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OSU Extension

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Home canning is a relatively simple process, but many variables can affect your finished product. There are so many resources with unsafe information that it is important to make sure you are following the most recent safe home canning guidelines. One guideline for home canning foods safely is using a pressure canner to process low-acid foods, such as vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish. These low-acid foods must be pressure canned at the recommended time and temperature to destroy Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that causes botulism food poisoning. Home canning low-acid foods in boiling water canners is absolutely unsafe because 212 degrees F is not high enough to destroy botulinum bacteria.

To make sure your pressure canner is working properly, all dial-gauge pressure canners should be tested for accuracy each year. FCS Educator, Megan Taylor tests dial-gauge canner lids for FREE, year round. For more information contact Megan Taylor at taylor.4411@osu.edu or call the office at (937) 644-8117.

 


Food Preservation

Gardeners and other lovers of fresh produce are often interested in extending the season's bounty by learning more about home-preserving fruits and vegetables. Ohio State University Extension Family and Consumer Sciences home food preservation workshops focus on teaching the basics of home canning and preservation. We emphasize the science behind preservation so than everyone who cans or freezes fresh fruits and vegetables understands why certain procedures must be followed precisely to ensure a high-quality, safe product that they and their family can enjoy.

Home Food Preservation educational programs typically address:
  • Basic food safety principles.
  • How to use a water bath canner and a pressure canner.
  • Canning tomatoes, pickling, and making jams and jellies.
  • Freezing fruits and vegetables.
  • Accessing reliable research-backed resources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, OSU Extension, and others.

Click HERE for OSU Extension's Home Food Preservation page, which contains several videos about canning!

Food Safety

Ohio State University Extension Family & Consumer Sciences professionals offer a variety of food safety programming throughout the state.  The manner in which people handle and prepare food is a major reason why foodborne illness occurs.  People must alter their food handling behavior, but they must first have the knowledge and skills that are known to protect food from contamination with pathogens before they have the capacity to change their behavior.  Education provides the knowledge and skills Ohio citizens need to reduce incidence of foodborne illness and to reduce the impact on health care costs.

Click HERE to go to OSU Extension's webpage to read more on food safety.