Im new to canning and food preservation. So much information..".to trust or not to trust." Yet even though I hear the bottom line is to trust only the approved testing, I find that I still have questions and have a hard time trusting my end product simply because of the possibility of human error. I read that there is a field test similar to a home pregnancy test that they use to detect botulinum in 20 minutes. Has this been made available to the public and if not, why? It's a great business plan if someone can come up with the science behind it. And Ill buy it. Home testing might also make it possible for others to continue testing since the government quit. But while we're waiting for that, I would like for someone to clarify some information. I know botulinum is the bacteria which produce the toxin (gases) that can hurt us. The bacteria die at a certain temp for a certain time. I have heard some people suggest to boil a home-canned product thoroughly after opening/before eating it to kill the bacteria, but this seems insufficient as the toxins would still be present. It is not the live bacteria that are toxic but the gases that they produce. Also the bacteria die when exposed to oxygen. Does boiling somehow neutralize toxins? Or is this just false information? Lastly, since bacteria produce gases, is it safe to conclude that jars tainted with bacteria would definitely have some outward visible signs of contamination? I know that other bacteria can infect food, but in my short studies I have been led to believe that botulinum is the hardest to kill. But do all bacteria produce gases and therefore provide some indication that food isn't safe?

I don't buy imported foods, at least to the best of my knowledge. I also do not buy any mass produced foods, from Smithfield or any other company. I certainly do not buy ANY mixes or prefab box foods. This country is just as deplorable in their food practices as any other. I have talked with many a farmer who left the USDA way of farm life because much filth is allowed while the inspector is sitting there. Bad things are alowed in feeds, the farm conditions are filthy, and people think eggs are fine because they are run through disinfectant water full of feces. The cracked ones sitting in that filth are sold to go in cake mixes. Do you really think workers at a factory farm care? They don't. They don't care if a child dies due to contamination. Read some of Joel Salatin's books. They are an eye opener, and due to his wonderful sense of humor, a delight to read. We vsited his farm in Virginia last fall. What a wonderful place! A well run cattle or chicken farm, where the animlas are allowed to be happy animals and are rotated on fresh pasture daily, DOES NOT SMELL. At all. The meat and milk taste fresh and sweet.The cheese is not the rubber stuff the stores sell. Better yet, make your own cheese from local fresh milk. It's a fun past time. So if the masses want cheap food, buy it, and eat it, I don't care. It only exists because they don't care enough about themselves and support it with their dollar. Make a nice meal for family and guests out of pure basic ingredients, and a roast or hamburgers from a local organic farmer. If you're a vegetarian, make a nice lasagna from cheeses you made youself and sauce you cooked from scratch and simmered all day. It's some effort but make enough for the freezer and you have easy meals for other days. Serve them a cake actually made from scratch and not a grocery store or box. They will rave about your meal, probably over eat a little, and ask to come back soon for a visit. Smithfield? Yuck!

* A handy reference on the amount of bacteria that you can kill at different temperatures and cooking times is here: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/Oa/fr/95033f-a.htm?redirecthttp=true * I clean raw foods mostly with just water. I try to at least get any obvious layer of bacterial material to wash off by feel under running water. My general feeling on other techniques for cleaning raw food is that they either do far less than the people using them believe (e.g., vinegar will not kill many types of pathogenic bacteria) or for the ones that do work well - like oxygen bleach - I worry about ingesting that and killing off valuable gut micromes. You have to balance all of these issues of safety and convenience, and it's really hard to do this accurately. I have chosen to go with convenience. * I will confess that I eat a LOT of raw eggs and have never had a problem with them. Only in raw form do you get some of the nutritional advantages. This is by far my biggest food risk for pathogens. I have yet to get a single episode of indigestion. So even for high risk activities like this, the risks are actually pretty low. * For reasons I have never understood, oysters - even well cooked - cause me to throw up. Always. I'm not sure if that is some bacteria that survives cooking or if that is some other chemical agent that cannot be cooked away.

Same with spices and transparency. Those few that source directly and lab test in house. "...Traditionally, in the spice trade, middlemen take a large cut of the profits. By the time a jar of nutmeg from a farmer in Sri Lanka arrives in your grocery store, there could be up to 15 collectors, brokers, traders, processors, wholesalers, and distributors involved, estimates Nadee Bandaranayake, owner of Cinnamon Tree Organics, another mission-driven spice company. This also means it usually takes years for that nutmeg to reach a supermarket shelf, Bandaranayake says. And when it arrives, it could be mixed with nutmeg from a handful of countries, not to mention artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives to make the seeds or ground powder look homogenous and stay fresh. By that point, she says, “the whole purpose of adding spices to a meal — the flavor, the aroma, the color, the health benefits — to me, they’re all kind of gone.”..." HERE Cut out the middleman and give the farmers fair wages, not poverty wages.