CBC: Botulism: What you need to know
A story about a food recall on baby food lead the CBC to contact food safety expert Rick Holley, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.
The affected person might have double vision, trouble speaking or swallowing, Sider said.
“If you see an adult with Clostridium botulinum toxicosis, you would think they were drunk,” said Rick Holley, a retired professor of food science at the University of Manitoba….
Part of the challenge is that the bacteria are common in the environment, such as dry soil in a backyard, on vegetable material or lake sediments where it can get into fish, said Holley….
For the same reason, infants under a year old shouldn’t eat honey. Since their gut is underdeveloped, infants are susceptible to the bacterial spores that are sometimes found in honey, Holley said.