A Common Sense Approach to Botulism & Home Canning

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Enjoy your botulism!

Wow, that’s a good way to get food poisoning and kill your entire family.

Botulism is real.

Rebel canning is stupid and causes botulism.

This is so unsafe, you’re going to get botulism.

Have you been told any of these things?  Or read them on a post of someone sharing their canned food?  These are taken directly off of comments from my reels.  And, sadly, they know not what they say, but they sure do know how to regurgitate nonsense and pass on the fear mongering! Mission complete.

In this blog post, I’m going to take you along with me on a common sense journey looking at what the heck botulism even is, how it gets into our jars, the fear mongering surrounding home canning, and everything in between as it relates to the time-honored craft of home canning.  It isn’t my goal to make you a rebel canner, but it is my goal to make you a CONFIDENT canner, whether you use government tested recipes or family tested recipes.  The main misconception I see with botulism is that folks think botulism only exists in un-tested recipes, and we’ll get into this!  Because it’s very much misinformation and a false sense of security, considering you can get it wayyyyyyy more easily from the grocery store than your own home.

I am not making light of c. botulinum.  It does exist and you should respect that.  It can cause serious illness as it is basically a nerve toxin that can make you very severely and critically ill.  Emphasis on can, not that IT WILL.  It attacks your nervous system and can cause rapid paralysis, difficulty swallowing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and more.  It exists.  What I’m going to show you here is that it’s a thing, know it, understand it, and respect it.  But don’t FEAR it.  Because while, yeah, it is a big bad wolf… it’s not that scary.

Definitions

First, I want to define some words you’ll see throughout this blog post that I want to make sure you understand what I’m talking about, because I may use them slightly different than someone else does, or my understanding is different from yours.  This is just for clarity, so there’s no assumptions, and I get my point across matter-of-factly!

Rebel Canning

Rebel canning is considered any canning that is done not using a tested recipe provided by the USDA (distributed by the National Center for Home Food Preservation), Ball, Bernardin, or Kerr.  Anything outside of modern recipes distributed by these is considered rebel canning.  It is commonly misconstrued that rebel canning causes a lot of botulism outbreaks (wildly untrue) and is a good way to get food poisoning.  The reality is, most of the things rebel canners are canning they’ve been doing for generations.  There is no way any of these corporations or groups are going to test every meemaw and papa’s recipe all over America, so they instead created their own “approved” ones they may have tested (probably not) for safety.

Tested Recipe

Just as above, a tested recipe is those distributed by the NCHFP, Ball, Bernardin, or Kerr.  These recipes are supposedly “tested by inoculation” for safety.  Except, there’s absolutely no information available from Ball or the likes on their testing processes or scientific method.  If we go off the USDA Bulletin 930, inoculation testing was done to figure out times and temperatures related to density of different foods and they found that it can be graphed and estimated from there.  Mr. Ball in like 1920 also has an equation to find canning times using easily calculatable variables through a “simple” function equation and graph.  I would guarantee most, if not all, modern recipes are not tested by inoculation, but rather run through math formulas if they are not high acid.  This is just a guess though.  Testing by inoculation is also done using a botulism-LIKE bacteria, that actually is NOT clostridium botulinum, but is similar but also nearly 2 times more heat resistant that botulinum even is.  Our food is so massively overprocessed due to this, and if you’d like to read more about this, check out my blog post!

The history of home canning is fascinating!  At least it was to me.  Once you read that all canning testing is done with a botulinum-adjacent bacteria that is ALMOST 2 TIMES MORE HEAT RESISTANT than botulinum its self, you’ll really not be afraid.  Our canning times were calculated and recommended when they proved that the stronger bacteria was not present after processing, after massive (and extremely unrealistic) innoculation and then extremely poor storage conditions.  A huge margin for error in the name of safety.  BUT, if you follow me on social media, you’ve probably seen someone losing their mind over me not peeling potatoes before canning and how I’m going to get botulism…… HOW is botulinum going to survive canning times that were calculated off a different bacteria EVEN MORE HEAT RESISTANT than actual botulinum.  Yeah, no.  Ain’t gonna happen.  And that’s not recklessness, that’s quite literally interpreting the science and basic common sense.

