I receive stories on my Google news feed about various canning methods on a fairly frequent basis. It always intrigues me to read about, or listen to, the various methods people are using to process their products. Most of the time, they are using the guidelines outlined by the National Center for Home Food Preservation (United States Department of Agriculture 2021 (USDA)), the leading authority on safe home canning practices. Lately though, I have received stories and videos where people are not following safe canning practices. It frustrates me that these stories continue to flood the web. Some of the people posting these unsafe canning practices call themselves Rouge Canners. I even understand there is a Facebook group that promotes themselves as not following any recommended guidelines. They are canning as they have always canned. They are following methods passed down through the generations. A process that was done in the past is not always the best process today. My question is: why take a chance of getting sick when it’s just as easy to can safely as it is to can without following recommended guidelines?

Changes in soil composition, changes to our water, more pollutants in the air, contaminated shellfish, antibiotics in livestock and more fertilizers in the ground are having an impact on our food chain and what was considered good practice years ago may not necessarily be good practice today. We often hear about E Coli in uncooked hamburger meat or listeria contaminating our food supply. We see on a frequent basis, food contaminated with L. monocytogenes (listeria), a bacterial pathogen that is found in contaminated soil. It can contaminate anything from milk to cheese to deli meat to fresh fruit and vegetables (Smith, A.). Just in the last couple of days, there has been another listeria warning released by Health Canada regarding mushrooms (https://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/10395152--do-not-consume-more-mushrooms-sold-at-metro-and-other-grocery-stores-recalled-due-to-listeria-fears-triggering-health-canada-warning/ ). Without the proper cleaning and safety practices in place, cross contamination can occur. For humans infected with this mico-organism it can be fatal and at the very least, make one extremely sick.

In the home canning world, it is Botulism that can be a problem. Botulism is caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which is also found in soil, similar to listeria, can survive, grow and produce a toxin in certain conditions. You can’t taste, smell or see Botulism. Botulism can have devastating effects. Similar to listeria, Botulism as is a rare and potentially fatal illness and it’s a possible consequence of not following proper cleaning, sanitization and pressure canning procedures. Unlike high acid foods such as pickles and most fruits and salsas, which can be canned in a boiling water bath, low acid foods can develop the Botulism toxin if they are not processed in a pressure canner. Low acid foods are things like green or yellow beans, peas, carrots and potatoes. Meats and seafood also fall into this category. Botulism may be produced inside a jar of canned goods when that product is not heated to a high enough temperature for a designed length of time to kill off the bacteria that causes the toxin. Unlike E Coli or listeria, you have control over whether you get this deadly illness. Where I grew up on a farm outside a small community in central Alberta in the 60’s and 70’s, we always had a large garden and my mother always canned what she could. I would suggest there were less pollutants in the ground, air and water. We used natural fertilizers (we always threw all of our organic scraps back into the garden to be broken down). Even then, because we didn’t have a pressure canner, any low acid foods such as carrots and peas and beans would be frozen, not canned in a boiling water bath. Why would you put your family or yourself at risk of muscle weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, slurred speech or difficulty breathing, not to mention potential death? Following the guidelines published by the USDA guarantees a safe product. Please visit http://www.canningculture.ca/ or http://www.canningculture.com/ to read about safe canning guidelines, what foods are high acid, what foods are low acid and to learn how to process your produce and meats in a healthy, fun and safe manner.

Contact me at wanda.grisak@canningculture.ca if you have any questions or are interested in taking classes to learn the proper way to process your own food (currently online only).

References:

Sources and survival of Listeria monocytogenes on fresh leafy produce. A. Smith, Moorhouse, E., Monaghan, J., Taylor, C., and Singleton, I. Journal of Applied Microbiology, Volume 125, Issue 4/ p 930 – 942. 23 July 2018.

‘Do not consume’, L. Rosella, InsideHalton.com Sunday May 16, 2021

National Center for Home Food Preservation, US Department of Agriculture, accessed from the world

wide web nchfp.uga.edu. May 17, 2021

Safe Canning Practices