Selling Caramel in a Jar

I think you're right to be concerned with health/safety issues. But I'm not sure it's an FDA issue. You should first ask your health inspector. (If you have a county license, they may not care. If you have a Dept of Ag & Mkts license they get very picky.)  Or contact Cornell's Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship (NECFE) http://necfe.foodscience.cornell.edu/ They can point you in the right direction. 

I've often wondered about this, thank you for raising the subject. So what was their take on your 'canning' method?

The safer way to pack this is to put the hot caramel into preheated dry jars and to screw down sterile lids while HOT.  NO hot water bath but you will develop a proper vacuum seal as the jar tops show in the dimple.

This imitates the heat shrink seal that is used for commercial packing of honey (very similar in properties regarding bacteria and molds).   YES I know honey has no fat or dairy...but a similar water and sugar content.  

Then your label with a "discard after date" and "refrigerate at all times" should be as much as you need to write.  Please avoid the "best before" statement as this does not communicate the perishability well enough.

Thank you BakingIrene! You're such an encyclopedia of knowledge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vgcea 

Thank you BakingIrene! You're such an encyclopedia 

Ahhhh....NOT.  I worked for a honey producers co-op one honey season. In addition to learning how to grade, process and can honey, I got to learn such weird stuff such as how to spot the difference between a honeybee and a wasp at 20 feet.  And how to make good beeswax candles. Also how to spot the fakes (sugar added to wet honey to improve the price).

 Hey, that's some good knowledge right there!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BakingIrene 

Ahhhh....NOT.  I worked for a honey producers co-op one honey season. In addition to learning how to grade, process and can honey, I got to learn such weird stuff such as how to spot the difference between a honeybee and a wasp at 20 feet.  And how to make good beeswax candles. Also how to spot the fakes (sugar added to wet honey to improve the price).

BakingIrene, that is so interesting... I would like to know how to spot the difference between those. please tell us how? 

Honey bees are a more subtle colour than wasps--they are brown and yellow-brown where the wasps are a brighter yellow and definitely black not brown.  There is also a shape difference that you can see when they are side by side.  Bees are a little more curvey (I would say) and less shiny.

They both congregated at the exhaust vents outside the honey processing plant in the fall when they were trying to top up their hives for winter. The difference to humans is that wasps will sting wherever, and bees have to be a lot closer to home to attack and then die.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BakingIrene 

Honey bees are a more subtle colour than wasps--they are brown and yellow-brown where the wasps are a brighter yellow and definitely black not brown.  There is also a shape difference that you can see when they are side by side.  Bees are a little more curvey (I would say) and less shiny.

 

They both congregated at the exhaust vents outside the honey processing plant in the fall when they were trying to top up their hives for winter. The difference to humans is that wasps will sting wherever, and bees have to be a lot closer to home to attack and then die.

Thanks!