I hope this is the correct forum for this.

Are there any DIY kits for home food testing (e.g., for testing for salmonella, botulism, excessive bacteria, etc.)? Or any recommended places to learn more?

I do a lot of farm-type DIY "cooking" with our various plant/animal resources (e.g., fermenting veggies, curing/smoking/sausaging meat, dairy fermentation/coagulation/aging, infusing oils, canning/dehydrating, etc.). I read lots on these topics to learn how to do things "the right way", but I also find myself frequently trying to push the rules a bit to suite my preferences (e.g., reducing saltiness of brines, removing/reducing nitrate/nitrite curing agents, "scraping/cooking away" unexpected molds to allow longer transformations, etc.).

99.9% of the time everything works out, but I do know that sometimes I'm playing with fire. It would be really neat to be able to do some food safety tests to see if in fact I'm in the 99.9% or 0.1% case. That would both reduce anxiety, as well as enable me to share the occassional "iffy creation" with others.

Does anybody know of, or have experience with, ways to do home food safety tests? I know that there's no magic way to test for everything, or have 100% accuracy, but anything I can add to my arsenal might be handy. Sending things out to a lab every time something's questionable is of course not feasible.

Thanks.

-Rob

But yes there are a few tests you can perform at home although none of them are recommended due to the high incidence of error. pH meter and litmus tape can be used to test pH. Done correctly and with the knowledge that pH will rise during shelf storage they are better than just guessing at the pH. But the tape is easily contaminated and the meters are both expensive and require frequent recalibration.

Density of the foods, allowing for thorough heat penetration when processing, is the other concern and more difficult to measure although equipment is available.

Still one has to compute the needed processing time required even when the pH and density are known.

Lastly how can one test for the presence of pathogenic bacteria without culturing mediums, petri plates, pipettes, a sterile growth chamber, etc.? "(e.g., for testing for salmonella, botulism, excessive bacteria, etc.)" Unfortunately we can't do it at home. We can only function under the assumption that it is there and needs to be eliminated or neutralized.

Fermentation guidelines are pretty simple and straight-forward. Use a sufficient ratio of salt to weight of food and provide adequate ambient temps and all will work well. Canning acidic foods is also pretty straight forward. It is low-acid foods that pose the safety issues for the most part.

On the off chance that you aren't already familiar with NCHFP I strongly suggest exploring it and it's many publications and instructional links.

Hope this is of help.

Dave

Just to dispel any notions of a mad scientist doing weird things and breaking all the rules...here are some concrete examples.

One example, my brother recently made some smoked summer sausage but somehow forgot to add the cure. So, he had ~50 lbs. of ready-to-eat sausage...provided that bad bugs hadn't taken hold (e.g., botulism). It would have been really great if I could have taken a sample and tested it myself...rather than just following the safety-first recommendation of "just throw it out".

Another example, I like to infuse oils with various raw garden produce (e.g., herbs and garlic). I know that this can also go bad...but I also know that longer room-temperature infusions taste better. So, it would be really great if I could do a home test to see if I had went too far.

Another example...fermenting sauerkraut and cucumbers. I know the recommended salt levels and fermentation times, but sometimes I'd like to adjust things a bit to suit my tastes (e.g., less salt, longer fermentation). My nose and eyes tell me if things have obviously went bad, but what about the other cases? Am I left just assuming that things aren't safe because I didn't follow the recommended guidelines? An accurate method of testing would enable me to try these sorts of alterations with confidence.

Another example...long low-temperature drying periods with lower-salt jerky.

Another example...aged homemade cheese that are covered with "hopefully the good types of mold".

Another example...homemade wine that "smells like" it's successfully transforming into vinegar.

Another example...occassionally testing our homegrown "they seem fine" chicken eggs for salmonella.

Another example...testing raw meat of our homegrown livestock or wild game to see if putting tartare on the table tonight is safe.

Etc...