Clostridium Botulinum:  What the Heck Even Is It

Alrighty.  For this post on botulism, we will specifically be talking about canning low-acid foods.  High acid foods, anything 4.6 pH and below, are unfavorable for botulinum spores to thrive or survive, so anything fruit, salsas, fruit juice, jams, jellies, tomatoes, are out.  We will specifically be talking about low acid foods, those with a pH greater than 4.6, some examples being potatoes, green beans, legumes, and meats.

Clostridium botulinum has 3 different stages it can exist in:

1. vegetative cell
2. spore
3. toxin

Vegetative Cell

The vegetative cell (clostridium botulinum bacteria) is what we destroy during canning using the pillars of time and temperature and acidity with canning. If acidity isn’t present, time and temperature is adjusted.  The vegetative cell is the ONLY active living form of c. botulinum, which means it can multiply and also produce the toxin (the third form) if found in the right, or favorable, conditions.  Which *could* be our canning jars.  The bacteria can be found in soil, but is easily destroyed by temperatures of 185 degrees F.  Far lower than our canning temperatures for low acid food, even if you water bath it.

Live botulinum cells like:

• anaerobic environment (no oxygen)
• low acid (pH > 4.6)
• low sugar
• storage above 70 degrees F

Did you read that?!  The vegetative cell has to be WARM to want to multiply.  That is why storage is just as important as the canning process, BUT we never see people talking about that.  We’ll go more into this, but storing somewhere cool is on the same level as using the right processing times and being clean in your kitchen.  Nobody stresses this, which is why I’m certain it’s because we’re overprocessing our food massively in the name of safety, using times that were tested under very unfavorable storage conditions. Not even the cans at the grocery store tell you how to store them properly.

Spore

Botulinum spores are the most heat resistant form of clostridium botulinum.  They are created as a survival structure when the vegetative cell is exposed to harsh environmental conditions.  THESE are more of what we’re trying to avoid with canning and what people lose their minds over when you rebel can.  The bacterium’s spores are NOT alive.  They cannot be “killed.” We are actually looking to inactivate the spores by denaturing the protective protein layer of the spore that is formed around the bacteria, which is stored internally within the spore, then break it down and no longer allow it to germinate.  

Botulinum spores are not always harmful, but dormant spores can be harmful if they “wake up” and find themselves in the right environment.  They don’t always wake up.  They are found in soil, dust, really anywhere the ground is being disrupted.  Another common misconception is that spores are just “floating all over your house and waiting to jump into your jars.”  That’s really not the case and is lazy science at its best.  

When canning, the times and temperatures we are given are there to ensure that any botulinum spores are denatured by thermal destruction.  We also need to prevent any possible germination with good storage practices, even though it’s extremely unlikely there’s any spores in your jars in the first place.  Tested recipe or not, we are blindly relying on the canning times to denature it.  And to think you can’t get a spore in your tested recipe is laughable. Contamination can happen regardless of the recipe you are using.  All it takes is recklessness or ignorance.  A tested recipe is ZERO guarantee botulism will not be in your jars.  Scrub your produce and rinse it well, sort out the bad stuff, and be smart.  At home, thankfully we do that, and our food is safer for it.  Do you think these large production facilities are sorting through rotten produce or cleaning them as thoroughly as we do?!  NO.  Which is why their equipment needs to get hotter, faster because they need a 12D reduction for commercial sterility (because they’re dirty as heck) as opposed to home canners needing a 4D reduction.  We do smaller batches and can be so much cleaner AND SAFER.    

Botulinum Toxin

This is the guy that can make you sick and what causes botulism (botulism poisoning).  And even though the CDC changed their website on botulism recently and deleted this on their pages, you can BOIL your food for 5-10 minutes and that will inactivate the toxin. IF it is even present.  That is literally all you need to do.  The toxin is EXTREMELY heat sensitive.  The dumb thing couldn’t beat its way out of a wet paper bag.  And boiling is overkill, because 185 degrees F will destroy the toxin, but boiling ensures thorough heating.

If you’re in doubt, BOIL IT OUT.  This is recommended even by the USDA. And if you’re immune compromised, you really should be doing this with any and all canned foods anyway. When you have a weak immune system, you’re more susceptible to things that wouldn’t affect a healthy person, which you’ve probably already been told by your doctor.

