Perfectly Preserved Podcast Ep 58 - Need to Know Tips to Avoid Siphoning in Jars

Occasionally Jenny and I come across VERY BAD advice from people making claims on social media about food preservation. This last week, Jenny sent me a reel a woman made about lowering the amount of water in your water bath to the level of the food in jars to avoid siphoning. Not only is this untrue but it's unsafe advice. 

In this episode we walk through the four reasons siphoning happens and how to avoid it. Siphoning is the process of hot food in jars escaping during the processing either in the water bath, steam canner, or pressure canner. As long as the jars seal there's no reason they won't be good for long term storage. The only concern would be the jar not sealing and the level of the liquid being less than half (if the original liquid is near the top, excluding a raw packed meat).

We understand it's hard to decipher information on the web, especially by those whom seem trustworthy. I would say that if your source refers to the National Center for Home Food Preservation arm of the USDA in a deregatory way then I would run. If they don't understand food science or talk about it, run. For me, I find that those with a healthy respect for botulism will always err on the side of caution.