Keep your Food Safe this Home Canning Season

Home canning is an excellent way to preserve food product freshness and share it with family and friends. But York Region Public Heath advises residents that it can also be risky – even deadly – if not done safely. The good news is there are steps you can take to ensure your home canned products are safe.

Know the Risks

Canned foods that are not prepared properly at home can lead to botulism; a deadly form of food poisoning caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Food contaminated with botulism may not look or smell spoiled but even a small taste of contaminated food can be deadly.

Canned low-acid foods such as meat, fish and vegetables carry a high risk of botulism.

Follow Safe Home Canning Practices

Here are some tips to help keep your canned products safe:

• Use validated recipes for canning and avoid changing ingredients, jar size or cooking times
• The acid level of the food items you will be canning will determine the type of equipment you need to use:  
  • High-acid foods (pH of less than 4.6) such a fruit, pickles, jams, jellies and marmalades require a boiling water canner that heats food to 100C (212F)
  • Low-acid foods (pH or more than 4.6) such as meat, fish, and vegetables require a pressure canner capable of reaching 116C -121C (240F-250F)
• Follow proper practices around cleaning and sanitizing, cooking, processing and storing food
• Label and date all home canned foods before storing
• If in doubt, throw it out! Never taste food to see if it’s safe

For a more complete list of food safety information, see the Food Safety Tips for Home Canning fact sheet.  

For more information on food safety, please visit york.ca/FoodSafety or contact York Region Health Connection at 1-800-361-5653 TTY: 1-866-252-9933