Botulism

Abstract

Although fifty‐six years have elapsed since the Loch Maree poisoning mystery in 1922, when eigth people died after eating a picnic lunch of wild duck sandwiches, another tragedy occured this summer involving four elderly people who had eaten canned salmon. Both these episodes of food poisoning were attributed to Clostridium botulinum as it is now known. Since the 1922 outbreak the bacteria have been studied extensively and isolated from foods, soils and waters in many parts of the world. Despite the fact that the organisms are fairly widespread in the environment, food‐borne human botulism is rare because the disease is nearly always associated with processed foods. Some methods of food processing, like canning or bottling, actually make conditions more favourable for growth of Cl. botulinum and particular care must be taken when preserving foods by these methods at home. The Birmingham poisoning has undrelined our concern about the safety precautions necessary in view of the current revival of interest in home presevation methods such as bottling, curing and smoking. Only recommended methods should be followed to avoid the dangers of botulism outlined in this article.