Text 6101, 78 rader
Skriven 2006-10-02 18:49:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av BARBARA MCNAY
Ärende: shrimp etc. 289
=======================
 Hi, Barbara,

 >  BM> Would you explain what you mean by "a persistent toxin comparable to
 >  BM> botulin", please?  I have sort of been under the impression that one
 >  BM> could eat botulin spores with no problem; that it was only the toxin
 >  BM> from improperly processed foods that caused the problem.

 >  Botulin is the toxin made by botulinium bacteria.
 >  They are anaerobic bacteria, able to thrive in
 >  oxygen-free environments, and might even be
 >  unable to thrive in O2-rich environments, so
 >  the spores stay dormant on our plates and in
 >  our system. But if they are not killed off
 >  as a food is being canned, they can activate
 >  and live happily in the sealed cans and jars,
 >  eating our soup and vegetables and creating
 >  botulin toxin, which builds up to a dangerous
 >  dose. Cooking kills off any live bacteria but
 >  that toxin is apparently heat-stable (thus I
 >  used the term persistent) and isn't degraded
 >  by any amount of normal cooking.

 >  Again, I am not an expert, I could be wrong
 >  on some details, but I remember this from
 >  general reading on stuff like this.

 BM> It has been many years since I've canned, so I don't have my
 BM> references available, but my recollection is that we are advised to
 BM> boil home-canned food for ten minutes or so to destroy any toxin.  If
 BM> the bacteria themselves didn't harm, there would be no point in
 BM> boiling.  I also seem to remember an article about a picnic at which a
 BM> canned three-bean salad made its eaters sick--all except one, who came
 BM> late, thought the beans were supposed to be hot, so heated them first
 BM> and didn't get sick.  Perhaps somebody with more recent canning
 BM> experience and references can help us out.

 Well, there are more bacteria than botulinium to worry
 about. Salmonella is a more constant worry. But safe
 cooking seems to defuse that and any toxins it produces.
 Botulism scares us because it isn't prevented by our
 safe cooking procedures. We must trust our canners.

 Note added later: I just ran across a news article
 dealing with some of this stuff. For those who
 didn't see this AP article in their papers,

 "Germs in food make 76 million Americans sick, send
 323,000 to hospitals and kill 5000 each year, the
 CDC estimates. But the situation greatly improved
 over the last decade, according to illness statistics
 the agency reported Friday at a conference of the
 American Society for Microbiology. In 2005, compared
 with the 1996-98 period when the CDC's FoodNet tracking
 system began, illnesses were down for virtually every
 major germ.

 CDC estimates the declines as follows: yersinia, 49%;
 shigella, 43%; listeria, 32%; campylobacter, so%;
 the dangerous O157 strain of E. coli, 29%; and
 salmonella, 9%. Only vibrio, a germ spread through
 raw oysters, rose significantly - 41%.

 Campylobacter and salmonella sicken the most
 people, usually through raw or undercooked poultry
 or eggs. Yersinia can taint raw meats, seafood and
 dairy products. Listeria causes problems in
 lunchmeats and soft cheeses. E. coli outbreaks
 typically have involved undercooked ground meat.
 But in recent years, the germ has increasingly
 been linked to produce, as has a certain strain
 of salmonella."

 Excerpted from article by Marilynn Marchione, AP.

 Joan MacDiarmid
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