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Category: October 2024

Canning Mixed Vegetables

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

Canning mixed vegetables is a great way to use end of garden vegetables and have a colorful side dish or easy addition to soup.

A variety of vegetables can be used except for leafy greens, dried beans, cream-style corn, winter squash and sweet potatoes.

Do not include any vegetable that does NOT already have pressure canning procedures. Examples include celery, eggplant, and cauliflower.

Mixed vegetables can be canned in pints or quarts. No matter the combination of vegetables, the processing is 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes or quarts, adjusting for altitude.

Learn how at https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-vegetables-and-vegetable-products/mixed-vegetables/.

 

Consumer Food Safety Education Conference

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

Consumer Food Safety Education ConferenceThe 2025 Consumer Food Safety Education Conference will be March 13-14, 2025 in Houston, TX. This is the only conference dedicated to consumer food safety education. It is hosted by the Partnership for Food Safety Education.

The conference brings together federal, non-profit, higher education and industry professionals together to address today’s food safety challenges.

Registration is now open and more conference details will be announced soon.

Preserving Wild Game

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

Hunting season has begun! Wild game provides wholesome, nourishing food, but food safety is key for preserving the meat.

To retain the quality of the meat, it is important to handle and preserve the meat safely and efficiently. The most popular methods to preserve the meat are freezing, dehydrating, or canning.

Pressure canning is the only method to can meat. Be sure you canner is in good working order and remember to adjust the processing pressure for you altitude of residence.

Dehydrating meat into jerky makes a quick snack that is easy to store and is portable. The ideal dehydrating temperature is 140°F. But the meat must be heated, either before or after dehydrating, to 160°F.

Learn more at https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/foodsafety/topics/animal.html#game.

Preserving wild game

Global Handwashing Day

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

Global Handwashing Day is October 15, 2024. Why is this important? Handwashing with soap and water is one of the simplest, most effective ways to stop the spread of germs and stay healthy. Keeping hands clean can help prevent diarrheal illnesses and respiratory infections, such as the common cold or flu.

In five easy steps, you can help prevent the spread of germs and disease.

  1. Wet your hands and apply soap.
  2. Lather your hands, including the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails.
  3. Scrub your hands at least 20 seconds.
  4. Rinse your hands with clean, running water.
  5. Dry your hands with a clean towel or air dry.

Learn more at https://www.cdc.gov/clean-hands/about/index.html.

Put It Up!

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

The National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia has updated their curriculum Put it Up! Food Preservation for Youth. These educational lessons are written for youth, from 4th to 12th grade, but could be used for anyone to understand the science of safe food preservation.

This curriculum can be used for schools, summer camp instructors, parents, 4-H agents, other Extension educators, farm to school programmers, and classroom teachers…anyone who is comfortable with food preparation and food preservation, or is willing to learn!

The series is composed of six different food preservation methods: boiling water canning, making jam, pickling, freezing, drying, and pressure canning. Each method is divided into a beginning hands-on activity and an advanced hands-on activity. Activities may stand alone or be sequenced for cumulative learning. In addition to step-by-step procedures, reflection questions, and ideas for experimentation, each method also includes additional activities: a science-based fill-in-the blank challenge, a history-based word search, a glossary, a resource list, a knowledge test, and more. Each preservation activity is also accompanied by a legal-sized “poster” with simplified step-by-step instructions to be printed and posted as a checklist to help keep everyone on track and working together.

Put it Up!

Aspartame Still Considered Safe

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

High intensity sweeteners or sugar substitutes add sweetness to many beverages and foods to help those who need to reduce sugar consumption. Aspartame has been one of the most studied and reviewed sweeteners in the human food supply.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to evaluate and review scientific data and they continue to find no safety concerns about aspartame when used under approved conditions. Other regulatory and scientific authorities, such as Health Canada and the European Food Safety Authority, also agree with these findings.

Other sugar substitutes approved for use include Acesulfame Potassium (Ace-K), Sucralose, Neotame, Advantame, and Saccharin. Additionally, three plant and fruit-based high-intensity sweeteners approved by FDA include certain steviol glycosides, extracts from monk fruit, and thaumatin.

How sweet are these sweeteners compared to table sugar? This chart from FDA shows the sweetness intensity.

Sweetness Intensity

How many packets of sweeteners can a person consumer safely? This chart from FDA shows the number of sweetener packets a person would need to consume each day to reach the acceptable daily intake (ADI) level. The ADI is the amount of a substance considered safe to consume each day over the course of a person’s lifetime.

Safe levels of sweeteners

Learn more at https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/aspartame-and-other-sweeteners-food

Local Food Fellows Program

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

With funding provided by a Regional Food Systems Partnership Grant through the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, K-State Research and Extension Local Food Systems offers the Kansas Local Food Fellows Program. Food system partners across the state of Kansas can apply to host a fellow to work on a site-specific local food system project. Projects may be related to, but are not restricted to research, education, marketing, or community engagement of local food system participants including producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and/or consumers.

Applications are now being accepted through September 30, 2024 to become a local food fellow host. Organizations outline a project and the role of the fellow for that project. The fellow position must be able to complete the project in 320 hours.

Learn more and how to apply at https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/kansaslocalfoods/get-involved/fellows/.

Business Builder Grant Opportunity

Posted on by Karen Blakeslee

Buisness Builder GrantThe Heartland Regional Food Business Center will provide financial assistance through Business Builder (BB) Subawards of $5,000 to $50,000 each to support projects focused on meeting regional needs and increasing capacity among food and farm businesses working toward expansion in local and regional food markets.

Eligible to apply are small food and farm businesses or nonprofit organizations either located in or serving the five-state Heartland Center region (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska) and/or nine counties in northwest Arkansas (Benton, Carrol, Boone, Washington, Madison, Newton, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson).

Applications will be accepted through October 15, 2024. 

Details and application can be found at https://heartlandfoodbusiness.org/business-builder/.

Reference to any specific commercial products, process, service, manufacturer, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation. Paid for by Kansas State University