Tag Archives: Botulism

1 sick; watermelon jelly sold at charity booths in BC may have botulism

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Who can’t get enough watermelon jelly.

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (that’s in Canada) is warning the public not to consume watermelon jelly prepared by Jamnation Fine Foods that were sold in 120 ml sized jars. This jelly was sold at charity booths in various locations in British Columbia in 2010. This product may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Toxins produced by this bacterium may cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.

“This recall was prompted by a suspect case of botulism on Vancouver Island, and the subsequent investigation of foods recently consumed by the individual,” explains Dr. Eleni Galanis, Physician Epidemiologist with BCCDC, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority. “Botulism is a serious illness, and it is critical that anyone who purchased this item discard it immediately.”

“The jelly consumed by the case was sold through the British Columbia Huntingtons Research Foundation charity booths in Duncan, and may also have been sold in other parts of province,” explains Sion Shyng, Food Safety Specialist at the BCCDC. “We’re concerned that this product may still be in the homes of consumers as jellies can be stored and consumed long after they are purchased.”

The BCCDC is currently working with BC Health Authorities and the BC Ministry of Health Services to ensure the recalled product is removed from distribution and is investigating any possible cases of illness.

Infant in Ireland stricken with botulism from pet turtle, reptiles not suitable as pets for under fives

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An infant in Ireland is recovering after a bout with botulism type E, most likely due to exposure to a pet turtle or turtle feed.

Dr Paul McKeown, a specialist in public health medicine at the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) warned that reptiles are not appropriate pets for children under the age of five.

Reptiles such as snakes, lizards, tortoises, turtles and terrapins have become extremely popular as pets, he said, but they require careful handling as they carry a range of germs that can lead to illness. Washing hands after touching them is very important.

“Given the risks, reptiles should not be kept as pets in a house where there are children under the age of five,” he added.

There are a number of different types of botulism toxin but the type which the baby picked up – type E – is so rare it was only the seventh case ever reported in an infant worldwide, the centre said.
 

Botulism risk: Hawaii health dept, forces company to close, recall 3 years of product

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The state health department has issued a recall for more than one hundred locally produced food products including jams, salad dressings, and sauces that were manufactured at a Waipio processing plant because of a risk for botulism.

The Health Department issued an Order to Cease and Desist, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found evidence of improper manufacturing standards at the First Commercial Kitchen plant.

A recall issued last Thursday only included two products: Ohana Flavors Black Bean Sauce and Barbs Local Style Black Bean Sauce.

But now, the recall includes everything that was manufactured there over the past three years.

The Health Department says it issued the mass recall after the company failed to produce required documentation and because of inadequate testing to ensure no bacteria growth.

A number of restaurants have responded to the recall, saying they haven’t done business with First Commercial Kitchen in years, and their names were incorrectly added to the recall list.
 

Dried tofu in vacuum sacks suspected in Taiwan botulism cases

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Officials in Taiwan said today dried tofu in vacuum-sealed plastic sacks was suspected in a series of botulinum poisoning cases.

Taiwan has seen eight botulinum poisoning cases involving 11 people since April. One person was killed, five remain hospitalized and five others have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

The Department of Health said three soybean product factories use a sterilized vacuum packaging process, and that only tofu products that are thoroughly sterilized before being vacuum-packed should be stored or displayed in room temperature environments.

Products from factories that do not properly sterilize their dried tofu should be refrigerated until eating, health officials said.
 

Mum says ‘I didn’t know;’ UK infant recovers from botulism

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Logan Douglas was temporarily blinded and paralyzed as the botulism he contracted at 16-weeks-old ravaged his body.

Six months after his parents, Theresa Fitzpatrick and Alex Douglas, were faced with the decision of whether to turn off his life support as baffled medics feared the worst, Logan is doing great (right, photo from The Sun).

When a limp and ill Logan was first taken to physicians, he was admitted to hospital and, after a battery of tests, a Glasgow-based doctor ordered a test for infantile botulism for Logan.

Devastated Theresa has revealed she still blamed herself after feeding her baby honey.

She wasn’t aware that the food wasn’t suitable for children so young – and unwittingly placed his health in danger.

"Logan’s big sister, Taylor, loves honey on toast and one day I was spreading some honey for her and Logan was a bit grizzly. So I just dipped his dummy in the honey and he loved it. He got some every now and again. None of the baby books I had mentioned infantile botulism or said honey was dangerous for babies under a year old. I’d been at my auntie’s house with Taylor and she said to take a pot of honey she had home with me for Taylor. I wish I hadn’t now. Taylor hasn’t ever asked for honey again and it’s banned from the house now. It was just an ordinary supermarket’s own-brand honey bought off the shelf. The environmental health people tested the actual pot and it was confirmed as the source."

Kudos to Thersa, Logan’s mum, for admitting she didn’t know about the potential risks. I, and other food safety types, hear everyday, “I didn’t know” about E. coli, or Salmonella, or botulism or whatever. That’s OK. It underscored the need to be creative and compelling when talking about … anything.

Clostridium botulinum can cause sickness in very young children, and infants under the age of 1 years old are most at risk. Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores which can grow in the digestive tract of children less than one-year-old because their digestive system is less acidic. The bacteria produces toxin in the body and can cause severe illness. Even pasteurized honey can contain botulism spores and should be not be given to children under the age of 12 months.

