The Daily Populous Thursday December 7th, 2023 evening edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Aschebescher

A woman has died and 12 people have been hospitalised after an outbreak of botulism in sardines served at a restaurant in south-western France.

Botulism is a serious neurological illness typically brought on by eating food that has been improperly preserved. The restaurant in Bordeaux had preserved the sardines itself, the DGS health authority said.

The nationality of the dead woman, aged 32, had not yet been determined, a source close to the case said.

A doctor at Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux, Benjamin Clouzeau, said a further 12 people were still receiving emergency treatment on Wednesday morning. Five of them were on respiratory support. The group included American, Irish and Canadian nationals. A German national travelled home for treatment, as did a resident of Barcelona, Spain, the doctor said.

All of them had eaten at the Tchin Tchin wine bar between 4 and 10 September, when there were typically large numbers of tourists in the city, famous for its wine and food. They all ate sardines that had been stored by the restaurant owner in jars, the DGS said.

Botulism is deadly in 5-10% of cases because of a toxin generated by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which can appear when preserved food is insufficiently sterilised.

Authorities were running tests at the restaurant, the DGS said, adding it could not rule out the emergence of further cases of botulism, which has an incubation period of up to several days. It can cause muscle paralysis lasting several weeks, with the most immediate danger stemming from affected respiratory muscles.

The local newspaper Sud-Ouest quoted the restaurateur as saying he had thrown out some of the jars of sardines because of a strong smell when he opened them. But others “appeared in good condition and were served up to customers”, he added.

loveshercoffee on December 7th, 2023 at 10:50 UTC »

It's ironic that botulinum gets you in canned (or jarred) foods that seem fine, but that's generally how it works.

Spoiled food smells bad. Properly preserving food in jars or cans stops the rotting process because the bacteria that rot the food are destroyed and food is no longer exposed to air.

If the jars are not sealed properly, air infiltrates the jar and the food rots. This is what sounds like happened with the jars the owner threw away because they smelled bad.

The other thing that can happen with canned foods is that they seal properly but were not processed at a high enough temperature or for enough time to kill all of the bacteria. This usually results in the bacteria multiplying and giving off gasses. Once the amount of gas in the jar raises the pressure enough, the seal is broken, the food rots and humans avoid it.

Botulinum is much harder to kill than other bacteria. It requires heating food above the boiling point which is only achieved under pressure. Out in the wild, botulinum spores are harmless to most humans. However, toxin is produced in a low-oxygen environment and sealed jars are the perfect place for that to happen.

Because it's so incredibly toxic, it takes very, very little to sicken or kill someone. The tiniest amount of spores in a jar is all it takes - and with so few of them needed, there generally aren't enough gasses produced to interrupt the seal. Botulinum toxin is odorless and tasteless and because the jar remained sealed, the food didn't rot; it appears perfectly preserved.

Then you eat it. Then you die.

donkeyrocket on December 7th, 2023 at 05:35 UTC »

For anyone wondering, this is from months ago and not a brand new botulism outbreak in Bordeaux. Nor someone dying months later.

Charges have been announced (involuntary homicide) and the results were one death (mentioned in the OP) with 15 hospitalized after the owner attempted to can his own sardines and served them.

miken322 on December 7th, 2023 at 05:35 UTC »

That restaurant is so fucked.