Crock Pot slow cooker. During the winter, menu planning often turns more to soups and stews than at other times of the year.  When that happens, a slow cooker is the perfect appliance for preparing a nutritious meal that is ready when you walk through the door at the end of the day.  A slow […]

Image courtesy of foodsafetynews.com Every year the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Pesticide Data Program analyzes a wide variety of food crops and processed foods for pesticide residues.  The annual report of testing covering 2018 was recently released (December 2019), with the numbers varying little from recent years.  According to the report summary, “Over 99% of the products […]

The debate on whether or not to wash raw poultry is a fierce one, but until recently there was no hard-and-fast data to tell us just how risky it is to wash poultry.  A recent study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) demonstrates that individuals are putting themselves at risk of illness when they […]

As recent blog posts suggest, there are dozens of food recall notices posted in the United States each month.  The Partnership for Food Safety Education has developed some fact sheets that they hope will help people sort through the information in recall notices and to take action to identify whether a recalled product is in […]

I have been answering many questions about the use of an atmospheric steam canner.  The University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted research showing that an atmospheric Steam Canner may be used to safely can naturally acid foods such as peaches, pears, and apples, or acidified-foods such as salsa or pickles.  The atmospheric steam canner uses only ~2 […]