Canning Safety Tables

These tables collect boiling-water-bath (BWB) process times for common high-acid and acidified products, drawn from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) and the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. They are a quick reference for products you are canning from a tested recipe — not a substitute for that recipe, and not a license to can anything not listed here.

Caution

These tables are reference only, for foods that finish at pH 4.6 or below using a TESTED recipe. Boiling water reaches 100°C / 212°F — hot enough to kill spoilage organisms but not hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Below pH 4.6 those spores cannot grow; above it they can produce botulinum toxin, which is odorless, tasteless, and potentially fatal. Low-acid foods — most vegetables, meats, beans, plain (un-acidified) tomatoes, white-flesh peaches — are NOT safe in a boiling-water bath. They require pressure canning, which is a REFER-OUT: follow NCHFP or the USDA Complete Guide directly. We publish no pressure-canning schedules. Taste is never a safety test — verify pH with the pH safety calculator and a calibrated meter.

How to read these tables

Times are minutes at a full rolling boil, for jars at 0–1,000 ft (0–305 m) elevation. Start timing only once the water reaches a full boil with at least 25 mm (1 in) of water over the lids. Half-pint and pint times are identical for most products; 1.5-pint and quart times are identical. Where a product offers both hot pack (food heated before filling) and raw pack (food packed cold), times differ — use the row that matches your method.

Pickles (acidified & fermented)

Product	Pack	Half-pint / Pint	Quart
Quick fresh-pack dill pickles	Raw	10 min	15 min
Fermented dill pickles	Raw	10 min	15 min
Bread-and-butter pickles	Hot	10 min	10 min
Pickled beets	Hot	30 min	30 min

Note

Pickle safety comes from the vinegar, not the salt. Use a commercial vinegar of at least 5% acidity and never dilute the acid below what the recipe specifies — that ratio is what holds the finished product at or below pH 4.6. Fermented pickles must reach a sour, finished pH before canning; confirm with a meter. See Method: Pickling for the Shelf.

Acidified tomatoes

Tomatoes hover near pH 4.6 and many varieties drift above it, so every tomato product canned in a boiling-water bath must be acidified. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to every jar before filling:

Jar size	Bottled lemon juice	OR citric acid
Pint	1 Tbsp	1/4 tsp
Quart	2 Tbsp	1/2 tsp

Process times, BWB, 0–1,000 ft:

Product	Pack	Pint	Quart
Crushed tomatoes (no added liquid)	Hot	35 min	45 min
Whole / halved tomatoes (in water)	Hot/Raw	40 min	45 min
Tomato juice	Hot	35 min	40 min

Caution

Use bottled lemon juice (standardized acidity), not fresh — fresh lemon juice varies too much to trust. Do not skip the acid even if the tomatoes taste tart; acidity by taste is not pH. Vinegar (4 Tbsp of 5% per quart) is an allowed substitute but alters flavor. Do not can white-flesh tomatoes or low-acid heirlooms without following an NCHFP acidification procedure. Source: NCHFP tomato acidification directions.

Jams & jellies

Product	Pack	Half-pint / Pint
Strawberry jam (with pectin)	Hot	10 min
Peach jam (with pectin)	Hot	10 min
Most fruit jams & jellies	Hot	10 min

Note

Standard jams and jellies are naturally high-acid and process for 10 minutes for half-pints and pints at 0–1,000 ft. They are generally not canned in quart jars. Follow a tested pectin recipe for the set — do not reduce sugar or add extra low-acid fruit without a recipe formulated for it.

Fruit

Product	Pack	Pint	Quart
Peaches — halved/sliced	Hot	20 min	25 min
Peaches — halved/sliced	Raw	25 min	30 min
Pears — halved	Hot	20 min	25 min
Applesauce	Hot	15 min	20 min
Apples — sliced	Hot	20 min	20 min

Info

Most tree fruits and berries are reliably high-acid (pH below 4.6) and are safe in a boiling-water bath when canned from a tested recipe. The exception flagged by NCHFP is white-flesh peaches, some varieties of which exceed pH 4.6 — there is no tested boiling-water process for them. Source: NCHFP Peaches – Halved or Sliced.

Altitude — you must add time

Every time above is for 0–1,000 ft only. Water boils below 100°C at elevation, so heat penetrates more slowly and processing must run longer. The increase is not a single fixed number — it depends on the product and the base time.

Caution

Do not invent an altitude correction. Each tested recipe carries its own altitude table. Find your elevation and use that recipe’s exact added time. As a rough orientation only, boiling-water times typically increase by about 5 minutes per 1,000 ft above the first 1,000 ft — but always follow the published NCHFP table for your specific product, never this generalization. Never reduce a published time to compensate for small jars or a hard boil. Source: NCHFP: Selecting the Correct Processing Time.

The non-negotiables

Note

Before you process anything from these tables:

1. Confirm the food is at or below pH 4.6 (target 4.2 for margin) with a calibrated meter — taste is never a safety test.
2. Use a tested recipe. Do not scale up acid-free, swap vinegar strength, thicken, or add low-acid vegetables — each change alters heat penetration and acidity.
3. Low-acid food → pressure canning, REFER OUT. We publish no pressure schedules; follow NCHFP/USDA directly.
4. Add the altitude time from your recipe’s own table.

See also

• Safety and botulism — why pH 4.6 is the absolute line
• Water-bath canning method — the full workflow
• pH & safety calculator — confirm finished pH at or below 4.6
• Acidification — bringing borderline foods under 4.6
• Bibliography — NCHFP, USDA, FDA, and CDC sources
• NCHFP — How Do I Can? · USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning