With the increasing interest in eating foods grown locally and a return to home food preservation, UNL Extension offers consumers web-based, accurate, up-to-date information on canning, freezing, and drying food.
As home food preservation, especially canning, climbs in popularity, the number of websites and online chats on the topic have increased. The advice is sometimes based on what grandmother did -- or personal opinion.
Canning might be considered an art as well as a science. As such, people often want to let their creative side take over! They create their own recipes, they improvise with equipment and supplies, and they may make decisions based on half-truths.
Thanks to the Internet, there is the possibility for misinformation (sometimes potentially harmful) to go viral!
Extension’s comprehensive http://food.unl.edu website – which provides information, resources, and food experts about food from farm to factory to fork – includes a section on home food preservation. Content is based on the latest USDA guidelines.
If you sell locally produced foods at farmers markets or through other venues, the website also includes several downloadable brochures written by Julie Albrecht, Extension Food Specialist. These are formatted for convenient distribution to consumers at farmers markets, in CSA baskets, etc.
Over the past month, the home food preservation section of food.unl.edu has had more than 34,000 hits. UNL’s involvement in this area was recognized recently when a practice group of the American Dietetic Association featured at one of its national webinars, a presentation by UNL staff, reaching approximately 300 ADA food and culinary experts across the United States.
Access the home food preservation section of the food.unl.edu website at http://food.unl.edu/preservation
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/rvm