WSU Thurston County
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Thurston County Extension
Food Safety: Food Preserving
Raw Seafood is Risky for Some People
The Olympian, May 20, 1998
Eating raw seafood is a personal decision, but only healthy people consuming products from reputable retailers should even consider eating these products. People with certain diseases and taking some medications place them at risk for serious illness or death from contaminated, raw seafood.
The Food and Drug Administration identifies them as people whose medical conditions include: liver disease, diabetes, stomach problems including previous stomach surgery and low stomach acid (for example from antacid use), cancer, immune disorders, and long term steroid use as in asthma and arthritis.
The FDA further recommends that older adults or other at risk individuals should never eat raw seafood - only seafood that has been thoroughly cooked.
QUESTION: Why does home-canned tomato juice separate?
ANSWER: This is a common occurrence with home-canned tomato juice because it is made by the "cold-break" method, to use food scientists' terminology. In this method, the tomatoes are crushed before they are thoroughly heated.
As soon as they are crushed, enzymes start to break down the pectin that cements tomato cells together.
Commercially, tomato juice is extracted by the "hot-break" method in which tomatoes are heated nearly to boiling in a matter of seconds.
Enzymes that breakdown pectin are destroyed before they have a chance to act. Because the pectin that holds tomato cells together remains intact, a thick-bodied, homogenous juice is produced.
It is hard to duplicate the hot break method at home. The best that can be done is to heat approximately one pound of quartered tomatoes to a boiling temperature as fast as possible while stirring.
Continue to quarter and add more tomatoes to the pot at a rate which does not slow the boiling. After all tomatoes are added, cook them another five minutes. Then put them through a strainer.
The least desirable way to make tomato juice is to puree raw tomatoes in a blender. Blending raw tomatoes encourages the enzymatic breakdown of pectin.
It also incorporates air into the juice, resulting in oxidative destruction of vitamin C.
To ensure that your tomato-based canning recipes and methods are safe, use only scientifically tested recipes from sources published after 1987.
Your local, Washington State University Cooperative Extension Office can provide you with USDA approved recipes and procedures for canned tomatoes and salsa.
Some publications are free while others are available for a nominal fee.
B. Susie Craig
Area Faculty
WSU Cooperative Extension Thurston County
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WSU Extension programs and employment are available to all without discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension Office. Cooperating agencies: Washington State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the county of Thurston.
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