FoodtopsyFrançais
Menu

Botulism in home ferments

In the body: Botulism is serious and sometimes fatal: its toxin can cause paralysis.

Not rated by dose: a flag on one reviewed food, sauerkraut.

Depends how you handle it. Safe one way, risky another: cook it, soak it, boil it or freeze it, as the agency says.

All hazards

The reference value and where it comes from

Reviewed foods that carry it

1 reviewed food carries it; none is rated by dose.

How often you can eat it

No food here is rated by dose. Each line says why it’s listed: a flag for the people the source names, advice on handling it, or context.

Flags and context, not rated by dose

  • Sauerkraut

    Context

    Health Canada, Home canning and bottling of seafood · grade B

    How it’s rated

    Botulism needs a pH above 4.6; a ferment that fails to acidify is the risk. Sources: Health Canada home-canning page (seafood, 2011; threshold sentence) and the National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia, 2013; not an agency): 'fermented vegetables that do not finish fermenting to a truly acidic pH'.

    Intake: n/a

    Measured on: context only, HOME ferments (not a retail-product hazard): retail sauerkraut pH 3.12-3.77 (Choińska), 3.1-4.3 (Vermeersch); no pathogens detected in 75 unpasteurised retail ferments (Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, E. coli; Enterobacteriaceae in 6)

Sources