OSU Extension Food Safety and Preservation hotline opens for canning season

CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) — – With canning year underway, the Meals Protection and Preservation hotline from Oregon Point out College Extension Company is now getting calls.

The toll-no cost hotline, 800-354-7319, operates from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, until eventually Oct. 7. When the hotline is closed, callers can depart a message. The hotline is staffed by qualified Grasp Foods Preserver volunteers in Lane and Douglas counties. The volunteers fielded 1,487 phone calls to the hotline in 2021.

Most frequently, hotline callers ask about preserving salsa, tomatoes and tuna. OSU Extension delivers publications on every single: Salsa Recipes for Canning, Canning Seafood, Canning Tomatoes and Tomato Products and Safely Canning Meals: Strain Canners, Pressure Cookers and Electrical Strain Cookers.

Additional publications and actuality sheets are accessible on the OSU Extension web site.

Introduced in 1980 in Lane County, the Master Food stuff Preserver program has grown to contain more than 300 Grasp Food items Preservers who have to entire an 8-week system to be accredited and start out volunteer shifts on the hotline.

Extension’s Ask an Expert, an online issue-and-answer services, is a different way to get information and facts. Extension industry experts can offer you details about something similar to foods preservation – from security fears to recipes – and attempt to answer in two company days.

There is also a totally free app – Canning Timer & Checklist – that presents reminders of necessary measures in the canning method.

Additionally, several Extension offices offer no cost force canner dial gauge tests. Hotline volunteers can provide you with info particular to your county.

About the OSU Extension Assistance: The Oregon State College Extension Company shares research-based mostly information with people and communities in Oregon’s 36 counties. OSU Extension addresses troubles that make a difference to urban and rural Oregonians. OSU Extension’s partnerships and systems contribute to a nutritious, affluent and sustainable upcoming for Oregon.