Oh,lands ! That is scary. Yes, I know what you mean. I am afraid of potlucks and buffets, too.
My husband will not eat anyone else's food unless he knows the people well.

Sadly there are several canning forums where posts like that, or even more scary, are quite common. It is really depressing to spend any time there. Wife read me one the other day where some guy posted that using "those canning books is a waste of time and food. Just make whatever you like to cook and can it."

And we won't even get into some of the recipe sites that offer what they call "canning recipes"! :-(

Dave

I think I and another canner on that site have him convinced it won't be safe to store and eat.

He said he could only get it up to 6 lbs pressure and no higher.

It's hard to get people to understand that you need to pressure canner to get a higher temperature than you can get with boiling water. The common belief is the purpose of pressure canning is the same as pressure cooking - to SHORTEN the time needed.

I don't know how many times I hear "you could water bath it, but you would have to boil it forever . . ."

I won't eat foods that other people have canned. It is just too much risk for me. A little food poisoning would be one thing, but dead from botulism is something else entirely.

In fact, I won't eat commercially canned food from China, because I don't trust them to follow safety standards. Apparently, that means no more canned mushrooms or tuna for my family.

Why can't prople just do things the right way? It isn't hard to find approved recipes and follow the directions. I passed on the Hot and Sweet Confetti recipe on to my boss. He brought it in for me to try, and then said "I changed it up some I hope you like it" I knew he had just canned it the day before, so I figured a small taste would be safe, but I for sure didn't eat a lot of it. I don't think I'll be trying much of what he cans. He definately isn't one for following directions.

Why can't prople just do things the right way? It isn't hard to find approved recipes and follow the directions.

Amen.

Dave

Oh, you would cringe over some of the stories I hear ! It is so hard sometimes to answer someones questions and try to remain calm and tactful.
The things like blanching the corn in the dishwasher is a classic one.

The hot dogs in ketchup and some other things, I forget what sounded so gross. Hot peppers was one of the things they wanted to add. Then, they wanted to BWB this stuff so her husband could take it in the jars to eat at work.
He would be lucky if he lived to tell about it.

I have no idea why it seems so important to people to want to do crazy things. At least this helps keep me employed. Guess I have to look at the postive things.

I do know that improper canning is a real issue, and that botulism is a possibility, but old timers where I live have water bathed green beans for generations. I've lived here 40 years and have never heard of anyone dying from home canned green beans. Or getting sick. And people here can many dozens of quarts of beans a year.

but old timers where I live have water bathed green beans for generations

They probably get away with it by boiling the he** out of them after opening. Even then the odds are that some have gotten sick, just not died, and called it "flu".

People can build up a tolerance to all sorts of things over years of exposure - even rattlesnake venom - but that doesn't mean I'm advocating petting rattlesnakes. ;)

Dave

Members of my family water bathed green beans with a bit of vinegar. But as Dave said, they cooked the h*ll out of them once opened. No green bean was considered ready until it had had at least 30 minutes on the stovetop, usually with about a pound of bacon.

The boiling kills any active toxins.

Carol

> In fact, I won't eat commercially canned food from China, because I don't trust them to follow safety standards. Apparently, that means no more canned mushrooms or tuna for my family.

Now that surprised me! I had no idea that should check country of origin on mushrooms and tuna. And I use a lot of canned mushrooms. Sure enough... on my Great Value brand pieces and stems mushrooms label is "Product of China". I won't buy produce grown south of the border either. A butcher at the market where I buy my chicken claimed when he worked at W*M the chicken they packaged for counter sale was often from Mexico. Butcher at local W*M told me "not to my knowledge".

Amazoned a couple of very inexpensive LED flashlights and plastered all over them were hazard warnings: "Wash Hands After Handling" Made in China

Admittedly, when I first started reading this forum I was often very skeptical of some of the cautions. Have always said this forum is the absolute best place to go for reliable info though.

And don't get me started on tap water! (quit drinking and cooking with it in the late 80s)

I just saw this morning that my can of applejuice concentrate says from CHINA !!!!!!

I'm not sure of the exact statistic, but I read somewhere that I think at least 30% if not 40% of our food comes from China. Very odd, since the US with 300+ million people is an agricultural powerhouse and China can barely feed its population which is the largest on the planet, at 1 billion. And in my home state of Michigan, one of the most agriculturally diverse in the nation, we have a 15% or more unemployment rate with farms up for sale everywhere. We have some strange priorities in this world today.

I read somewhere recently that many of the food products that say product of China are actually food items that are produced in the US, but shipped to China to be processed and packaged, and then shipped back to us, because processing is so much cheaper in China. Now how stupid is that?!?!? The same article also said that Chinese workers are striking over low wages and that much of this production may be coming back to the US because it is becoming cost prohibitive. Somebody needs to rethink this scenario.

Steve

So,if they ship the food to China and process, that food must be REALLY fresh, ha ha ! Sheesh.
Why are the American people so foolish ? Can't people think this stuff through and see what has happened ?
Today I am canning local peaches and local apples into pie filling.
Got some local broccoli for dinner. My plums are also local.
The only things I got that aren't are the lemons since we can't grow them here.

laceyvail,

It's also the case that botulism isn't commonly found in vegetables. It CAN BE, which, given how serious it is, is a good enough argument for me to follow modern guidelines. But risk is a combination of the seriousness of a problem and the likelihood of it happening. There are a lot of other serious things that ccould happen to me that are MORE likely than botulism poisoning, even if I followed methods from 1943.

