Biggest mistake ever 🥺

Hi friends! I just wanted to share my bad experience with improperly canned food I purchased at a festival this weekend. Even experienced canners like myself get comfortable and I was too trusting.

Hubby and I attended a “salsa fest” festival where there were a bunch of different vendors sampling their salsas and you could vote for your favorite. One of them was an avocado-tomatillo salsa, totally my jam (well, used to be 🤢) which I tried but hubby did not. I loved it and bought a jar. The vendor was a restaurant owner so I assumed he was using a commercial kitchen and high grade equipment to jar up his salsas. I should have asked him how he is able to can avocados. When we got home, I had a little bit of a stomach ache and cramping, but I figured it was from eating chips and salsa as a meal with nothing else and it passed after a few hours. Yesterday, I made a chicken wrap with the avocado salsa for lunch. About 2 hours later, I was so very sick. Sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. Luckily it passed after about 12 hours.

This morning, I checked the jar of salsa and noticed that in tiny letters across the bottom of the label it says “This food is made in a home kitchen and is not inspected by the department of state health services or a local health department”

I should have known better y’all. I know avocado is not an approved ingredient to can. I should have questioned him on this and I definitely should not have purchased it.

I just wanted to share my experience with you, and remind you all to be safe and ask questions!

Edit to add: I am in Texas… Cottage Food Law