So as to lower the grocery bill, families nowadays buy their food in bulk. Considering the increase in food prices, this seems like a logical thing, right? Buying canned foods may result in some serious health issues, like botulism.

Botulism is a serious form of food poison that produces critical illness and is fatal in 1/4 of all cases. Canned foods are likely to be contaminated with the spores of Clostridium botulinum if you do not follow strict precautions. The danger does not come directly from eating the bacteria themselves. In fact, a great deal of fresh food contains the spores of the bacteria which, when eaten, pass harmlessly through the digestive tract. Home canning methods usually don’t get rid of the bacteria as they can easily survive 20 hours of boiling at normal pressures. Furthermore, additional deadly toxin may be produced during the storage time.

Home canning can be carried out safely if certain procedures are carefully followed. A pressure cooking device is recommended for obtaining the combination of temperature and pressure which can kill the botulinum organism during the canning process. Boiling your home-canned food is a simple precaution if you want to make your food safe to eat.

Although the bacteria may not be destroyed by boiling, the highly dangerous toxin is made harmless by ordinary boiling – 10 minutes at sea level, longer at higher altitudes. However, you must make sure that every food particle is heated to the boiling point if you want to destroy the lethal toxin produced by the bacteria.

The right proportions of acid and low-acid contents must be established if your canned food is to be safe. Botulism is likely to happen if there isn’t enough acid because such environment supports bacteria growth. Many fatal cases of botulism have occurred when people do not pay attention to this.

You can lower the acidity by putting low-acid vegetables into your tomato juice, for instance. In this case you must make sure you add extra acid like lemon juice or vinegar for example.

This writer also writes about Diseases, as well as about Nutrition. This writer also runs http://www.howy.org/

Incoming search terms for the article:

• kangan water botulism
• what to eat to get rid of botulism