Hi Mandy!

I don't know what to tell you about the frozen maggot issue. You could strain the juice to get out any wee beasties floating in it, then wash the berries. I must confess that I'm not overly finnicky about washing the fruit before starting to make jam.

What recipe are you using? the blackberry and apple one on here is brilliant and calls for straining the fruit through a sieve after boiling it, which would take out any lingering beastie bits. I've not had any problems with bits sneaking through.

And I've never bothered adding pectin, or even using preserving sugar rather than normal sugar, it's always worked fine for me.

Hope it works out for you!