Tag Archives: Botulism

Botulism Symptoms all the Days of Our Lives

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On Days of Our Lives today, Victor Kiriakis gave his opinion about Chloe Lane, “Hell, botulism is better than being married to her.” In food safety terms, that’s a very low blow.

Botulinum is a deadly toxin that comes from bacteria in soil and grows in warm, moist environments with no oxygen and low acidity. For example, it can grow on a baked potato wrapped in foil and left out on the counter. There have also been cases of poisoning in carrot juice, home-canned green beans, and enchiladas in France.

Botulism can cause serious complications such as paralysis and death.

Common symptoms include difficulty swallowing or speaking, facial weakness, double vision, trouble breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and paralysis.

In infants, symptoms include constipation followed by "poor feeding, lethargy, weakness, pooled oral secretions, and wail or altered cry. Loss of head control is striking."

If having botulism is better than being married to Chloe, then Lucas better hope Victor, Kate, Sammy or even Daniel will ruin that wedding (you can vote online at nbc.com).

And p.s., Victor Kiriakis is played by John Aniston, the father of Jennifer Aniston IRL.

 

Jack White gives Eagles of Death Metal food poisoning

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In a nice intersection of music and food safety, Gasoline Magazine reports that Jack White (one of my very favorite thrashers) brought some poorly-handled Detroit pierogies to Jesse Hughes of the Eagles of Death Metal resulting in some celebrity barf. Hughes says that the pierogies arrived before a show in Toronto last fall and gave him the squirts and a queasy stomach for most of the performance:

"Dude, I had botulism… Jack White bought pierogies in Detroit and brought them up to the gig, and I ended up eating one far too long after it had expired.  I ended up contracting mild botulism and sweating out of every hole, so to speak, for about 12 hours.  I was the worst f’n experience I’ve ever had.  But you can’t call in sick to rock & roll"

Amen, brother; that’s why I love rock & roll.

Working in a restaurant, that’s different. Call in sick.

It probably wasn’t actual botulism (would have been difficult to pound the guitar with a body full of  neurotoxin) but sounds like a nasty foodborne illness experience.

Actual botulism did appear this week in WA, where a woman in her 30s and two children under 10 fell ill from eating improperly-canned green beans from a home garden. The woman is reportedly recovering slowly and remains on a ventilator.

Here’s some Sunday rock & roll, Jack White and the Rolling Stones, Loving Cup:

And a bonus video, The Dirty Mac’s Yer Blues from the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus:

Botulism in Danish baby food?

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Have you noticed a trend? Blog posts at 4 a.m., bad baby metaphors, bad writing cause my brains are mush?

Must be a baby in the house.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) writes on their website that there are suspicions that Hipp’s fruit purée with banana and apricot may contain Colstridium Botulinum, following an outbreak of illness in Denmark.

They are now recommending that all parents who have bought jars marked L35655, with a use-by date of 31.12.08 should throw them away.

The Danish Food Safety Authority has sent the fruit purée for test ananlysis, and a final confirmation as to whether the food is poisonous will come at the end of the week.

A quick trip to the Hipp Organic Baby Food web site finds lots of what isn’t in Hipp baby food like melamine or Irish pork, but no mention of botulism.
 

Carrot juice botulism outbreak prompts FDA action

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In September 2006, three people living in Georgia developed food-borne botulism that was eventually traced to commercial carrot juice from a single bottle. Soon thereafter an additional case in Florida and two in Ontario, Canada surfaced.

The bacterium Clostridium botulinum secretes a potent toxin that causes botulism, a potentially fatal illness. Symptoms include dizziness, double vision, difficulty breathing and abdominal distention.

One of the 6 botulism patients died 90 days after illness onset. One year later, two others were still on ventilators. The remaining three were taken off ventilator support after 54, 90, and 129 days. Two survivors were at home, two were in rehabilitation facilities, and one was still hospitalized.

"This investigation demonstrates that carrot juice and other processed foods with no natural barriers to C. botulinum germination require additional chemical or thermal barriers," the investigators wrote in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Accordingly, they report, "In June 2007, the FDA modified its guidance for refrigerated low-acid juices to recommend adding a validated juice-treatment method, such as acidification or appropriate thermal treatment, to decrease the risk of C. botulinum contamination, should any breaches in refrigeration occur."

Here’s the food safety infosheet we made at the time.

Home-canned green beans sicken Ohio man, grandson

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A Crestline, Ohio, man and his grandson remain hospitalized in Mansfield and Akron with foodborne botulism.

The Mansfield News Journal reports that the two remain in hospital after eating home-canned green beans last weekend. Two other grandchildren were treated for botulism and have been released from Children’s Hospital.

