Guest Post: Home Food Preserving Techniques That Are Dangerous To Try

 
Home Food Preserving Techniques That are Dangerous to Try

In order to have easy food stores available in case of emergency, such as a power outage due to a natural disaster, many households are choosing to purchase freeze dried meals to keep as reserves.  While choosing Wise food storage options are always beneficial in an emergency setting, they don’t provide long term food storage solutions for the produce you already have. For situations in which you have your own produce, canning or jarring is highly effective in allowing you to use your garden veggies all year long.

However, canning and jarring should not be taken lightly.  These ways of storing food long-term can result in botulism poisoning if the right precautions aren’t taken into account.  While finding the correct steps to properly can and jar food requires nothing more than a Google search, here’s a rundown of the ways in which you should not, under any circumstances, be attempting to store these edibles for the long-term:

OVEN CANNING

The intense heat and enclosed environment of a kitchen oven makes it seem like an ideal place to kill the pathogens lurking in canned preserves. But the problem with oven canning is that despite high temperatures it never reaches boiling point. This means that there’s no guarantee that thorough heating has been achieved. According to the USDA, the oven is unfit for proper canning.

MICROWAVE HEATING

Again, temperatures never get high enough to ensure all pathogens have been killed prior to preservation. In addition, liquids and gelatinous foods superheated inside a microwave can literally explode if not handled properly. All around the board, the microwave is not an option for correct food preservation.

SUN-HEATED CANNING

While this may sound like an ideal option for those with energy efficiency in mind, solar canning is not a smart option for preserving low-acidic food. The sun’s surface may top off at two million degrees Fahrenheit, but by the time that heat travels across the gulf of space, through the atmosphere, and into your can, its temperture is significantly cooler.

DISHWASHER HEATING

As far as good food storage options are concerned, dishwasher heating is the dumbest idea out there. While seemingly hot to the touch, dishwasher water is NOT hot enough for the heat to penetrate a can of food. Not by a long shot. With that said, the dishwasher is safe for sterilizing empty jars used for preserving.

ASPIRIN, PENNIES, ETC.

Anyone telling you that aspirin-based powders and other “mix-in” pathogen killers for preserving food are not only out of their mind, they’re putting you and your loved ones at great risk of sickness or even death. In addition, “old-fashioned” remedies such as utilizing the antibacterial properties of copper by lining the bottom of the jar or can with pennies is equally silly and unsafe.

If you want to know how to properly preserve food, consult the USDA web page on the subject. Avoid any sort of advice that involves the aforementioned techniques, as well as any other method that involves anything that the Department of Agriculture doesn’t recommend. Do this, and rest assured that your preserves are safe to consume.

This post was brought to you by Amanda Green.