Now I know that they do more testing than home canners can, but I doubt that matters, lets say there is a 1 in 1,000 chance that some practice will yield botulism laden food, just testing one out of every 5000 jars will not prevent the 5 bad ones from escaping.

Now I would imagine that they are canning in environments that are a little cleaner than the average home, but not much cleaner than we can get (hang some plastic and wash down everything, I've done a fair bit of fungal propagation and am quite familiar with sterile environments, I don't think this is it). Commercial canners also have equipment to pack extremely hot (metal does not have to avoid getting scalded) and then they have bigger pressure canners, but I can't see this helping with something like eggs. They probably have the capability to use normal temperatures and high pressures, I guess most home canners cannot do that, and I suspect that they can also use things light UV lights to sanitize (not worth much) and gamma rays to sterilize (but for the most part they are not, this comes with a special label) so what are they doing? I love love love Lime curd, and from reading here it is a big no-no even for PC, but looking at the label I don't see any chemicals outside of the ingredients that I would use if I made it. Very few chemicals are both edible and restricted to the public, it seems like anything they can use would should be able too. Perhaps with equipment they could use oozone but that is another chemical of dubious usefulness.

So are there really specialized pieces of equipment I could buy for lots of money if I wanted to make cream of something soup or lime curd or tuna packed in oil or pickled eggs shelf stable? Or is that just what they say because they know that the average kitchen is too dirty and the average canner is too forgetful to do things safely?

Thanks

I don't know what oozone is, are you talking Ozonators? They are used for water purification.

" Glowing food: its good for you. "

You might want to watch "How It's Made" on Discovery channel or one of the many similar TV shows that provide a detailed explanation of the commercial canning industry - they just did commercial canning of sardines this past week - for more details. An interesting (to me) aspect of that particular show was the walk-in pressure canner chambers that were the size of my 2 car garage and had vault doors like a GIANT All American PC.

Dave

Oozone is how you misstype ozone, didn't you learn anything in school? It is used for killing things through oxidization, H₂O₂ and Ethylene Oxide (ETO (CH₂CO))

Gamma Irradiation isn't that bad, the food is exactly as radioactive when they are done as when they start, Gamma rays are basically the 800 lb gorillas of the photon world, and they are no more likely to taint your food than shining a light on it.

I've seen a few episodes of how its made, but never anything that I didn't mention in the first post. I cant stand that show, but I've seen things get hot packed and the like. A walk in pressure cooker can sterilize more at one moment, but it's not magic, a small one will work on small batches.

I literally have a bottle of Benzoic acid in my drawer here, it would take me about 30 seconds to make some sodium benzoate I'm pretty sure its not restricted to the public, and how much does a business licenses cost? I'll probably have one in a year anyways for unrelated reasons.

Can anyone point me to one of these threads with the specifics on what they have? I'm curious for some specifics.

It isn't just the size, it is the available pressure. Home canners are limited to 15 lbs. With 30-50 lbs available, processing times would be more than cut in half not to mention the increased safety due to the higher heat.

This not to mention the ability to use cans vs. glass jars and high pressure vacuum sealing.

But if for no other reason than the testing equipment, there honestly is no comparison possible. But then we don't profess to be commercial canners here.

Dave

I'm not sure what your question is. If you're speaking of a product like lime curd, there is some argument that it's sufficiently acidulated to allow for processing (and I do know of some recipes for canning), even though no current approved home processing guidelines allow for it. However, having tasted some commercial products, I have to say I can't see the benefit as the result is so inferior to the fresh (or even frozen) product, I wouldn't be interested.

The more sophisticated resources do allow commercial processors to test and bottle products the home canner can't. However, in most instances, the result is compromised and I can't see why I would want to emulate it as it depends upon high degrees of acidification or the use of preservatives I prefer to avoid.

Carol