The making of wines, spirits and beer is considered an art form, and interest in the craft is steeped in glamour. After talking to Christina Ward, however, you might see it in a new light.

Like all food products involving fermentation, says Ward, a master food preserver for Milwaukee County, Wis., and author of “Preservation: The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration,” the production of alcohol and fermented foods requires the careful farming of bacteria and yeast.

The end result, frankly, is the product of those organisms’ poop and farts as they gobble up starches and sugars and convert them into alcohol and acids, creating an environment inhospitable to toxic bacteria and microbes.

That is how I began making sense of the balancing act that ends with food that is preserved versus food that rots. Few of us question the safety of preserved and fermented foods we encounter daily. Kim chee, for example, is made of perishable vegetables that — without bacterial intervention — would last only a few days, instead of one or two years after the vegetables are harvested.

Fermentation has become the new culinary buzzword because of its probiotic nature, but it’s just one of the food-preservation techniques Ward has been practicing since the 1970s when she was growing up in Milwaukee, frequently visiting her grandmother’s farm.

“It was really primitive. She had no phone and when I visited her, it was like stepping back to the turn of the last century,” Ward said. “To me, it was interesting. It sparked my interest in food preservation and I never stopped.”

The Old World began converging with the new in the late 1990s, when interest in food preservation coincided with the do-it-yourself movement. A downturn in the American economy led members of a new generation — some out of work — to scale back, returning to gardening and discovering the joy of making needed objects with their own hands.

“People began crafting their own beer, bars started serving shrubs and putting pickled anything into drinks,” Ward said. “It became part of the cultural zeitgeist as people became more aware of undesirable stuff in processed foods. Having more control over what one ate became a huge motivation.”

Ward began teaching food preservation in 2011. “As soon as I started, people started signing up like crazy, telling me they thought they were the only one interested. Many of them said, ‘I always wanted to do this. My grandma did this but I never learned.’”

Luisa Castro, agricultural food safety program manager with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, has been teaching the master food preserver certificate program with Kalen Kelekoma through the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s College of Continuing Education and Community Service since 2015. In that time, they’ve trained 98 people on Kauai and Hawaii island to be master food preservers.

“We have people from all walks of life — chefs, retirees, teachers, moms and dads. Some are home canners who want to do volunteer teaching, or who aspire to get to the next level, to commercial production,” Castro said.

She said even those with experience find it eye-opening to study the science behind practices they learned from their elders.

“Time, temperature, all those things matter, because you don’t want to do something that kills your family members,” Castro said. “Following recipes is really important. A lot of people say that they don’t want to use as much sugar in their recipes, but sugar plays an important role as a preservative in delivering a safe product.”

Castro is working to bring the certificate program to Kapiolani Community College, to keep up with an urgent need for public awareness of food safety issues.

According to Ward, three people died in Oregon in 2012 from botulism poisoning after eating improperly preserved beets. In 2015, two people in Ohio died after eating improperly preserved potato salad.

Locally, six people became infected with the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis related to rat lungworm disease from drinking kava left outdoors, where it became contaminated with slugs.

“The common question I get is, ‘Will this kill me or if I try, will I kill somebody?’” Ward said. “Something like kim chee is high-acid so it’s not going to hurt you unless it’s gone moldy, and you’ll see it.”

But she noted that this is not the case with Clostridium botulinum, which can produce toxins in low-acid foods while revealing no signs of spoilage. Guarding against this means using a digital pH meter, measuring for a pH level of 4.6 or below, the limit set by the federal government for manufactured foods. A pH value of 7 is neutral; the higher the value, the higher the risk of toxins forming if deadly organisms were introduced during the preservation process.

In addition to dozens of recipes for jellies, chutneys, pickles, sauces, soups and meals-in-jars, Ward’s book offers resources for tools such as airlock jar lids, designed to keep oxygen out while releasing the carbon dioxide emitted by yeasts and microbes. It’s this microbial gas that gives Champagne its fizz and pop, and can cause a bottle of fermented tea or kombucha to spill over when an excess of gas is suddenly released.

Ward said home preservationists should steer clear of canning pumpkin, potato or any squash puree; brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts; avocados; bananas; dairy products; and any recipes containing such starches as rice, flour, pasta, cornstarch, tapioca, cornmeal or grains. “If you’re ever unsure, don’t eat it. Err on the side of caution,” she said. “Where the process has the potential to go bad is right at the start, the first 24 to 48 hours when the bacteria colony is starting to grow and bad microbes can get in.”

For information, the statewide Nutrition Education for Wellness program website offers consumer food and nutrition updates here.