Using canned foods, if not ensuring food safety, has the highest risk of botulinum poisoning.
The Department of Food Safety (Ministry of Health) has just issued Official Dispatch 1148/ATTP-NDTT to the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board on the prevention and control of food poisoning caused by clostridium botulinum bacteria.
Accordingly, the Food Safety Department requested the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board to coordinate with Children's Hospital 2, Gia Dinh People's Hospital, and Cho Ray Hospital to closely monitor the condition of patients being treated at the hospitals; organize investigations and verify the origin of the food and the cause of the poisoning to take measures to prevent similar poisoning cases from occurring.
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Clostridium botulinum is a rod-shaped bacterium that lives strictly anaerobically (in a closed environment) and produces toxins. Photo: VFA.GOV.VN |
The Food Safety Department also requested the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board to focus on inspecting, checking, and monitoring food safety at production facilities, promptly preventing unsafe ham and sausage production and trading establishments that pose a risk of clostridium botulinum infection; immediately suspending the operations of establishments that cause poisoning, small-scale production establishments, and business households in the area that do not ensure food safety conditions and pose a risk of causing food poisoning.
Strengthen information and education for people not to use ham and sausage products of unknown origin circulating in the market; strengthen propaganda and guidance for small-scale production facilities and business households on hygiene measures, product packaging, and limit the use of vacuum bagging equipment to create an anaerobic environment favorable for clostridium botulinum to develop.
Previously, on May 16, Ho Chi Minh City recorded a case of botulinum poisoning after eating pork roll of unknown origin bought from a street vendor, causing 4 people (residing in Thu Duc City) to have stomachache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea many times, including 3 children who had to be hospitalized for treatment.
Toxic bacteria thrive in closed environments.
According to the Ministry of Health, botulism poisoning is caused by infection with toxins from the bacteria clostridium botulinum. This poisoning is very rare, both in Vietnam and around the world. The main cause is that the patient is infected with bacterial toxins in poor quality food, eating food that is not properly preserved.
The Food Safety Department said that clostridium botulinum bacteria exist in many different environments. In unfavorable environments, they form a shell (spores).
When exposed to a favorable environment, with nutrients and especially in an environment lacking air, these spores break the shell, multiply, develop and produce toxins. Therefore, using canned food, if not ensuring food safety, has the highest risk of botulinum poisoning.
In addition, all other foods such as vegetables, fruits, seafood... are still at risk of being contaminated with clostridium botulinum bacteria if food safety is not ensured and they are not covered and wrapped tightly.
Common foods that can easily cause botulinum poisoning are processed foods, hand-packaged foods, small-scale, household production or foods produced under unsafe conditions; especially when the trend of using air-tight bags to contain food increases, and food is not thoroughly cooked before eating.
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