Franklin County

                                   May 2009


 

Canning fruit-based baby food

How to tips
You can make home-canned fruit-based foods for baby food use, but not vegetables, meat or poultry. Any fruit or mixture of fruits, (except figs), may be used to make chunk style or pureed baby food with or without sugar. The fruit should be washed and drained, and any stems, peelings and pits should be removed.

In a saucepan, add one cup of water to a quart of slightly crushed fruit. The fruit should be cooked slowly and stirred frequently until it is soft. Mash the fruit, or put it through a sieve or food mill. Reheat the fruit to a boil, making sure any added sugar is dissolved. Pack fruit into hot half-pint (preferably), or pint jars leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove bubbles, wipe the top of the jars, place two piece lid on jars, and use the following processing times.

 

Caution: Do not attempt to can pureed vegetables, red meats, or poultry meats, because proper processing times for pureed foods have not been determined for home use. Instead, can and store these foods using the standard processing procedures; puree or blend them at serving time. Heat the blended foods to boiling, simmer for 10 minutes, cool, and serve. Store unused portions in the refrigerator and use within 2 days for best quality.

Source: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/general/baby_food.html

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		University of Missouri Extension Franklin County Site maintained by: Billie Jo Brenner, brennerbj@missouri.edu Last revised: 07/02/08