Home Food Preservation and Safety

Providing food that’s safe for your family is of paramount importance. Penn State Extension can provide the resources you need for all stages from preparation and cooking through to food storage, canning, and freezing. Help your family avoid foodborne illnesses and pests and find step-by-step instructions and recipes through the Let’s Preserve series.

Home Food Safety: Handling and Storage

When preparing food at home, hygiene and food safety standards are just as important as when food is prepared in commercial kitchens. Foodborne illnesses and contamination are just as likely to occur. There’s a wealth of information available to help the home cook prepare and serve food that’s nutritious, healthy, and safe.

Food products you buy from the store all have food labels, which are an indication of how long the food will maintain good quality. Temperature is also key when it comes to food storage.

Penn State Extension also has an excellent range of videos relating to home food safety, food waste, safe handling and preparation of hamburgers, tips for making jam, date marking, and refrigerator and freezer storage guidelines.

Home Food Waste and Safe Handling of Leftovers

In the US, nearly 40 million tons of food are discarded every year, which equates to approximately 219 pounds of waste per person. Food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, so it’s vital we all do what we can to become less wasteful.

Some of the food wasted is food that has gone out of date or gone bad. There are, however, steps you can take to reduce this type of wastage. You might not realize it, but food dates on packaging don’t always mean it’s not safe to eat. Often, it’s more of a quality issue. Reducing food waste is not only good for the environment, but it also saves you money on your grocery bills too.

Food waste can also be reduced by better storing and handling of leftovers. They do have a short shelf life, but as long as they are handled and stored correctly, and consumed within 3-4 days, there is no risk of foodborne illness.

Kitchen Sanitation and Safety

To prevent foodborne illnesses and the spread of contagious diseases, such as COVID-19, handwashing, proper cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting of surfaces is critical. Correct storage also has a fundamental role to play in keeping your family safe, in particular refrigerator and freezer storage. Pests such as weevils, grain beetles, and drugstore beetles are common pantry pests to be aware of.

An increasingly popular way of reducing food waste is preserving. It was common practice a few decades ago and is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Good food safety practices are necessary when preserving food, as they control bacteria. Great care should also be taken when preserving food because there is some potential for injury.

Foodborne Illnesses

If food is not handled, prepared, and stored correctly, there is a risk of foodborne illness. Not following safe kitchen practices can lead to the spread of bacteria and other disease-causing organisms. The bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, for example, is very harmful for pregnant women, children, immune compromised individuals, and the elderly. Older adults are also particularly susceptible to contracting foodborne illnesses and food poisoning. Botulism is another illness that can result from poor canning procedures.

The risk of foodborne illness is something that should be taken seriously. The health consequences of contracting a foodborne illness are not just short term. Long-term consequences such as reactive arthritis, acute gastroenteritis, and HUS are severe.

Home Food Preservation

How much do you know about the best practices for canning and freezing? An important part of home preservation is selecting the right canning or processing method for the produce.

Penn State Extension has an extensive section of home preservation workshops and Let's Preserve articles providing detailed methods for processing various types of food, the latest research to ensure safe, quality products, details on canning, freezing, and drying food, as well as tips for success and troubleshooting.