My edlerly fisherfolk cousins in rural Quebec water-bath can the local pork pate. I've seen websites where folks water-bath-canned butter, cakes, and all kinds of things. Most of them do not get sick, I'm happy to say.

But a few do, and a few always will, just as some folk will always ignore sensible guidelines (and even laws) regarding driving, climbing, eating, using firearms, and any number of other things we do every day, many of which can't EVER be made 100% safe the way home canning *can*.

I do prefer to canning handled sensibly. But there are a lot of risks I worry about much more, because they're much more likely.

Z

China, along with its perennial double-digit economic growth, has turned into the leading agriculture producer in the world. On balance, statistically, they still import more "food" but thats stuff like soybeans and corn, used for animal feed.

I forget what the statistic is now on imported frozen apple juice concentrate, but its most of it - see link for data thats a few years old. I know that farmed European salmon is sent to China for filleting and repackaging - I also read recently that an awful lot of "wild" salmon is, in fact, farmed salmon.

With out getting all political and economic, I dunno how many food items I've watched over the course of the last decade where suddenly, the price plummets because its coming from China, and after everyone else is run out of business, the price goes way back up. Canned mushrooms are an excellent example. I won't buy the stuff. I also avoid like the plague any farmed seafood from China, scallops, mussels, shrimp, because literally, it makes us sick.

The other day, in the frozen food section, the spinach and green beans were from China, the peas from Canada, the corn and okra from Mexico, but, finally, the broccoli was from the US.

I've filled one chest freezer with home-grown frozen fruit and vegetables, the other with beef that came from across the road, and canned several hundred jars of stuff.

Save money, eat well.

Here is a link that might be useful: apple juice

DH's aunt always pressure cans her shelled beans for 25 minutes at 10 lbs, She never adjusts for altitude. I have hinted and finally told her outright that she should be canning them 90 minutes at 12 lbs. She said, "But that would take forever!" She cans her blueberries open kettle. When I told her that wasn't safe she said, "But they always seal!" I cannot get her, his mom and his sister to understand canning safety no matter how I try. DH will not eat at his Mom and sister's unless I do the cooking or unless it's fresh stuff. It so SO frustrating to me. I explain and they agreed but then go right on and do what they've always done.

I'd focus on the green beans and not worry about the blueberries. Being quite acidic, they really aren't a safety issue. The worst that would happen is they ferment in the jar or mold. So if they want to risk shelf-loss, that's up to them. But I've never heard of anyone getting sick or dying from open-kettle canning of blueberries.

(Strangely, I have heard of one case of botulism involving pears; that was a surprise, but they're higher on the pH scale than blueberries.)

Focus on the green beans and if you don't have any luck (I never did with my cousin who steam-canned hers.) just continue not to eat them and encourage long-cooking.

Carol

There is a website that recommends canning hot fudge sauce with butter and cream, beef stroganaoff with flour and cream and other not so safe recommendations. Where do people come up with this stuff?

"In fact, I won't eat commercially canned food from China, because I don't trust them to follow safety standards. Apparently, that means no more canned mushrooms or tuna for my family."

oregonwoodsmoke,

Look what I found at Sam's yesterday: Giorgio Mushroom Pieces & Stems A case of 12 4oz cans for only $5.98! Best By date 06/24/2012. Some Sam's carry the same mushrooms with Pennsylvania Dutchman label instead of Giorgio.

My parents and others (from the depression era) boiled beans and other veggies for 3 hours in a BWB. Another 30 minutes when they opened the jar. They had to be mush!

Even though I only use reputable recipes and follow directions to a "T", I still follow a "boil for 10 minutes" rule for ny soups and veggies.

One note: most goods that say "made in China" were actually processed/made on large manufacturing ships anchored just over the USA line in international waters.

I'm with you'll, I still wouldn't trust their goods to be safe.

I haven't canned much in the past few years, mostly from the lack of much from my own garden. I can always count on the "regulars" here to offer safe recipes or advise on a recipe I have a question on. I use the Blue Book as a standard as well. I just wouldn't trust to eat anything that didn't meet some sort of standards. It just isn't worth the time and care put into canning to produce a product that you can't be 100% sure of, or reasonably so. I'm with the previous posters; I don't understand why we get food stuff from other countries! I don't trust their standards or methods. Lori

I'm glad David52 is watching out for those poisoned peas we've been sending down from Canada. It's part of our plot for taking over the continent. Next year it might be ... Ah, just wait and see.
Jim

I actually bought some of them Canadian peas, Niagara jim. And after close, individual, under-the-looking-glass inspection, I figured they were ok to eat.

They had an average weight of .00231 ounces (thats like 1 gram in Canadian) and 5.4 wrinkles per pea - which is important re melted butter adhesion. :-)

Too funny. It's making me think of the tomato scare (salsa related) several months back. According to the health department, the only purchased tomatoes known to be safe to eat for a period of time were vine ripened hot-house grown Canadian. We ate them. Not cheaply either, they were spendy little devils :)

Butter on peas! A distant memory these days.

morz8,

Hey, they grow those Canadian hothouse 'maters just down the road from me. The local company is called "Cromato" (which sounds to me like a cartoon supervillain).

They ship all kinds of places, but they also have a roadside sign saying you can go right to the gate and buy some. I never have; once fresh season is over I usually stick to canned & dried.

Jim,

ShhhH!!! Do NOT give away our top secret plans!!!!!

Z