the internet that are disasters waiting to happen. Please be very careful in following any techniques you’ve used in the past or ideas you come upon on the web. I recommend that you rely on certain reliable stand-bys such as the newest edition of the Ball Blue Book (which underwent a significant updating in the last few years).

If you have any questions whatsoever about the techniques you’ve been using to preserve foods or if you are curious about the possibilities of home food preservation, visit the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/

I also recommend the “Safe Canning By The Book On Debbie's Back Porch” group on Facebook.

If you want to learn how to safely can low-acid foods using a pressure canner, please let me know. I will be happy to help you learn how to can safely! It’s really quite easy and very, very rewarding.

I can also share with you excellent resources to explain why the “old ways” are no longer considered safe and to help you learn exciting new techniques for preserving all kinds of foods.

[Robin Garr]

Lois, thanks for taking the time to share that possibly life-saving information. I think it's important enough that I copied it into the main restaurants forum. Even though it's not strictly restaurant-related, it's important to everyone who cares about food, so I thought it should be shared with a broader audience.

You're welcome, Robin. Glad you saw the importance of the message. I love canning but I think learning to do it safely is vitally important. Many people are intimidated by them but pressure canners are safe and easy to use.

When I heard about this, I thought...Baptist, pot luck....The Casserole from hell! Someone probably had a bulging can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup!!

I was wrong..

I find this topic interesting. I have been following Jonathan Katz's book, The Art of Fermentation and what he recommends is organic produce, spring water and sea salt. There is no need for sterilization, since you want to encourage the good bacteria. Simple soap and water will do. To make sauerkraut you pound the cabbage to release the natural juices. The next step is to add a good quality sea salt to taste. After that you stuff the cabbage into a glass jar making sure it is compact and then it is sealed. Finally you place it in an area that will have a temperature range of 65-70 for 4-7 days.

Is this wrong?

Madeline, I am the wrong person to ask about fermentation. I don't do sauerkraut. HOWEVER, I can refer you to the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They are the genuine experts on all subjects relating to home food preservation. See their website at http://nchfp.uga.edu/. Fermenting foods are covered at http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can6a_ferment.html

The CDC and the Ohio Department of Health have issued a statement that home-canned potatoes used to make potato salad appear to be the cause of the botulism outbreak last week. One person is dead and about two dozen people have been or remain hospitalized for treatment.

In my opinion, the reports should state that "improperly home-canned potatoes" are the cause. There are tested and proven safe methods to can all manner of low-acid foods such as potatoes. Unfortunately, it seems like every home canner with a video camera thinks they have the best way to can foods and there are, sadly, a staggering number of websites and YouTube videos out there touting completely UNSAFE methods for canning foods.

From http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/04/h ... UBictJViko:

Health officials reminded the public that foodborne botulism can be prevented by following proper canning techniques to avoid contamination of foods, including using the right equipment for the food being canned. Other advice for home canners:

Always use a pressure canner when canning vegetables, meat, poultry, and seafood.
Pressure canning kills the germ that causes botulism when foods are processed at the correct time and pressure.
Do not use boiling water canners when canning vegetables, meat, poultry, and seafood because they will not protect against botulism poisoning.
Make sure that food preservation information is always current with up-to-date, scientifically tested guidelines.
Do not use outdated publications or cookbooks, even if they were handed down from trusted family cooks.

If any of you are interested in learning how to SAFELY can food at home, let me know. I have a number of resources I'd be happy to share with you. First and foremost among these is the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia -- http://nchfp.uga.edu/

I presumed canning and fermentation was one in the same process! Thanks for the links.

Well, they're related but so is freezing, dehydrating, salting, smoking and brining. You can't go wrong with the NCHFP recommendations.