Home canning is not something to mess around with. Low acid foods need to be processed using a pressure canner to inactivate Clostridium botulinum spores – boiling water baths (like what is used for pickles and jams) won’t do it.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, home-canned potatoes used in potato salad are the likely vehicle that caused over 20 illnesses and a death last week in Ohio.
Last week, the Ohio Department of Health said tests showed that six food samples taken from the April 19th potluck had tested positive for botulism.
Sietske de Fijter, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases for the state, said health officials were able to narrow the likely food culprits by interviewing nearly everyone who became ill – as well as those who didn’t – at the potluck.
Case-control study is the next step to confirm.