Quote:
Originally Posted by TomNJ
The key bad guy in home canning is botulism, but IMHO the fear of it is often over done. In spite of some 20+ million home canners in the USA, many of whom break the rules, botulism is very rare, especially for tomato products. In a ten year report on botulism incidents in America published by the Center for Disease Control ( http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no9/03-0745.htm), we average only seven cases per year from home canning, and only one case from a tomato product in the entire ten year period (1990 to 2000). Additional reports show only four cases from tomato products in 18 years with no deaths, In addition, the survival rate for botulism is 96%.
TomNJ |
I wonder in that same time period how many people have gotten serious infections from cutting themselves while preparing food to can or freeze, and how many have been killed or seriously injured while driving to the store to get canning supplies.