Home Food Preservation

Home food preservation is a popular means for preserving seasonal produce or specialty foods for longer periods of time. If not done properly, these products could be a source of botulism, a potentially deadly foodborne illness. In the United States an average of 110 cases of botulism are reported each year. Of these, approximately 25% are foodborne. Outbreaks of foodborne botulism involving two or more persons occur most years and usually are caused by eating contaminated home-canned foods. The best prevention is safe canning of foods.

To help North Carolinians learn about safe canning, a group of six Extension Agents from western North Carolina developed a Home Food Preservation curriculum. The agents are:

Tracy Davis, Rutherford County
Sue Estridge , Madison County
Cathy Hohenstein , Buncombe County
Renay Knapp, Henderson County
Julie Padgett, formerly in McDowell County and
Sandi Sox, Polk County

This team of agents has successfully delivered this curricum to hundreds of consumers in western North Carolina. The team would also like to acknowledge other Extension Agents who helped. These Agents are: Cheryl Beck, Jackson County; Pam Staton, Clay County; Jessica Robinson, Swain County; April Conley, formerly in Cherokee County; Latresa Philips, formerly in Graham County; Eloise Johnson, formerly in Polk County; Lynda Spivey, formerly in Buncome County; and Megan Schaffer, formerly in Henderson County

Educator Training Tools

Program Planning Guide -- guidelines for setting up a program
Slide set -- Instructional slide set
Evaluation Tool

Participant Handouts

Supplemental Resources for Educators

Home Food Preservation Desk Reference -- coming soon
Home Food Preservation Educator's Instructional Slide Set -- the slide set contains 209 slides that can be used by food safety educators to review and update their knowledge about current home food preservation practices.