CanningUSA should NOT be listed as safe !

Here are a few I found while looking around the past few months, but maybe they should be vetted by LindaLou:

Clemson site - I like the organization, and it seems pretty comprehensive, not just canning.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/food/food_safety/preservation/

The whole USDA Canning guide is on Utah's website

http://extension.usu.edu/utah/htm/fcs/food-preservation-canning/usda_home_canning/

More technical info, for commercial use, from U of Nebraska

http://elkhorn.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=681

Even more technical, in-depth info from U of Maine

http://www.umaine.edu/foodinfo/Micro_Bob_Quality_Safety_web.htm

These last 2 may be TMI for most home canners but anyone thinking of selling their products should check them out.

Ok I'll add Clemson University Cooperative Extension - provides food preservation instructions and recipes for canning, freezing, and drying. Although the website does appear to have a loading problem so will have to check it out further to find the best link to use.

USDA has it's own website so I would rather use the link to it than from a second hand source where the link might change.

The Neb Guide to "Acidified Foods Food Processing for Entrepreneurs Series" article strikes me as having little benefit to the average home canner as you said - TMI. ;) Not really forum FAQ oriented. It would be of interest to those who wished to do their own pH testing perhaps (which is strongly discouraged), meter standardization, critical control points, etc. but confusing to the average home canner.

University of Maine Food Science Extension Outreach has some good info on food borne illnesses but it is from the microbiologists point of view, and it is somewhat dated info. But again IMO it is too technical info for the average home canner's FAQ questions. A good site to bookmark however. Personally I would rather use their "Food Processing" page but it is just a collection of links, most of which redirect to NCHFP (as do many extension websites.)

Dave

PS: Carol - I know you have some great links to add to this FAQ!

Oregon state is another Ag college with Extension outreach.
I think most states have Extension services and they're a great resource. Lots have hotlines for those emergency, need an answer NOW type questions.

Deanna

How about Preserving Food Safely at Michigan State University?

Here's a few that were in my bookmarks. Even though one of them is from Utah it's their Knowledge Base.

University of Nebraska

Utah Extension Knowledge Base

NDSU Food Preservation Publications

Val

I do have some concerns with providing links. First, links are unreliable. Websites are re-organized or documents are dropped; there's nothing more frustrating for the reader of an FAQ than a dead link.

Secondly, I doubt the value of providing links to Extension agencies, as most of the documents on those sites duplicate what's already at the NCHFP. So we'd just be gumming up the FAQ with unnecessary information.

I do think there's merit in providing some links, though again I wish it were possible to pin that information as a post at the top of the page - more obvious and accessible and easy to "unpin" or delete by site administrators when material is out-of-date.

One major failing of the NCHFP is that its search mechanism for Extensions requires you to select a state. You can't search by topic unless you go to Google or other external search engine.

So if I were providing links, I wouldn't provide links to state Extensions, I would provide links to "specialty documents," as many Extension agecies have done research on topics of particular local interest and offer information not provided at the NCHFP site.

UC Davis, for example, offers documents on acidified dried tomatoes for storage in oil, safe preservation of cantaloupe, garlic, olives.

North Carolina has very readable documents on food safety -listeria, basic microbiology, irradiation, cooling hot foods, serving to large groups.

Oregon is seafood - canning both fresh and smoked fish - as well as documents on Asian pears and maraschino cherries and a process for canning nuts for those who lack vacuum sealers.

Wisconsin has those excellent pdf documents on pickling and making of sauerkraut as well as documents on processing game.

Alaska, for good reason, has some of the best information on botulism.

New Mexico and Colorado offer numerous documents on preserving peppers, even such topics as making ristras.

A few worthwhile links:

Clickable Map of Extension Agencies Nationwide.

Find Your Elevation.

Cornell 2010 Recommended Food Preservation Resources.

Recommended Salsa Resources.

Carol

What about Sure-Jell? All sorts of safe recipes for jams / jellies. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but thought I'd mention it. : )

Here is a link that might be useful: Surejell

All good points Carol! Thanks. Will re-think this one.

Dave

WE ARE!

http://extension.psu.edu/food-safety/educators

Here is a link that might be useful: penn state food safety