Franklin County

   September 2008
 

Home-canned breads are not safe
Canned breads and cakes in glass jars are popular gift-giving ideas. The bread or cake is not really home-canned. It is baked in an open glass canning jar, then covered with a canning lid; there is no further canning process given to the product.

Canned breads and cakes are not recommended for home cooking or canning; choose cake or bread recipes that you can freeze.

Many cake and quick bread recipes contain very little or no acid, and thus have the potential for supporting the growth of hazardous bacteria, such as Clostridium botulinum, if they are present inside the closed jar. Clostridium botulinum causes an often fatal food-borne illness, called botulism.

Recipes containing fruit, zucchini, liquids, etc. provide water for micro-organisms to use. In addition, lack of oxygen alone does not prevent the growth of all harmful bacteria. The vacuum seals do not remove all oxygen, so some would still be available to contribute to the growth of  bacteria.

Research at Kansas State University showed that heat-stable micro-organisms can survive the baking process and multiply in breads during storage.

Research on canned breads in jars at other universities has shown the same potential for dangerous products to result. Nevertheless, recipes for home-canned breads and cakes do continue to appear in major news-  papers, books, on television, and on the web. However, this does not mean the product is safe. Recipes also appear in some older canning jar company booklets. Currently, canning jar manufacturers do not endorse baking in their canning jars. Jar manufacturers consider home-made products baked and stored in jars to be unsafe.

Breads and cakes in sealed glass canning jars can often be found for sale at fairs and craft shows. This does not mean that the consumer can duplicate the product safely at home.

When breads and cakes in jars are made for sale commercially by reputable companies, additives, preservatives and processing controls, which are not available for home recipes, are used. Safety tests are done on each specific recipe for commercial products.

Do not purchase home-canned breads and cakes in glass jars, unless they contain additives to prevent microbial growth and meet all labeling requirements for commercial foods.

Given that no reliable, safe recipes for baking and sealing cakes or breads in jars for room temperature storage are available to the home cook, it is best to say these products are not   recommended at this time. 

Source: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension







 

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