By Vanessa Richins

Jim says:

“In the canning process, it calls to add 2 Tbl lemon juice to quart jars, totally blew it and forgot.  They are all sealed correctly. Should it be thrown away? Can I reprocess with the lemon juice, or reboil and go through processing again?”

Hi Jim! First, we should explore why they’re asking you to add lemon juice to your tomato juice.

The main culprit you’re trying to battle when you’re canning foods is a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which occurs in the soil and is the cause of botulism, a paralyzing illness.

There are two basic styles of canning - boiling and pressure. The method you use is determined by what you are canning. If you are working with highly acidic (below 4.6 pH) fruits and vegetables (which includes many tomatoes), you can Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

In a sad reminder to tomato canners everywhere, 14 people were recently admitted to a Russian hospital, one of whom later died, because of an outbreak of botulism; the source was found to be homemade canned tomatoes consumed at a family gathering.

Botulism is an illness caused by the toxin “botulin” produced by Clostridium botulinum. As this toxin is one of the most powerful, for humans even one microgram can be lethal.

While botulism is a rather rare illness—there are usually fewer than 30 food-borne cases of botulism per year in the United States—and particularly in a food with high acidity like tomatoes, it can be deadly.

Here are a few things you can do to prevent botulism from affecting you and your family.

(1) As high temperatures Read the rest of this entry »