Food & Garden Safety

Sowcial connects neighbors who grow, raise, make, and trade food directly with each other, often outside the inspections and pasteurization that packaged grocery-store food goes through. That makes a little extra care worthwhile. This guide is general information, not medical, veterinary, or legal advice. When in doubt, contact your local health department, agricultural extension office, or a veterinarian, and always trust your own judgment (and nose) over anything written here.

Kitchen & food safety

• Wash fresh produce before eating it, even if it looks clean, it may have passed through several hands between harvest and your kitchen.
• Eggs: refrigerate promptly, keep them cold, and cook until both the yolk and white are firm. Wash your hands after handling raw eggs or shells.
• Honey: never feed honey (raw or otherwise) to infants under 12 months, it can contain spores that cause infant botulism. It's safe for older children and adults.
• Homemade dairy and cheese: if a listing is made from raw (unpasteurized) milk, it carries a higher risk of Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli, and Brucella than pasteurized dairy. Ask the seller how it was made. Pregnant people, young children, older adults, and anyone immunocompromised should be especially cautious with raw dairy.
• Home-canned or preserved goods: improperly canned low-acid foods (most vegetables, some sauces) can grow the bacteria that causes botulism without any obvious sign. Ask whether the seller used a pressure canner (required for low-acid foods) or a water-bath canner (fine for high-acid foods like most fruit jams and pickles). Never taste a jar with a bulging lid, spurting liquid, or off smell, when in doubt, throw it out.
• Keep raw and ready-to-eat foods separate, refrigerate perishables promptly, and cook meat, poultry, and eggs to a safe internal temperature.
• It's always fine to ask a grower how something was grown, raised, milked, or processed before you trade for it or eat it.

Plant health (disease & pests)

• Before listing or trading seeds, seedlings, or cuttings, inspect them closely for spots, wilting, discoloration, mold, unusual growths, or visible pests or eggs.
• Don't share plant material from anything showing signs of blight, rust, powdery mildew, or root rot, even a small cutting can carry disease into someone else's garden.
• When you receive plants or seedlings from someone else, keep them separate from your main garden for a couple of weeks and watch for problems before transplanting them in.
• Clean tools like pruners and pots between plants, especially after touching anything that looked off.
• Avoid saving seed from diseased plants, and rotate what you plant where each year to keep soilborne disease from building up.

Animal & flock biosecurity

If you raise chickens, bees, goats, or other animals for eggs, honey, or dairy:

• Quarantine new birds or animals for two to four weeks before introducing them to an existing flock or herd.
• Use separate footwear and tools when handling animals that aren't your own, and clean and disinfect coops, hives, and equipment regularly.
• Don't sell or share eggs, milk, or honey from an animal that seems sick, lethargic, or off its feed until a vet has ruled out illness.
• Limit contact between your animals and wild birds or rodents, which can carry disease into a flock or hive.
• If you notice signs of a reportable disease (for example, symptoms consistent with avian influenza), contact your local agricultural extension office or state veterinarian promptly, don't wait to see if it passes.
• Wash your hands after handling animals and before handling food.

Questions

If something you received through Sowcial seems unsafe, please let us know at support@getsowcial.com so we can look into it.