Wow, what a difficult situation!

Part of what makes it hard is, you never know if the person who made the soup is the organizer's bff :/.

You might have best luck if you bring up the issue as a concern about the fair's liability.

Another thing to be aware of is that, most people, if they hear, '...not any tested and approved recipes with those ingredients' with think it means, 'Nobody has run the tests, but there is no reason to think it is unsafe'.

A different way to say it could be, 'Food researchers have discovered that any canned food with these ingredients can grow toxic bacteria. We might get lucky and no-one will get sick this year.... but we might get unlucky.'

It's tough. The people who purchase this food really do have a right to know the risk they are taking -- most will have no clue. But the bias towards shooting the messenger in this kind of situation is so high.

I still see pumpkin butter for sale around here at festivals in the fall. I've always seen mayo jars used to hold canned goods at them as well. I'd take mayo jars since glass is glass and they obviously didn't break. But with pumpkin butter, telling someone their pride and joy is possibly toxic is a whole other issue. Especially with some of the characters I see around here. County fair is coming up soon. And they have a canned goods contest this year. Should be interesting.

I had a run-in with an older lady recently on Craig's List who was selling half gallon jars. Once I started chatting with her, it turned out that if she could find more she would have bought more instead of selling them so she'd have a full canner load. To process beans and tomatoes in. I suggested that you can't use half gallon jars any more for those and she got all upset and gave me the "I've been doing this for XX years and it still works today." reply and I quit trying. It's personal. Very personal.

People do get very defensive about their beloved old recipes and techniques. You'd think you were attacking Granny.

In this case I see the larger issue (and the one most likely to resonate with the fair board) as liability. What if a fragile elderly person or child with immune system issues were served something tainted? While the odds are against it, we all know it happens.

I don't see the certified kitchen as the answer either since those regulations focus on sanitation, not the reliability of what's enclosed in the jar.

Another option would be to contact your nearest Extension service or university with a foods program and ask for their recommendations on the best way to approach this issue.

Carol

>Another option would be to contact your nearest Extension service or university with a foods program and ask for their recommendations on the best way to approach this issue.

Oh, that's a great idea! In part, I think, because there's a very good chance someone there would KNOW the fair food organizer -- besides being concerned about food safety.

Upsetting info like this is always going to be better received when it comes from someone the person already knows and respects. Not some random troublemaker off the street ;).

I have actually told vendors at the fair that "This isn't canned properly. You shouldn't be selling this to the public when canned this way because...." I don't care if they get upset. They are the ones who went public with their wares. They are the ones who should have made the effort to learn. They are the ones putting the public at risk.

If they ask for more info I give it to them and do it nicely. If they get huffy and indignant maybe they will think about it and investigate more later. Meanwhile at least the other people around have heard me. Then I contact the local extension office rep there since it is their responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen in the first place.

That's the bad red devil that sits on one of my shoulders. He figures we should just pick up the jars and then make sure the owner and everyone else there sees you open and dump them in the trash as you explain why.

What can I say, he's old and evil.

But the angel sitting on the other shoulder (yes, I do have one despite what others may think) always reminds me that there are a lot of folks that don't know enough to even consider the possibility that they don't know enough.

You aren't old and evil like me :-) so do what Carol suggested, contact the county extension office (if this was a county fair) or the state extension office and provide them with the necessary info. It is their responsibility and who knows, maybe it will at least make someone down the line think twice.

Dave

Maybe even better would be to contact the county fair officials in charge of this section, the county extension agency, and the local health department in charge of food licenses BEFORE the fair...far enough ahead of them that they can review the info and set guidelines?

If they don't allow entries/sales of unsafe foods before it even gets to the table would be the best practice. Of course, that's assuming you can educate those in charge of the fair/festival.

I had to do that once as an advisor to our extension board who was a resource for our farmer's market. It wasn't with foodstuffs, but another product the state has mandatory procedures for sales. It affected a lot of vendors, but I figured it would be better to warn them before an inspector did. The party to approach is the party with the most responsibility because they are the ones who impact the criteria. This was not a safety issue, btw and they acted immediately and it followed the chain of command downward to the vendors who could have possibly faced fines for infractions. The way I looked at it we did them a service and saved them possible embarrassment because they simply didn't know any better for the most part.