Denmark: infant botulism
There have been a number of reports in the media about a baby food being recalled in denmark as a result of a 4.5 month old child being found to have botulism.
Eurosurveillance reports that "The infant was still breastfed but had started to receive supplementary feeding during the last 3-4 weeks prior to admission. Five days before admission the infant was fed with three spoonfuls of an organic banana/peach puree from a European commercial company. The mother had noticed that the baby food had a very pervading and unusual smell, and the product appeared to be fermented. However, no gas production was noticed from the glass jar and the normal click occurred when opening it. The glass jar was thrown out afterwards.
Other supplementary foods consumed by the infant included gruel made by the mother from organic produced corn, buckwheat flour, whole meal with rice and millet to which grapeseed oil was added.
Based on a precautionary principle, a press release was issued warning about the specific batch of banana/peach puree and the lot (which was marked ‘best before December 2008’) was recalled by the company. Warnings were issued through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and the European Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).
In total, 11 jars of baby food, four samples of the gruel ingredients and one sample of oil have been investigated for botulinum toxin using a mouse model. No preformed botulinum toxin was detected in these samples. Currently the samples are being investigated for botulinum toxin production after spore germination, as well as detection of botulinum toxin after trypsin activation of the samples."
The RASFF report is here. To date the case has not been directly linked to the food product under investigation.
Eurosurveillance reports that "The infant was still breastfed but had started to receive supplementary feeding during the last 3-4 weeks prior to admission. Five days before admission the infant was fed with three spoonfuls of an organic banana/peach puree from a European commercial company. The mother had noticed that the baby food had a very pervading and unusual smell, and the product appeared to be fermented. However, no gas production was noticed from the glass jar and the normal click occurred when opening it. The glass jar was thrown out afterwards.
Other supplementary foods consumed by the infant included gruel made by the mother from organic produced corn, buckwheat flour, whole meal with rice and millet to which grapeseed oil was added.
Based on a precautionary principle, a press release was issued warning about the specific batch of banana/peach puree and the lot (which was marked ‘best before December 2008’) was recalled by the company. Warnings were issued through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and the European Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).
In total, 11 jars of baby food, four samples of the gruel ingredients and one sample of oil have been investigated for botulinum toxin using a mouse model. No preformed botulinum toxin was detected in these samples. Currently the samples are being investigated for botulinum toxin production after spore germination, as well as detection of botulinum toxin after trypsin activation of the samples."
The RASFF report is here. To date the case has not been directly linked to the food product under investigation.
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