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Ensuring High-Quality Canned Foods (Part 2 Of

Category: Misc

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(4.0) by 2 users

Ingredients:

***** Not Found *****

Instructions:

Advantages of Hot-packing

Many fresh foods contain from 10 percent to more than 30 percent air.
How long canned food retains high quality depends on how much air is
removed from food before jars are sealed.

Raw-packing is the practice of filling jars tightly with freshly
prepared, but unheated food. Such foods, especially fruit, will float
in the jars. The entrapped air in and around the food may cause
discoloration within 2 to 3 months of storage. Raw-packing is more
suitable for vegetables processed in a pressure canner.

Hot-packing is the practice of heating freshly prepared food to
boiling, simmering it 2 to 5 minutes, and promptly filling jars
loosely with the boiled food.

Whether food has been hot-packed or raw-packed, the juice, syrup, or
water to be added to the foods should also be heated to boiling
before adding it to the jars. This practice helps to remove air from
food tissues, shrinks food, helps keep the food from floating in the
jars, increases vacuum in sealed jars, and improves shelf life.
Preshrinking food permits filling more food into each jar.

Hot-packing is the best way to remove air and is the preferred pack
style for foods processed in a boiling-water canner At first, the
color of hot-packed foods may appear no better than that of
raw-packed foods, but within a short storage period, both color and
flavor of hot-packed foods will be superior. Controlling Headspace

The unfilled space above the food in a jar and below its lid is termed
headspace. Directions for canning specify leaving 1/4-inch for jams
and jellies, 1/2-inch for fruits and tomatoes to be processed in
boiling water and from 1- to 1-1/4-inches in low- acid foods to be
processed in a pressure canner This space is needed for expansion of
food as jars are processed, and for forming vacuums in cooled jars.
The extent of expansion is determined by the air content in the food
and by the processing temperature. Air expands greatly when heated to
high temperatures; the higher the temperature, the greater the
expansion. Foods expand less than air when heated.

======================================================= === * USDA
Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539 (rev. 1994) * Meal-Master
format courtesy of Karen Mintzias