UK food plant shut down after filthy conditions discovered

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The Evening Courier reports that a chick-pea canning plant at Marshall Hall Mills in Elland has been ordered closed after environmental health officers found a shocking catalogue of hazards and filthy conditions, including:

• a plastic plant pot was used to sieve chickpeas and the conveyor, which turned out thousands of cans of pulses each day, had also been used to tin chilli hemp seeds for fish bait;

• rat droppings and piles of waste were found near where ingredients were stored;

• machinery was a year overdue for calibration and test strips to check products were more than three years out of date;

• black mould and cobwebs were found on the ceiling near the production line; and,

• handwash stations had no water and the only supply was in the grubby toilets where trousers were hung to be used in place of a towel.

The firm is thought to have packed under several different labels and supplied to small retailers across the country.
 

Honey on a dummy could have killed tot

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The Scots have a way with headlines  — and in this case it’s deadly serious.

Call it what you will, a dummy, pacifier, soother, nuk – that’s Sorenne with one of hers a few weeks ago – they should never be dipped in honey.

A child in Scotland has been in hospital for six weeks fighting for his life with botulism and he could have caught it from sucking a dummy which had been dipped in honey, it emerged last night.

Since 1976, over 1,000 cases of infant botulism have been reported worldwide, most of them in America.

Clostridium botulinum can cause sickness in very young children, and infants under the age of 1 years old are most at risk. Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores that can grow in the digestive tract of children less than one-year-old because their digestive system is less acidic. The bacteria produces toxin in the body and can cause severe illness. Even pasteurized honey can contain botulism spores and should be not be given to children under the age of 12 months.
 

Army colonel tries old C-ration pound cake, doesn’t get botulism

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Field rations for soldiers are designed with two primary motives: 1) providing lots of calories and 2) lasting in a combat zone.

For the most part, taste is greatly sacrificed. But retired Army colonel Henry A. Moak, Jr., thought his 40-year-old C-ration can of pound cake was "good."

Moak got the drab olive can as a Marine helicopter pilot off the Vietnamese coast in 1973. He vowed to hang on to it until the day he retired, storing it in a box with other mementos.

"It’s even a little moist," he said, wiping his mouth after downing a handful in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes following a formal retirement ceremony.

Retired Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, who was the U.S. Army Europe commander when Moak served overseas, took an even bigger piece. "Tastes just like it always did," Mikolashek mumbled with a mouthful of cake as Moak laughed and clapped.

The AP reports,

"Moak said he wasn’t worried about getting sick from any bacteria that may have gotten into the old can, because it looked sealed. But the military discourages eating from old rations.

"’Given the risks … we do everything possible to ensure that overly aged rations are not consumed,’ said Lawrence Levine, a spokesman for the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia.

"Levine named the threats as mold and deadly botulism if the sealing on the food has been broken, which isn’t always visible."

Mold, maybe. Botulism, no; it arises from improper canning initially – or denting later – but not broken seals. (They only open the possibility of contamination to microbes that like air: B. cereus, Lavine…)

New York Times’ Bitman promotes unsafe practice

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In the June 26 Minimalist column and accompanying video about herb and garlic flavored oils barfblog favorite Mark Bittman suggests a frugal trick to add flavor to a meal. And possibly a frugal method to create a serious foodborne toxin.

The pathogen of concern, Clostridium botulinum, could exist as spores on the suggested ingredients. Heating the foods may activate the spores and placing the flavor-making components into certain oils can create the perfect environment (oxygen-free and low acid) for cell growth and botulinum toxin formation. Mr. Bittman’s suggestions of a little of this and a little of that into oil could create a nasty situation.

Information missing from the print article, but included in the video, is that he keeps his oil in the refrigerator. Keeping oil mixtures below 41F is a critical step and will not allow the botulism spores to form cells. Holding the oil mixture at room temperature allows for cell formation and growth.  In 1999, three Floridians were admitted to hospital with nausea, blurred vision and eventual paralysis after eating a home-bottled infused oil concoction similar to what Mr. Bittman suggests. The commercially available (and more expensive) flavored oils that Bitman scoffs at include U.S. Food and Drug Administration-mandated microbial inhibitors or acidifying agents.

Flavored oils made right are scrumptious, botulism is not.

New food safety infosheet — 3 in Spokane sickened by botulism linked to home canned beans

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Canning season is just about to start. I’ve never really done any home food preservation before. Growing up all I was really exposed to, canning-wise, was pickles, freezer jam and frozen peaches. All of which I loved to eat, but I always found ways to occupy myself while my mom and grandmother were making them for fear of having to help. My dad and grandfather usually golfed while this was all going down.

Golfing is sort of out of the question now that I have a nine-month-old crawling around the house, so I’m taking up canning. I’m heading out to Walmart this week to grab the Ball Home Canning Basics kit and start experimenting.

Maybe experimenting might now be the right word. I don’t really want to experiment too much when the consequences can be so drastic. This week’s food safety infosheet focuses on an outbreak from earlier this year in Spokane, WA. Reportedly a 30-year-old Washington State nurse and her two children became ill with botulism reportedly acquired from canned green beans. The nurse’s illness was so severe that she required a ventilator to breath for months.

Though reliable data is often hard to access, other recent outbreaks linked to the potentially complicated processes of home preservation have contributed to the national burden of foodborne illness. Illnesses have been linked to home preservation in numerous states. As recent as September 2008, an Ohio man and his grandson were hospitalized as a result of botulism toxin poisoning caused by improperly canned green beans. In 2007 a Virginia couple died after consuming improperly canned foods that also contained botulism toxin.  There have been at least seven other outbreaks of botulism linked to home preservation practices across the U.S. since 1995. Improperly processed home-dried jerky products have also recently been linked to Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli outbreaks.

You can download this week’s food safety infosheet here.