If you have properly canned your food, the lid has a good seal, then your food is good.  BUT, if you’re worried, simply heat it.  That’s all you have to do.  It’s THAT easy.  If you have less than desirable storage conditions, meaning over 70 degrees F, I would also consider properly heating your food before consuming as well.  But nobody talks about that one, do they. It’s all “follow a safe and tested recipe” with absolutely no logical scientific sense to follow it. No, make sure you wash your produce thoroughly and scrub your root vegetables well! Just… our recipes are sAfE. Those recipes are uNsAfE. Wild work.  

Another misconception about the botulinum toxin is that if you open a jar that is contaminated, the toxin is going to spray all over you and your house and you will die.  People honestly think this.  If this was actually a thing in home-canned food, meaning every time we opened a rebel canned jar we were aerosolizing botulinum toxin into the air…. home canning would be VERY illegal.  That is a bio weapon. To aerosolize botulinum toxin would take some engineering to do so and  I doubt big daddy gov is going to want lil ole me having access to that.  THINK PEEPS. This is why I say… use a common sense approach to botulism, not a fear based. Because fear doesn’t have any of these people thinking clearly.

Why I’m Not Scared

Simple.

I trust the process.  Our canning times are major OVERKILL.  Ain’t no botulinum nothin’ surviving that in my jars in a pressure canner. (Read that incredibly redneck sentence again because I’m not changing it).  I also accept that everything I partake in has inherent risk, and home canning is the risk I want to take. I use my free will and my brain to make my OWN decision and don’t lay blame on other people for my problems. I’m responsible for me just like you are responsible for you.  Some people travel in airplanes all the time, other people bungee jump over canyons, and I like to can and eat really good food. Your risk of getting a serious foodborne illness from a restaurant has to be leaps and bounds higher than botulism from home canned foods.  And if you don’t believe me, let’s look at the botulism cases over the years.  Because, guess what, it’s not home canned food.  And if it was, I’ll tell you all about it.  The CDC has a botulism surveillance where any botulism case, suspected or confirmed, has to be reported and then is posted in field investigation reports for outbreaks.  

And if I’m unsure, I boil my food.  I’m usually eating my food hot anyway, so that’s really a non-issue.  If I water bath can anything low acid, I do ALWAYS make sure I boil it prior to consuming.  I’m not saying that the extended boil times don’t denature the botulism spores, that’s just how I learned and how I will continue to do so, and how I would recommend you do so as well. But again… do your own research. Make your own decision.

Botulism Surveillance

There are 4 types of botulism:

• Infant
• Foodborne
• Wound
• Intestinal Colonization

With home canning, we are looking at foodborne only.  Infant botulism is caused by an infant ingesting spores and the spores then waking up and producing the toxin in their intestines.  Wound botulism is from dirty, non-bleeding deep wounds that are infected with the bacteria, quite frequently by shared needles with drug use OR from willingly injecting botulism in you face because you desire to be frozen in time and unable to smile by the time you’re 50.  I’ll keep my forehead lines, thanks.  Intestinal colonization is the adult form of infant and is incredibly rare.

Foodborne Botulism

If you look at the cases, you’ll see foodborne is more frequent in commercially prepared food than from home canning.  That and the indigenous Alaskans fermenting fish heads and beluga flippers.  There was a national outbreak in 2011 with chili sauce that was commercially canned, found to have faulty equipment that was under-processing the food, which did cause 8 confirmed cases, and probably more that never sought medical care because botulism toxin ingestion doesn’t always cause death or severe illness.  

I also get told to look up the Lancaster, OH potluck potato salad case quite frequently, which was investigated VERY POORLY and the criminally implicated the homemade potato salad with basically no proof.  I did make a YouTube video talking about this if you’d like to watch!

The most recent case I can think of is the canned nopales (prickly pear cactus) in 2024.  There were 8 cases and 2 were very, very sick and on ventilators in ICU because of it.  When investigating, they found botulinum toxin type A in a salad with home canned nopales in it.  So, then of course, everyone starts screeching OMG HOME CANNING WILL UNALIVE YOU BOTULISM YAYAYAY.  The fear mongering is so ignorant. Every news headline and write-up immediately took the fear angle because fear = views.  If we could take a minute to LOOK INTO it, we’d see they weren’t actually canned.

