wrote:

> A co-worker sells her homemade barbecue sauce in pint jars. I bought a
> jar a few months ago, we ate it, it was fine. I thought I'd buy
> another jar from her today, and as we were talking, I asked her how she
> cans the stuff -- does she use a pressure canner, boiling water bath,
> what?
> Um. She doesn't. She said, and I quote, "All the ingredients we
> use
> are non-perishable, so we don't have to do any of that stuff. It will
> keep forever."
> I was stunned, so I took the stuff and resolved never to buy it
> again,
> but Eek! Give me lots of info to print out and give to her about how
> unsafe this is, or tell me I'm overreacting and it's perfectly safe (I
> won't believe you, and I'm still gonna throw the stuff out, but I won't
> bother her with it if you all think what she's doing is fine).

Egads, they're everywhere. I'm not doing bbq sauce yet, but I've run into
picklers and jammers that still use the "open kettle" method. I don't think
you are overreacting at all - one can introduce all kinds of toxins into
stuff, and if you don't know the pH, don't heat it up enuf......Blooey all
yer friends and relatives will know. Permanent wise. And all food spoils,
sooner or later. HTH.
Edrena
This is from our own FAQ, my bold added:
2.I got some recipes from my grandparents. Are they safe? How can I make
them safe? Evaluating Home Canning Recipes For Safety
What do you do when someone gives you "Aunt Tillie's Special" old
favorite jam recipe? Or Uncle Willie's barbecue sauce? Or Cousin Millie's
dill pickle recipe? In today's heightened awareness of food safety, how do
you tell which are safe and which are not? There are no hard and fast
rules, or secret formulas, to help you decide. But there are some
priorities you can use to help you balance the pros and cons. They depend
on the factors that allow molds, yeasts and bacteria to grow, and on the
relative hazards that molds, yeast and bacteria present in foods.
Factors Influencing Safety
In food preservation, the factors that are important to inhibiting growth
a
a.Sugar - enough sugar will stop the growth of most organisms
b.Salt - enough salt will stop the growth of most organisms
c.Acid - enough acid will stop the growth of most organisms
d.** Too little sugar, salt or acid will permit spoilage
e.Air - most organisms must have air to grow, BUT the most dangerous
bacteria in home food preservation, Clostridium botulinum, will only grow
without air (see Part 8, Section IV, C).
f.Temperature - most dangerous microorganisms grow best at room temperature
or a little above. But in preserving food, we are interested in killing the

organisms and their spores, not just in slowing their growth.
The death rate of microorganisms depends on:
a.The microorganism - they die at different rates
b.The number of cells or spores present initially in the food - the
more there are, the longer it will take to kill them all
c.The medium (food) that they are in - most die faster in acidic
food than low acid food, and in wet food than dry food.
d.The temperature - in canning the important temperature is the
temperature at the coldest spot in the jar.
e.The length of time at that temperature - when we heat food, not
all the organisms will die at the same time, they die gradually, and the
full process time
is necessary to be sure that all, even the most heat-resistant
ones, have died.
These last two factors, temperature and time, depend on how much solid
vs. liquid is in the jar, and on how tightly the food is packed. Heat from
the steam or water in the canner penetrates into different foods at
different rates. Liquids circulate in the jar and carry the heat into the
center of the jar. Solids must heat slowly from the outside in. A process
time for randomly packed green beans, which have spaces for water to
circulate, will not be adequate for "tin soldier" green beans, when the
tightly packed, vertically aligned beans leave no room for water to
circulate.
The most important microorganism in home canning is Clostridium
botulinum. The toxins it produces damage the nervous system, producing
paralysis and cause death. The damage to nerve cells is permanent. Minute
amounts of contaminated food can carry enough toxin to cause death. This
bacteria produces spores which are very resistant to heat. It is also very
sensitive to acid, and will not grow in acid foods. Other pathogenic
bacteria are usually killed by much less heat and in a shorter period of
time than Cl. botulinum. Most require air, so will not grow in a sealed
jar. They are of less concern in home canning.

and this is from our friends in Georgia, the USDA partners, the
National Center for Home Food Preservation is
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_canning.html#3

If my recipe doesn't call for processing, do I need to do so?
Many recipes passed down through the years or found in older
cookbooks do not include instructions for processing. The foods are
usually canned by the open kettle method, sealed and stored. Foods
prepared in this manner present a serious health risk — particularly low
acid foods. To minimize the risk of food spoilage, all high acid foods
should be processed in a water bath canner or pressure canner and all
low acid foods in a pressure canner.