Many people wonder if you can pressure can food in the Instant Pot. Knowing the common pressure canning mistakes to avoid will ensure you’re practicing healthy canning methods so you and your family stay safe.
We all love our electric pressure cookers. They’re convenient, fast, and we’re pretty comfortable using them. But are they safe for pressure-canning foods?
They acknowledge that instant pots are unsafe for pressure canning (as of 2023). While instant pots can be used for water bath canning, which can preserve high-acid foods like jams, jellies, fruit, and pickles, they cannot be used as a pressure canner to preserve low-acid foods like meat, vegetables, and soups.
Why Electric Pressure Cookers Are NOT Safe For Canning
The problem with electric pressure cookers is that you have no way of knowing what pressure you’re actually cooking at. That means you don’t actually know what temperature your jars are actually coming to.
Even if it has a digital readout that tells you what the pressure is, there’s no real way to test it for accuracy.
How Pressure Canning Works
Pressure canning is a type of canning that you use for low-acid foods. When you have a food that’s higher on the pH scale (meaning less-acidic) than a 4.6, it is possible that bacteria can survive in it. This is why we have to sterilize the food inside the jar, known as processing, in order to make it safe and shelf-stable.
I want you to always remember that I firmly believe that home-canned food is safe, as long as it’s safely canned.
In order to reliably kill off any bacteria (including botulism) that could be in your jar, you have to bring the contents of the jar all the way up to 240-250 degrees F.
The only way to do this in a home setting is to do it under pressure. This is where the pressure canner comes in. Adding pressure and pressurizing the chamber of the pressure canner allows the temperature to come all the way up to that safe canning range.
This is something you just can’t do with a pot of boiling water.
Pressure Canning in an Instant Pot
FAQ
Can instant pot duo be used for canning?
How do you can with a duo pressure cooker?
Can you put a Mason jar in an instant pot?
Can I use my pressure cooker for canning?