Alabama’s Tuscaloosa Farmers Market is again selling home-made jams and jellies, but NOT certain canned goods due to fear of botulism.
The Alabama Department of Public Health last summer banned the sales of any good prepared in home kitchens at the popular farmers market. Now health officials have issued a new regulation allowing foods like baked goods to be sold, but not the more potentially hazardous like canned beans and the like.
According to the Tuscaloosa News:
The Alabama Farmers Market Authority and the Alabama Department of Public Health worked together to create the amendment to the state’s food establishment sanitation regulations.
Under the amendment, food prepared for sale at farmers markets or at charitable, religious, civic or not-for-profit events is permissible as long as it’s not potentially hazardous and a label or visible sign indicates that it was prepared at a location not inspected by the health department.
These include items such as baked breads, rolls, cookies, cakes, brownies, fudge, double-crust fruit pies, fruit jams, jellies, marmalades and relishes, candy, spices or herbs and snack items such as popcorn, caramel corn and peanut brittle.
Prohibited are low-acid foods, such as green beans or tomato-based products, sold in hermetically sealed containers that can lead to deadly botulism if they’re not prepared at a high enough temperature or with a strong enough seal.