How many botulism cases cause death per year?
Fortunately, we have very few, if any, botulism cases associated with foods in the US. Now we only see what is known as “wound botulism.” This is what happens when a cut is not cleaned out well and scabs over. In a very few cases, this will provide an ideal environment for the botulism organism to grow. Again, very fortunately this is an extremely rare event. The most famous food-borne outbreak of botulism was several years ago when a garlic-in-oil mixture at a restaurant made two people ill. The story is told that a young intern who had just taken a nutrition course treated the two in the hospital and recognized the symptoms from their description in the textbook. It may be just a story, but it makes a nice illustration for class! Many of us believe that home canned foods are probably not as inherently safe as the data might suggest, because almost everyone cooks the food before serving it. Botulism toxin is destroyed by boiling for 10 minutes. So even if the products were improperly
