[Billthedrill]

Actually we did have this particular one. Botulism is often found in canned meat but of the vegetables green beans are probably its most common substrate. It's a soil bacterium (C. botulinum) and you only have the problem in a can (or jar) with enough of a leak to provide just a little oxygen - a "microaerophilic" environment. That activates the spores and the resulting microorganisms product the toxin.

This has been around since people started to preserve veggies. My grandmother lost some friends to it in her childhood in Illinois in the early part of last century.

[Old Professer]

Great word; talking to the balcony.

[Old Professer]

“microaerophilic”

[camas]

C ration green beans were the first to go bad

[Bernard Marx]

This has been around since people started to preserve veggies. My grandmother lost some friends to it in her childhood in Illinois in the early part of last century.

Botulism was the scourge of home canners. When I was very young visitors would often bring jars of home-canned fish, meats and vegetables as gifts to our country home. My Grandmother would accept them with smiles, compliments and great thanks. And they'd all go into the trash the minute the guests were out of sight even though compliments would flow the next time they showed up. Bottom line: it just wasn't safe to trust anyone's canning but your own.

[jurroppi1]

From the WHO: "Foodborne botulism, that occurs when the organism Clostridium botulinum is allowed to grow and produce toxin in food which is then eaten without sufficient cooking to inactivate the toxin. Clostridium botulinum is an "anaerobic bacterium", which means it can only grow in the absence of oxygen. Therefore, the growth of the bacteria and the formation of toxin tend to occur in products with low oxygen content and the right combination of storage temperature and preservative parameters. This happens most often in lightly preserved foods such as fermented, salted or smoked fish and meat products and in inadequately processed home canned or home bottled low acid foods such as vegetables. The food traditionally implicated differs between countries and will reflect local eating habits and food preservation procedures. Occasionally, commercially prepared foods are involved." I could've swore I remembered that as was stated by the WHO (Clostridium botulinum needing absence of oxygen to grow) - from teaching culinary arts at a MN college.