 

Botulism, babies and bad advice

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Amy and I don’t really disagree about much. But we can each get moody and self-absorbed and go after each other. Especially at the end of 20-hour drives. That’s about how long it takes to go from Manhattan (Kansas) to Guelph (Ontario) and at the end of one epic journey back from Guelph two years ago, tired and driving through Kansas City with a trailer full of my crap that I just had to have in Kansas, Amy decided to entertain herself by asking me, who are you to publish an opinion, or something like that.

I’ve always thought that academic-types had a responsibility to share their knowledge in a compelling manner with the public, rather than just complain about people’s opinions of things scientific and otherwise. But really, who the hell am I? Why should anyone listen? Or care?

I questioned myself for a couple of months and didn’t do much public stuf. Then I got over it. But I still question myself and try to do my homework.

I’m not so sure about Dr. Dave in the video below.

This is from some mommy television show in Canada that Ben sent me. It’s called, The Mom Show. In the clip below, Dr. Dave, appears to have no clue about botulism in babies less than a year old.

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.

The advice is clear: do not give any honey to children less than one-year-old.

But maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.

 

Botulism in Companeros enchiladas … in France

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I didn’t know French people had discovered enchiladas, and much less those you can buy in the grocery store. That’s one food I often crave when traveling for an extended period in France, and it’s my standby order at my first visit to any Mexican restaurant. But obviously someone in France is buying enchiladas because two people are now reported in serious but stable condition in a French hospital after eating Companeros brand chicken enchiladas. Several of the national ministries have issued a recall of all enchilada and fajita products from Companeros, regardless of the expiration date. Apparently the source of the Clostridium botulinum bacteria is not yet completely identified as the recall requests that people do not discard the meals. Instead, they should be returned to the store so that further analysis can take place.

In case you’re paranoid, like I am, about getting botulism or other illnesses, there are a few facts you should know…
 

  • Symptoms occur on average between 6 and 36 hours (and not more than 15 days) after consumption of the contaminated food
  • Botulism can cause serious complications such as paralysis and death
  • Common symptoms include difficulty swallowing or speaking, facial weakness, double vision, trouble breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and paralysis 
  • Botulism commonly grows at room temperature in an anaerobic environment – that means when food is deprived of air. Risky foods include potatoes left in aluminum foil at room temperature
  • In 2006, 7 people were stricken due to botulism in bottled carrot juice
  • Botulism cannot be transmitted between humans

Check out the FDA’s Bad Bug Book for more detailed botulism information.
 

Management problems cited in botulism case

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Julie Schmit reports in USA Today today that,

Last July, Food and Drug Administration officials issued a rare warning to U.S. consumers: Botulism toxin was suspected in hot dog chili sauce made by Castleberry’s Food.

The botulism outbreak, which would eventually sicken eight and lead to a recall of tens of millions of cans of food, was the first in a U.S.-made canned food in 33 years.

The day before the warning, FDA investigators had begun an inspection at a Castleberry’s plant that set off alarms within the agency.

A previously undisclosed report from FDA that USA TODAY obtained from a congressional committee concluded:

• two 10-foot-tall cookers may not have heated cans enough to kill all bacteria, including those leading to botulism toxin;

• the cookers had broken alarms, a leaky valve and an inaccurate temperature device;

• the FDA criticized Castleberry’s for failing to correct problems, but those problems went undetected by FDA inspectors at the plant five months before the outbreak and by Department of Agriculture inspectors who were in the plant weekly; and,

• the cookers in the Augusta, Ga., plant showed "poor maintenance," and management failed to "correct ongoing deficiencies" in the plant. "Failure in management was ultimately the reason for the … botulinum toxin in the cans," according to the report.

Donald Zink, a senior FDA food scientist, says in the story,

"When you have a firm that fails so badly that they produce cans with Clostridium botulinum … there are invariably multiple process failures, multiple violations … and failed management systems.”

Toronto couple sue over botulism in carrot juice

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The National Post reports that Susanna Chen and her common-law husband, Andy Valy of Toronto who nearly died from botulism after drinking tainted carrot juice in Sept. 2006, are launching a lawsuit against the California company that manufactures the beverage

Mr. Valy and Ms. Chen both fell into comas. It was weeks before Toronto Public Health realized the couple had been poisoned with botulism and issued a recall. Bolthouse Farm maintains that the tainted juice had not been properly refrigerated.

Michael Shannon, a lawyer representing the couple, said,

"They refrigerated the product, they just drank a toxic cocktail that they weren’t aware of.” 

Mr. Shannon refused to disclose the amount the couple is suing for, except to say they will be launching a suit in the United States for pain and suffering.

The story says that Bolthouse Farms did not immediately return calls. The juice was ordered off North American store shelves toward the end of September, 2006, after four cases of botulism in the United States were linked to the toxic carrot juice. In October, a Quebec resident was also stricken with botulism after drinking carrot juice.