Difference between commercial canning and home canning
Chances are good your stockpile is filled with commercially canned and home canned foods. A jam-packed food storage area is a necessity in these uncertain times, and preserving fresh vegetables and foods is one of the best ways to store food for future shortages.
Of course, canning foods at home is economical and easy. Yet there are some differences between home canning and factory canning that are important to understand in order to choose effective stored items to feed your family in the future.
Food safety is no trivial concern, and the safety of your stored supply should be foremost in your mind. Spoiled emergency food is more than a liability; it could kill. Botulism is a real danger in canned foods, but you can learn to safeguard yourself and recognize spoilage in preserved foods. With proper storage techniques, monitoring and labeling, you will have a reliable and ready supply of food when you need it.
It is difficult to determine how long canned goods can be safely stored. While most experts agree that canned goods cannot be stored forever, the truth is that not many studies have been performed. These days, people are usually too wary of the expiration dates stamped on commercial products to keep and eat food stored after these dates; most “expired” cans are thrown away. Canned goods do not require a “best before” date, because they are shelf-stable when their packaging remains undamaged. Most commercially canned foods will have a date on them showing about three years from packing. According to the USDA, high-acid canned foods can be eaten for about a year and a half, and low-acid foods for five years after packing. Many foods will still be edible for a long time after that, though.
Canned goods prepared under proper conditions and stored properly are sterile; however, they do suffer some nutritional loss. In 1974, scientists conducted tests on a supply of canned goods that were more than 40 years old. They evaluated nutritional content and bacterial spoilage, and found that the canned foods were safe to eat. Vitamin A and C content has been shown to drop in canned foods, and in some by as much as 5-20 percent annually. The safety of the canned items is only compromised if the can itself becomes damaged.
The conditions under which canned foods are stored is an important concern. Cans should be kept between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and prevented from freezing and overheating. They must be stored in spaces relatively free of moisture and out of danger of being damaged. Dented, rusted and broken cans can harbor unsafe food, because flaws in the packaging can allow air and bacteria access to the food inside. Foods stored in glass jars must be protected from light exposure and, of course, breakage.
Monitor and document your canned foods carefully to ensure they will be safe to eat when you need them. All cans and jars should be labeled and marked with their contents and packaging date, so they will be identifiable if the paper labels are detached. If you create an inventory, you can keep track of any incidents that may affect the shelf life, as well as plan what to eat first to make sure older food is consumed before newer items.
t is important to be able to recognize unsafe foods in your stored supply; carefully observing cans and maintaining records will help you notice if the appearance of cans changes. According to the CDC, food may be contaminated if the container is leaking, bulging, swelling or if the food inside is foaming, moldy or smells bad. Don’t take unnecessary risks with your food; throw away anything that seems suspect without tasting it.
Anecdotal evidence of storing home-canned goods and eating after five to 10 years exists; not too long ago it was not uncommon to store food for hard times and eat it many years later. Despite this, most canning experts and food safety agencies recommend eating home-canned goods no more than two years after packaging. The difference between home and commercially canned foods is in the preparation; it is more difficult to maintain sterile conditions at home than within a commercial processing facility. Properly observing canning standards can ensure safer, longer-lasting home-canned goods; it is essential to learn how to preserve sterilization if you want to rely on home canning.
Canned foods are among the best options for stockpiling. Be certain to store all preserved food under proper conditions to ensure its viability to sustain you when you need it. If you are home-canning for your stockpile, you absolutely must observe rigorous sanitation practices throughout the canning process. Monitor all canned goods for signs of spoilage, and don’t risk the serious illness or death that may result from eating spoiled items. With careful preparation, storage and routine inspection, your home-canned goods can become an important part of your long-term food plan and contribute to the security of your family in times of shortage.
The home canners can’t safely get the same pressure and heat as commercially canned items. This is why it is treated differently.
You must always heat home canned goods.(like meat & veggies) You can’t eat them out of the jar like you can commercially canned items without heating. Home canned have to be treated differently.
Also home canned items are cooked for a longer time. Your noodles would be mush by the end of it. Just add the thickener or noodles when you heat the home canned food for eating.
As a home canner looking for new recipes to try out, you might sometimes be inspired by commercial products found on grocery shelves. But even after scouring through all your recipe books, magazines, and online resources there are still some products for which you cannot find home canning recommendations. Why is this? What do these companies have that you don’t?
Well, in summary, companies have two things that home canning does not have: 1) special equipment and 2) lots of money for research.
Commercial facilities have industrial equipment that can reach higher temperatures more quickly than what can be achieved at home. With specialized equipment, they are also able to control the consistency and maturity of ingredients. This control reduces the variability of the canning process, which allows for more reliable research (and therefore more product development) than can be done for home-canning practices.
Companies pay to conduct expensive research in order to determine safe product formulas and processing methods for each and every product. Even if just one ingredient is added to an already approved product, that new recipe must be carefully tested before being manufactured for sale. Acidity levels, water activity, and heat penetration are all critical factors influencing processing times, and these factors vary greatly among different recipes.
Proper studies to establish processing times for both commercial and home-canned recipes are crucial to the safety of canned foods. Without proper processing times, there is significant risk of botulism resulting from under-processed canned foods, especially low acid foods.
Experimentally determining safe processing times requires a lot of time and money, and there is no easy formula to take into account the way that each product heats in each canning situation. Commercial and home-canning processes are not interchangeable. That is why there are fewer recipes and processes for home canning than many people would like.