MANSFIELD, Ohio — With growing season underway, it’s prudent for local farmers and gardeners to utilize best safety practices, especially those pertaining to home canning.
In April of this year, some attendees of a church potluck dinner in Lancaster fell ill with botulism. According to a report by CNN, health officials believe their illness was caused by potato salad made with tainted home-canned potatoes.
Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be found in soil and grows best in low-oxygen environments. The illness is not passed from person to person.
Symptoms include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and muscle weakness. In foodborne botulism, symptoms generally begin 18 to 36 hours after eating a contaminated food.
Botulism can result in death due to respiratory failure.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 145 cases are reported each year in the United States and 15 percent of them are foodborne. Foodborne botulism is usually linked to home-canned foods with low acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn and is caused by failure to follow proper canning methods.
The agency says that other, seemingly unlikely sources are found regularly as a result of improper food handling by manufacturers or by restaurants or home cooks. Some examples include chopped garlic in oil, canned cheese sauce, chili peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice and baked potatoes wrapped in foil.
People who home can should follow strict hygienic procedures to reduce contamination of foods and follow instructions on safe home canning.
OSU Extension‘s Judy Villard-Overocker stressed, “Safety should come first when home canning.”
That means researching best practices for home canning and using the proper equipment, like a pressure canner.
“If you don’t use the appropriate equipment, which in this case would be a pressure canner–a hot water bath would not be appropriate for the low acid kinds of foods–if you don’t use the appropriate time and appropriate heating pressure, then the potential for you to get [botulism] can grow,” she said.
Most people use clear glass jars when home canning. Villard-Overocker recommended tossing the lids after each use because the seals could crack.
“Always use tested recipes,” she said. “That means that they have been researched and that the level of acidity is appropriate.”
When it comes to storage, “You generally want to keep the [canned foods] in a darker area. A lot of the time, people keep them in a pantry or in a basement…usually a cooler area is better.” She added that it’s best to consume the food within a year, noting, “If you freeze things longer or can things longer, you lose some of the potential taste and some of the nutrient value of whatever you’re canning.”
The CDC notes that because the botulinum toxin is destroyed by high temperatures, people who eat home-canned foods should consider boiling the food for 10 minutes before eating.
“If you’re in question, throw it out. Don’t risk it, said Villard-Overocker.
“You can’t taste botulism. It’s not something that you can even necessarily see.”
She said there are some signs that a safety issue may exist; for instance, if the lid is bulging or the jar is leaking.
She highlighted a number of resources people can refer to when considering home canning, including ohioline.osu.edu, which has information about home canning basics. The website also includes information on upcoming canning and freezing classes offered by OSU Extension.
In the class, “We talk about the safe practices, equipment, things like seals and getting your pressure gauge checked…the safety factor is what we really go over,” Villard-Overocker said.
OSU Extension is also available to answer any questions people may have. “We have a specialist that’s specifically assigned to food safety, she said.
“One of the things I would recommend, too, is if you know somebody who cans or who has canned for a long time, maybe use them as a mentor.
“It’s just really important that people understand that safety is the key to canning and the preparation that you do is just really, really important for people’s safety.”
“If you’re in question, throw it out. Don’t risk it,” said Judy Villard-Overocker. “You can’t taste botulism. It’s not something that you can even necessarily see.”
