Monthly Articles To-date

Monica Gross, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

Image Credit: Monica Gross, 2025. 

Can you imagine an activity that allows you to experience all of your five senses? Cooking and preparing food are just such activities! Allow me to walk you through an experience that involved seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting.  

Using tomato powder to make a delicious barbeque sauce delighted all of my senses. The process involved reconstituting dehydrated tomato powder and adding a variety of ingredients to transform it into a tasty sauce that can be used for any barbeque entrée or side dish.  I added all of the ingredients, except the cornstarch, to a saucepan and mixed them together with a whisk. Initially I saw that that sauce was thin and orangish colored (Fig. 1). Upon completion, the color changed to a darker, deeper reddish color (Fig. 2). The consistency also changed as it cooked. I used my sense of touch to feel that it was thickening. I could “feel” it changing as I stirred with the whisk (Fig. 3). I brought the sauce to a boil, then simmered about 20 minutes. I listened carefully and could hear the gentle “pop-pop” of the simmer alongside the louder drone of the range hood. When the sauce was almost complete, a pleasing aroma filled the air as I smelled its delightful scent. Of course, the ultimate test of the recipe was the tasting of the final product. Licking the spoon after the sauce was placed in its storage container was the highlight of the cooking experience. The satisfying conclusion was that the sauce is delicious and will make my family happy during dinner tomorrow night! 

What about pasteurization? 

Raw honey is not safe for infants, but I wondered about pasteurization. Unfortunately, the process used by the honey industry to pasteurize honey is not enough to deactivate the spores that can ultimately result in the production of botulinum neurotoxins. Per Romeo Toledo, a food scientist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, honey must be heated to 250°F for a minimum of three minutes to destroy C. botulinum spores. Because this temperature burns honey and changes the flavor, industrial honey is heated to a lower temperature for longer. This destroys molds and common yeasts, but not C. botulinum spores. (Omahen, 2002). I found an article from 2002 that described a new sterilization technique developed by the University of Georgia that destroys C. botulinum spores (Omahen, 2002) but I could not find any information about the degree to which the honey industry has adopted the new procedure. Without further evidence, pasteurized honey must be considered unsafe for infants. 

What about home preserved foods and baked goods? 

Home preserved foods rely on several methods to make them safe. High-acid foods (below pH 4.6), such as pickles and jams, can be processed in a hot water canner because the acidity, heat, and processing time combine to destroy food spoilage organisms. However, hot water canners only reach temperatures of 212°F (the boiling point of water at sea level, boiling temperatures decrease with increasing elevation), but C. botulinum spores survive to temperatures of 240°F. Although C. botulinum spores can survive the hot water canning process, their growth is inhibited by the acidity and/or low water activity of foods that can be safely processed in a water-bath or atmospheric steam canner (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2018, p. 4-2). This means they are safe for adults, but not for infants! Items such as jams that use honey as an alternative sweetener should not be fed to infants. 

Low-acid foods (above 4.6 pH), such as vegetables, soups, and meats, must be processed in a pressure canner, which uses pressure to heat food above 212°F. In this case, heat and time (but not necessarily acid) combine to make foods safe. At sea level, foods that are processed in a pressure canner at 10 psig reach 240°F, the temperature at which C. botulinum spores are destroyed. (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2018, 5-2). (Because water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevations, higher pressures are needed to reach spore-inactivating temperatures if one is canning in a location more than 1000’ above sea level.) Nevertheless, as discussed above, such high temperatures burn honey and ruin the flavor, so pressure canning is not a suitable method for honey preservation.  

I could not find specific information about honey in baked goods, but most baked goods never reach temperatures above 212°F, so C. botulinum spores can survive. Recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control advise avoiding all forms of honey, including in baked goods and industrial products such as cereals for infants under a year old (Stanford et al., 2013).  

In conclusion 

Honey is safe (and delicious!) for adults and children over a year old. However, due to the risk of infant botulism it should be avoided in all forms for infants under a year old. All fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly washed before consumption. 