The person’s procedure for processing the prickly pear cactus was the dip the jars in boiling water, fill them with chopped, uncooked nopales and salt, I’m assuming boiling water or hot water or something (this wasn’t disclosed), close the jars with lids, and then store them in her back shed (that was NOT climate controlled or insulated) for about 6 weeks until they were opened and used.  This was in California, so day time temps at this time without AC were over 100 degrees F in that shed.  Was that home canning?!  NOPE.  No canning happened here.  You can’t just throw low acid food in a jar and call it good like that.  Doesn’t work.  BUT.  What did they do?  Every media outlet ran with it saying HOME CANNING CAUSED BOTULISM BEWARE BUY YOUR FOOD FROM THE STORE.  

How about nooooooooooo.

In 2018, the foodborne botulism cases were from fermented beluga flipper, commercially prepared roasted potatoes (that were frozen and then stored on their counter for FIFTEEN DAYS… like what even are we doing here), commercially prepared preserved peppers, commercially canned soup, and pickled herring.  None for home canning.  But guess what, you ask the CDC what causes botulism and they’re gonna say “the most common cause of botulism outbreaks is home canning.”  Ask any search engine.  The World Health Organization.  The USDA.  Your neighbor.  If you ask any Joe Blow on the street, they’ll probably say home canning.  Just don’t ask me, cause you’ll be getting a lecture you didn’t ask for. Nobody is going to tell you botox. Nobody is going to tell you commercially canned food. And none of these agencies will bash anything that makes money. If you haven’t learned yet, scientists can be bought and your studies can result in whatever the heck you want them to. It isn’t until you actually think through and interpret the science yourself, that you’re going to get the actual truth. Money is always involved.

But do you understand?  Fear.  Fear gets views.  Fear gets your money.  Fear keeps you compliant.  Fear keeps you in check.  None of these big companies want you canning at home and making your own food.  NO NO my dear, let us do it for you.  You’re so busy and tired.  Here’s a can of tomatoes for $1.29.  You don’t want to die of botulism; we make much safer food here.  

I’m telling you , while it’s real, botulism is the biggest scam of our time and whoever was in charge of the marketing and spreading of fear surrounding home canning did a stellar job, because look at people. They willingly spread the fear and misinformation without even questioning the nonsense they’re sputtering.

Identifying Botulism In Jars

Guess what.  You can’t.  Which is why you have to trust the process, and if you don’t trust the process, boil your food before you eat it.

Botulism is:

• odorless
• tasteless
• and does not produce a gas that would cause you jars to unseal (food spoilage)

So, when I see the guideline from the CDC that recommends tossing jars that are:

• swollen, gassy, bulging lid, unsealed, or foaming

I laugh. That is so obviously under processing and NOTHING to do with botulism.  

See, when you’re home canning, botulism isn’t the only pathogen you’re aiming to neutralize.  And some of those are gas balls that will fart your jars right into exploding and make your canned storage smell like something diedddddd.  I guess if other pathogens survived, so could botulism, but if you’re jars are actively fermenting (see also: ROTTING), you really shouldn’t eat them.  And that’s common sense.  Number one:  it won’t taste good, and number two:  you’re probably gonna get sick.  COMMON SENSE.  But also, signs of under processing don’t protect you from botulinum in your jars.

The funny thing here is in quite a few of the “home canning” botulism outbreaks, some of the people that consumed the food stated the jars were foaming, lids were bulging, and/or the food didn’t taste good. I know one case of mixed vegetables (I believe it was green beans and carrots… I forget what they called it… doesn’t matter) a couple of the people that at it said the beans tasted like cat litter. Meaning something was OFF with the food. If it smells bad, looks weird, isn’t sealed, or is foamy… toss it. I can’t believe anyone would actually have to tell you that… but here we are.

How is Botulinum Getting Into Your Jars

The question we really should be asking, especially when people tell me to “enjoy my botulism” or “I look forward to you dying” is how is it even happening?  Because when we analyze the actual home canned outbreaks, there is no scientific method nor investigation to find this out.  HOW?!  They just immediately blame home canned food once they narrow it down. Ope, this patient has a tummy ache… have you consumed anything home canned in the past week? Ohhhh there’s a jar in their pantry.. boom done… home for dinner on time.

Botulism spores are our biggest foe with canning and just how the heck are they dancing their way into our jars ONLY when we can unapproved ingredients?

Wipe your counters and clean your jars and lids.  Work in a clean environment. Clean… not sterile.  Wash your produce thoroughly.  And follow accurate canning times, whether you’re pressure canning or water bath canning low acid foods.  Cleanliness will take you far in prevention.  I promise you, botulism spores aren’t just falling from your kitchen cabinets into your jars of oven canned butter like the weirdos online believe.

