ABSTRACT
This chapter on canned food safety provides basic information on food safety is sues relating to canned foods. Although it can be used by students of food micro biology, food science, food technology, and related disciplines, no previous knowledge of food microbiology is required. The chapter is intended to provide valuable information to alert the home canner and others involved in food preser vation at the institutional level to the factors involved in food canning, with the goal of assuring a safe canned food product with minimal damage to organoleptic quality and nutritive value. The choice here is not to burden the text too much with theoretical principles, but to provide a more practical approach to the principles and practices required to preserve foods in hermetically sealed containers. The chapter should be a useful adjunct to the various publications on home canning, for although no recipes are published, the underlying safety principles that govern the safety of the various classes of canned foods are discussed.
