ABSTRACT
A. Safe Food Starts with Proper Home Canning If the processing equipment and containers were in good condition and every can ning step was followed correctly, both acid and low acid foods should be safe to eat. In as much as spoilage and toxin formation can occur without visible signs, particularly in canned low acid foods, it is extremely important to follow the pub lished prescribed steps. As a precaution, some published documents have advised consumers to boil home-canned low acid foods before eating them. The concern is that botulinum toxin could be present in food that shows no signs of spoilage. Because the spores of C. botulinum are killed by heat, their survival in canned low acid foods is an indication that understerilization has occurred, whether because the temperature used was not high enough, the processing time was too short, or a combination of these two conditions. This is why it is extremely important to correctly follow published scientifically proven procedures that result in safe and wholesome food, rather than depending on boiling of low acid canned food before consumption as a means of protection against process failure.