About that.  

IF botulism was so prevalent in dairy and butter like these people tell me, we would have so many outbreaks just from people setting butter out in the wrapper to come to room temperature for baking and whatnot.  But we don’t see that at all.  So, no, botulism isn’t more prevalent in dairy.  And then the next argument is WELL WELL WELL store bought dairy is pasteurized…. pasteurization is 145 degrees F for 30 minutes or 161 degrees F for 15 seconds.  Neither of those being hot enough to even unalive the living botulinum vegetative cell/bacteria.  HMMMMMMMMMM.

You catching my drift?

People are going to spread fear about things they have NO CLUE about.  And you’ll hear it.  I promise.  So steel yourself and be ready for it.  Be educated and knowledgeable so when these dummies do say it, your confidence will be unscathed because you actually know and it’ll roll off your back like water off a duck.

Common Questions

How are you confident canning unapproved ingredients?

I have researched, read, and talked with people who know more than me and just soaked in the knowledge.  There are folks that their families have been canning for 100s of years and passed those skills and recipes down.  I trust them far more than any paid government agency, because any scientist can be bought.  Don’t forget that.  Just because you’re canning an unapproved ingredient doesn’t make what you’re doing unsafe and doesn’t automatically mean botulism will be in your jars.  Plus, just heat your food and you’ll be fine.  Best practices and all that.

Confidence with canning unapproved ingredients also comes with my understanding of the canning process, how it works, and how our times are calculated. I know there’s some people that are “well that’s just how I’m going to do it” and that’s fine! But as someone who shares and teaches others, I like to have the science and understanding behind what I’m doing. It helps with confidence if people understand more than just cause.

It’s pretty easy to find old canning times of recipes and ingredients that were canned just fine in the 1940s but are now unapproved. They’re not unapproved due to everyone dying of botulism (we’d know about it if so), but rather because the end product probably wasn’t that great, either in flavor, texture, sight, or all of them.

You can use old canning times if you’re comfortable with it, or look up the density of what you’re canning and adapt your times for that. Or maybe you’re a right mathematician… grab that formula for calculating times that Mr. Ball came up with and go ham! It’s a function though… so bring your calculus brain.

How to start canning and overcome the fear?

This makes me sad, but I understand.  Thankfully, I’ve been canning basically my whole life and never knew what botulism was ’til I was an adult, far after I was a confident canner thanks to my Mom.  Overcome the fear by learning.  Educate yourself.  Understand.  I hope this blog post helps get you started on that tract.  But if your biggest hold up for canning is botulism, can high-acid foods.  No botulinums there in the presence of acid, therefore you shouldn’t be afraid of eating the food you canned.  There’s so much you can can to get your feet wet that have zero risk of botulism, unless you’re trying out for an episode of jackass or wanting to make it on the botulism surveillance board of home canning ignorance.

IF you are eating store-bought food without fear, you can home can your own.  I’m more scared of the store bought food than anything I can at home. At the end of the day, only can things you’re comfortable with. I know you see me canning some unapproved things, but guess what, you don’t have to. Just because I’m comfortable doing it doesn’t mean you are and I’d hate for you to can something you’re afraid to eat. That’s such a waste of your time!  

How do you create your own recipes and feel comfortable with it?

The NCHFP actually has a guideline to make your own soup.  From there, can things for times of food with similar densities, or if you’re doing a meal in a jar, can for the ingredient with the longest processing time.  It’s really not that hard, promise!  Most tested recipes are just trying to get you the best quality end product, because some things canned are not appetizing looking.  But as always, if you’re not comfortable doing that, don’t.  Stick to the tested recipes, especially if you’re new to learn to ropes and rules of canning.  Learn and read!  And once you build that confidence and knowledge base, you will then know if you want to step over the line into rebel canning or not.  There’s not right answer and I’d never force or push you to do one thing or the other.  But I would NEVER share a recipe that I don’t use myself.  That’s stupid.

Safe home canning is that fueled by common sense instead of fear!

People telling you you’re going to get botulism from home canned food have limited knowledge of the bacterium.  Close attention to food safety and proper food handling for preservation isn’t hard!  Be confident today to start canning and filling your shelves with a long term storage of delicious home-canned vegetables, beans, and meat.