References 

Abdulla, C., Ayubi, A., Zulfiquer, F., Santhanam, G., Ahmed, M. A. S., & Deeb, J. (2012, July). Infant botulism following honey ingestion. BMJ Case Rep ., 2012(bcr1120115153). PubMed. 10.1136/bcr.11.2011.5153 

California Department of Public Health. (2022, March). Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Infant Botulism. California Department of Public Health. Retrieved July 20, 2025, from https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/FAQs_English_Updated_March2022_ADA.pdf 

Centers for Disease Control. (2024, April 18). About Botulism | Botulism. CDC. Retrieved July 20, 2025, from https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/about/index.html 

Centers for Disease Control, National Botulism Surveillance System. Case Reporting data for 2017 - 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/php/national-botulism-surveillance/index.html. Retrieved July 27, 2025. 

Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Clostridium botulinum & Botulism | Food Safety and Inspection Service. Food Safety and Inspection Service. Retrieved July 20, 2025, from https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/foodborne-illness-and-disease/illnesses-and-pathogens/botulism 

Harris, R. A., & Dabritz, H. A. (2024). Infant Botulism: In Search of Clostridium botulinum Spores. Current Microbiology, 81(10), 306. PubMed. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-024-03828-0 

Omahen, S. (2002, September 05). New Process Makes Honey Safe For Infants. CAES Newswire. Retrieved July 20, 2024, from https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/1460/safer-honey.html 

Sanford, M. T, et al. (2013), “Infant Botulism and Honey: ENY-128 AA142, 6 2013. EDIS 2013(6). Gainesville, FL. https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-aa142-2013. Retrieved July 27, 2025. 

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. (2018). Fundamentals of Consumer Food Safety and Preservation: Master Handbook. UC Master Food Preserver Program. 9781627110211 

Jadrian Johnson UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

County of residence: Los Angeles

Image credit: Jadrian Johnson, 2025.

There is a unique alchemy in food preservation, a practice that feels just as much a form of time travel as it does domestic science. Within a simple jar, we can seal not just the fleeting sweetness of a summer peach, but the echoes of the hands that harvested it, the stories shared over a bubbling pot, and the enduring spirit of a family. For me, this craft is a conversation with my history, and its language was taught to me by two formidable women: my mother-in-law, Patti, and my Grandma Ruth. 

My connection to my family’s Nebraska roots is a flavor that collapses time, reaffirmed with every spoonful of the grape jelly Patti sends at Christmastime. It’s a preserve made from an heirloom grapevine her own mother planted generations ago. It’s a taste of heritage, a direct throughline to the matriarchs who kept this tradition thriving. My other North Star was my Grandma Ruth, whose basement was a veritable family museum. Amidst the ghosts of my stylish grandparents’ vintage clothing and a guest room corner that was a perfect time capsule of seventies decor, I found my real treasures. There, in the coolest part of the cellar, stood two floor-to-ceiling cabinets, a library of captured seasons. Jars of home-canned green beans, tomatoes, pears, applesauce, and more stood like jewels on the shelves, a testament to her skill and a vibrant promise of bounty against the monochrome of a Nebraska winter. 

With such profound inspiration, it seems inevitable I would find my way to becoming a canner. My own kickstart, however, was fired up in the summer of 2020. As the world rose up to protest profound social injustice, I felt a desperate, visceral pull to join the chorus on the streets. But being immunocompromised, I was warned by my doctors to stay home and not risk COVID-19 infection. Faced with the choice of safety over solidarity, I felt sidelined. Instead of succumbing to helplessness, I resolved to redirect that fire. I traded the pavement for the pantry and brought the protest into my kitchen. 

My small Los Angeles backyard, bursting with the striking colors of nectarines, kumquats, and apricots, became my staging ground. I cranked up my kitchen and taught myself to safely harness the wild alchemy of fruit, sugar, and pectin, offering these jars as gifts to folks who made donations to social justice organizations—groups fighting for food security and nutritional education in underserved communities. That summer, this quiet act of creation, fueled by the legacies of Patti and Ruth, helped raise nearly $10,000 for charities. 

From a bountiful basement and a legacy grapevine to my own California kitchen, the thread continues. It is a profound reminder that preservation is always an act of love, a way to honor the past while actively building a more just, more equitable, and infinitely more delicious future. I’m proud to be part of the UC Master Food Preserver class of 2025 to help empower others to continue these traditions in safe and sustainable ways!

_{*Article revised 10/15/2025}