pH of State Fair Entries in North Carolina

Introduction:  In North Carolina, judges taste-test home preserved foods submitted for competition at the State Fair. Beginning in 2014, all entries were required to include a copy of the recipe to verify it was made from an evidence-based recipe from educational or governmental sources. Little is known about the variability of pH in home preserved products submitted to the NC State Fair.

Purpose:  The purpose of this exploratory research is to show the variation in types of foods and the pHs of those foods among home preserved foods submitted to the NC State Fair.

Methods:  Information on preserved product categories and pH was collected from high-risk NC State Fair entries in 2015 and 2016. Information on recipe sources was collected in 2016 only.

Results:  In 2016, the most frequently used evidence-based recipe source was the Ball Blue Book (34%, n=27). However, nearly half (45%; n=36) of recipe sources were unknown. Five entries (6%) provided non-evidence based sources for either the recipe or processing method. The pH ranged from 2.73-5.21 in 2015 and 2.70-4.43 in 2016. Butters had the highest mean pH in 2015 (4.54; n=3); this average decreased to 3.52 in 2016 (n=9). Preserves had the highest mean pH in 2016 (3.82; n=6), which was still below the safety threshold of 4.6. In 2015, two entries were above the safe pH threshold. Both of these entries were in the butter category and had pHs of 4.88 and 5.21.

Significance:  Home-preserved butters are high-risk products and can have a pH above the safe threshold. These results can inform judging regulations for competitions where home-preserved products are taste-tested.