What's New in Home Food Preservation 2022

Preserving Food at Home Resource Guide

Preserving Food at Home is your complete go-to resource for preserving the bounty of your summer garden for year-round enjoyment at the kitchen table. It is an extensively researched, all-in-one resource that puts easy-to-understand, science-based methods at your fingertips.

Do you like having all your Penn State resources together in one place? The newly published Preserving Food at Home Resource Guide brings together all the Penn State Let's Preserve Fact Sheets along with nutrition information about the foods being preserved and storage procedures for foods to be preserved. The introduction includes a brief history of food preservation along with guidelines for selecting a particular method and food safety basics. Chapters are organized by methods of food preservation: freezing, drying, canning, and other (including fermentation, meats, and wild game). You may recall that the Let's Preserve Fact Sheets for specific foods included instructions for both canning and freezing. So, if you want information on freezing blueberries or carrots, you would find more detailed information in the specific fact sheets.

This spiral-bound book has 162 pages. All the fact sheets were updated with the latest information before it was published. The Preserving Food at Home Resource Guide may be ordered for $20.00 online.

National Center for Home Food Preservation

Since 2000 when the National Center for Home Food Preservation was established as a multi-state cooperative extension effort, it has been the go-to source for reliable home food preservation research and tested recipes. Its website has been a quick reference for home food preservers as well as for extension educators. Many of you have been referred to NCHFP when you were looking for a specific recipe. If you have gone to the NCHFP website recently, you will see it has a new look. In additional to the basic content, don't overlook the blog called preserving food at home on current topics.

Upon the retirement of Dr. Elizabeth Andress, Carla Schwan will serve as director of the National Center for Home Food Preservation. She has completed her M.S. and PhD. degrees in the area of food safety and prevention of food-borne illness.

Elderberries

Penn State Extension had previously warned the public about canning elderberry fruit and jelly or jam. However, if specific directions are followed you can safely make jelly and jam. Read all about the new guidelines in Elderberries: beautiful to look at, not for canning.

Sanitizing Solution Updates

For many years a weak chlorine bleach solution has been promoted for cleaning kitchen surfaces. Because of changes in the concentration of bleaches, differences in their formulations, added scents, etc., and the possibility of errors in measuring amounts, Penn State Extension has discontinued the recommendation of making your own sanitizing solution. A recent examination of bleach containers in one supermarket showed the concentration ranged from 4.5% to 8.5%. Even bleaches labeled "regular" varied widely in concentration. Some brands did not even list the concentration. So, it is no simple matter to convert the formula to make a sanitizing solution for use at home. Some containers even say on the label not to use the bleach for sanitizing or disinfecting.

According to the National Institutes of Health there are differences between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting actions.

• Cleaning is the routine wiping of surfaces with soap and water to physically remove dirt, crumbs, and microorganisms. Cleaning may not kill microorganisms, but removing some of them means there are fewer that need to be controlled by cooking and preservation methods. So Extension's basic recommendation to start with clean counters, hands, and equipment remains the same.
• Sanitizing lowers the number of microorganisms to a safe level. Chemicals are used to reduce microorganisms on counter and equipment surfaces when sanitizing.
• Disinfecting uses chemicals to kill microorganisms on surfaces and objects. Food-contact surfaces are not routinely disinfected. Disinfectants usually need to be left on surfaces for a certain period of time.

Note: Sanitizing and disinfecting does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces; they should be cleaned first.It remains important to continue to sanitize work surfaces, but that can be done with one of the many commercially made sanitizers available in the grocery store.If you choose to use a commercial sanitizing or disinfecting product, read the label and follow the manufacturer's directions. Some do not require a rinsing step while others do. Some need to be on the surface for a given period of time to sanitize the surface.

Sterilizing is another process that is used to destroy microorganisms by applying heat when canning. Canning directions specify sterilizing jars by boiling them for 10 minutes—either in the processing step or in boiling water before jars are filled. This kills all bacteria, molds, and yeasts on the jar during the canning process. Sterilizing jars is different from sanitizing surfaces.

A word of caution: It is not recommended that foods be washed in a bleach solution. Instead wash fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water scrubbing with a clean vegetable brush or rubbing with your hands when possible. Because soap and detergent residue can remain on the food, do not use dish detergent or antibacterial soaps to wash fresh fruits and vegetables. Researchers at the University of Maine did not find commercial fruit and vegetables washes to be any more effective than washing produce under pure water.

References

Extension University of Missouri. "Elderberries: beautiful to look at, not for canning; Preserve It Fresh." Preserve It Safe. Volume 7, Issue 4, July/August 2021.

National Institute of Health. "Cleaning, Disinfecting, and Sanitizing." Medline Plus.

US EPA. "What is the difference between products that disinfect, sanitize, and clean surfaces?"

Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. "Best Ways to Wash Fruits and Vegetables." University of Maine.