Feature Articles
Recipe for Safe Canning
Janet Hackert, Regional Nutrition and Health Education Specialist
When I get a recipe for chili or oatmeal cookies, I am more apt as not to alter it as I prepare it. But when it comes to canning our garden’s harvest for my family I know that safety rules out over creativity. And to can safely means following the USDA recommendations.
I had an opportunity some time ago to meet the person who sets the standards for safe canning in this country. Dr. Elizabeth Andress is the Extension Food Safety Specialist and Project Director at the University of Georgia. She described the long hours of scientific research that goes into a canning or other food preservation recommendation. The research team pays meticulous attention to details. They check temperatures in jars at various places to be sure that food is hot enough throughout the jar to kill any microorganism that could be a problem. They also check different sizes of jars. The processes they develop are for very specific products. Their final procedures are carefully designed to reduce the risk of food borne illness to its lowest level possible. Food-borne illness is not to be taken lightly since botulism, for example, can make a person sick, or even kill someone.
Procedures for canning, freezing, and drying foods can be obtained from your local University of Missouri Extension office or on the web at extension.missouri.edu. For example there are guide sheets on canning vegetables in general, tomatoes, pickles, other pickled products, and fruits, as well as on making jams and jellies. There are also guide sheets on canning meat and poultry items. If extension.missouri.edu doesn’t have quite what suits your tastes, try checking into resources from Extension Services from other states. Their guidelines have also been extensively researched and are safe if followed exactly. To find information from University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, just type in “homefoodpreservation.com” (or .net or .org – all will work). Or go to e-answers, the clearinghouse for all Extension Services. Their web address is http://e-answers.adec.edu (adec = American Distance Education Consortium). Or you are always welcome to contact me at 660.425.6434 with any canning or preserving questions you may have.
For more information, contact Janet Hackert at 660-425-6434.
Last Updated 10/25/2007
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