A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry March 2003
Contents: Integration of the NSW food safety system | HACCP and small businesses in the UK | Another study on HACCP and small business | Vegetables in oil and vinegar | Illness associated with minor fish species | The protective effect of alcoholic beverages in foodborne illness outbreaks | Seminar for noodle manufacturers
Vegetables in oil and vinegar
We have discussed this subject many times, most recently in Food Safety & Hygiene, November 2001. On that occasion we noted that Italian workers reported 65 per cent of 84 cases of botulism in that country in a five-year period were attributed to homemade vegetable preserves in oil.
Eurosurveillance 7 2003 7 carries a report of a single case of botulism in an adult male after ingestion of four 'buds' of ready-to-eat garlic in a chilli oil dressing. The product was sold as shelf stable. The product was manufactured in Germany but sold only in Denmark through a major supermarket chain.
Clostridium botulinum type B toxin was identified in some samples of the product and the organism was also cultured. A pH value of 4.7 was measured, close to the normally accepted limiting pH for growth of C. botulinum. The product, in 280 g glass jars, received a process described as 'a center temperature of 83-85°C for some minutes'. While this process would be adequate to inactivate vegetative cells of C. botulinum, it would not inactivate spores nor would it inactivate any pre-formed toxin present prior to the thermal process. It is also reported that 134 jars from an unknown number in the batch were rejected due to swelling.
Details of recommended procedures for producing vegetables in oil and vinegar can be found in a CSIRO Fact Sheet available here.
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