2005 Year in Review

Food Safety Issues – Canning Breads and Cakes

Source: Shirley Camp, Extension Educator, Nutrition and Wellness

Giving gifts from the kitchen has become a popular tradition in many of our homes, according to Shirley Camp, University of Illinois Extension Educator. While making candy, cookies, and quick breads for gifts is certainly an appropriate thing to do, the currently popular "canned breads and cakes" are a problem.

The current trend in baking sweet breads and cakes in canning jars, then topping it with a ring and a flat and calling it "canned" is questionable. These foods are not really "canned", Camp says, and while the sealing compound sticks and the dome depresses, these foods can harbor harmful bacteria for the recipient.

According to information from The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, these products have the potential for supporting the growth of bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum, if they are present inside the closed jar. Many of the bread and cake recipes are low in acid so conditions can be right for this bacteria and others to grow inside the jar.

Research conducted by Kansas State University as early as 1994 showed that heat-stable microorganisms can survive the baking process and will multiply in the breads during storage. Using a banana-nut bread recipe, researchers at Kansas State University baked the bread in a glass jar and sealed them just like consumers would. They then added a heat resistant microorganism to some of the jars to see if it could survive the baking process.

In breads that had the microorganism added, it survived all baking and storage treatments.

Researchers at other universities have conducted similar tests with the same results. Still, the recipes for these products continue to circulate, the products are sold at fund-raising events, and are being given as gifts by unsuspecting chefs. The recipe even appeared in an older version of one canning jar company's book – it has since been removed from their publications.

Just because a recipe is published, that does not guarantee its safety, Camp says. If the product is produced by a commercial company, the addition of additives, preservatives, and using processing controls can produce a safe product. This does not mean that consumers can duplicate the process at home.

The best word for those who are tempted to make or purchase these products made in a home are not to do so. Since 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.

If you want to give a similar product for the holidays, bake loaves of bread and freeze them, or put the dry ingredients in a jar and attach directions for the recipient to make their own bread at home.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
November 16, 2005