Projects

Projects of the Center, 2011-2014

Outreach/Communications

• Developing, implementing and evaluating a series of six youth lesson plans on home food preservation.
• Developing and teaching webinars on home food preservation.
• Building website resources and maintaining the integrity of current website content.

Research

• Conducting applied laboratory research to compare several home canning lid systems on features of sealing rates and vacuums obtained.
• Conducting laboratory research on atmospheric steam canning for acid foods.

Projects of the Center, 2005-2010

Research

• Conducting applied laboratory research on a partially-fermented, refrigerator-stored dill pickle procedure to describe any potential heating treatments for Listeria risk.
• Conducting applied laboratory research on a home-canned tomato-based salsa procedure.

Outreach/Communications

• Developing, implementing and evaluating 4 additional website-based self-study course modules (to be released by the end of 2012).

Instruction

• Developing, implementing and evaluating an undergraduate college short-course about home food preservation.

Projects of the Center, 2000-2005

Activities of the National Center addressed goals for providing scientific, research-based recommendations for home food processing and preservation to the public. The activities included research, publications and development of communication and outreach strategies. Here's a sampling:

Research

• Scanning the scientific literature, reviewing and synthesizing findings, and creating electronic databases of the literature and reviews.
• Conducting research on microbial safety of various procedures and ingredients to develop recommendations for new products to add to our home canning and other preservation databases.
• Conducting microbial challenge studies of some historical processes to validate their safety in light of newer food safety knowledge.
• Conducting new research on microwave blanching of vegetables.

Outreach/Communications

• Publishing a CSREES-USDA Complete Guide to Home Freezing of Foods. (In process)
• Updating the CSREES-USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. (Most recent version released December 2009)
• Developing a website to represent the wealth of information from USDA and the national Cooperative Extension System, and the National Center. (www.homefoodpreservation.com)
• Developing a model Master Food Preserver curriculum and teacher manual. (In process)
• Developing on-line instructional presentations about the science of food preservation and an on-line course for educators. (Available on this website.)
• Producing an instructional video series for home food preservation educators (i.e., an updating of the University of Georgia's So Easy to Preserve series). (Available at www.soeasytopreserve.com)

Instruction

• The Center has employed graduate students in Food Science and Foods and Nutrition/Dietetics from the University of Georgia and Alabama A&M University. These students learned about home food preservation and conducted some of the research described above.

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