In general, I'm just trying to see what sorts of after-the-fact tests I could add to my toolkit to help in my variety of food experiments. This isn't something I'd need to do all the time (or probably even often), but sometimes "just following the rules" and eyeballing/smelling the results isn't enough. I was just wondering what tests were possible in the home.

Thanks.

-Rob

You might find neogen.com an interesting site if you're into that sort of thing. The company is geared toward testing kits and equipment for the commercial food industry, but they do have an extensive library of articles and a blog, some of which is pertinent and interesting from a consumer's standpoint as well.

P.S. There is no "test kit" for botulism. If I remember correctly, an ELISA test is required to identify the toxin. Which means you need a laboratory.

A bit of trivia: Do you know how botulism got its name? Botulus in Latin means sausage. "Sausage poisoning" was a common cause of death in the 18th and 19th centuries. During an outbreak, a scientist first isolated the bacteria from home-cured ham and named it "botulinum".

One example, my brother recently made some smoked summer sausage but somehow forgot to add the cure. So, he had ~50 lbs. of ready-to-eat sausage...provided that bad bugs hadn't taken hold (e.g., botulism). It would have been really great if I could have taken a sample and tested it myself...rather than just following the safety-first recommendation of "just throw it out".

Safety depends on how it was prepared and from what meat source it was made. If it was cold-smoked for a lengthy time in a closed smokehouse (low oxygen environment), then, yes, it could have the potential of being unsafe.

Hot smoked where the sausage reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees, then frozen - I'd eat it.

Same applies to your jerky. Is this recipe no cure plus lower salt?

Another example...homemade wine that "smells like" it's successfully transforming into vinegar.
Fruit wines are acidic enough to prevent any really bad things from growing. I wouldn't worry about that. If it gets a yucky mold, your nose and taste buds will tell you.

Another example...occassionally testing our homegrown "they seem fine" chicken eggs for salmonella.
As long as you cook your eggs and don't eat them raw, there's nothing to worry about. According to the CDC, one in 10,000 eggs is contaminated, and I'd bet most are from factory farms. Folks have been eating eggs from their own chickens for a long time, so I wouldn't worry about it. I eat raw eggs from a neighbor's chickens and never give it a second thought. I don't do that with grocery store eggs from who knows where...

Another example...testing raw meat of our homegrown livestock or wild game to see if putting tartare on the table tonight is safe.
Frankly, I trust home-grown/home-harvested meat a heck of a lot more than the stuff in the grocery store. Do you butcher your own or send it out to be processed? I butcher my own game, so I know how it's been handled. And, yes, I adore tartare from my home-harvested venison.

I don't do any fermenting (we don't eat enough to justify the space it would require), so I have no opinions on that.

As you can see, food safety encompassed a lot of variables - time, temperature, methods, etc. I do try to keep up with food safety topics and I also understand why the USDA/NCHFP/Ball etc. try to make procedures 102% safe.

Hope that helps a little.

%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO MY KNOWLEDGE and in my opinion:

As a home consumer there is no need to do food safety tests. Simply because it is not feasible.

But if you mean safe handling, cooking, canning there is a wealth of information out there to satisfy a home consumer.
How to handle, how to cook, how to .. etc.

But if your intention is about safety in home canning, again there are enough resources out there. Basically home canning revolves around TEMPERATURE,, ACIDITY and DURATION in processing time. Acidified foods (pH 4.5 and lower, the lower the better) can be safely canned by BWB method. You bring the item to near 200F+ and hold it for a given time .... seal it . No known harful bacteria can thrive, multiply and produce toxins in acidic environment. That is the beauty and simplicity of acidification principle.

In the case of non acidic foods , pressure canner is utilized to compensate for low acidity. Most know harmful bacteria are /will be destroyed at 240F+. and once the container is sealed there is no possibility of the food going bad , in the absence of harmful bacteria. chemical decomposition and aging is a different issue.
HARMFUL BACTERIA are the key words.