Food Safety A Bigger Worry Than Y2k - canning and preserving food safely - Brief Article

You may have more to fear from home canning by novices than from Y2K computer crashes, maintains Bill Evers, a foods and nutrition specialist at Purdue University's Cooperative Extension Service, West Lafayette, Ind. Concerns about social and economic disruptions that might occur if computers crash at midnight on the last day of this year have prompted some people to investigate canning their own food. He warns that food preserved at home by inexperienced canners may be the more potent threat.

"Some people want to preserve their own food because they think that all of the supply and food delivery systems will fail at 12:01 a.m. on New Year's Day. We feel that the chance of food poisoning from home-preserved food is greater than the very, very unlikely chance of a collapse of the food delivery system.

"In low-acid foods, essentially all non-fruits, the botulinum organism can grow and have a great time if it is not eliminated in the canning process. Canning requires pressure cooking with the proper canner at 10 pounds pressure to kill the organism and make food safe." In addition to the danger of botulism, any food that is improperly handled is subject to growth of other food poisoning bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, and listeria, all of which can cause serious sickness or death.

For those who are concerned about Y2K, he recommends common-sense planning such as laying in a few days supply of some dried foods. "If a person wants to, he or she could keep some dried milk, cereal, bread, and a few containers of water."

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