| OCR Text |
Show I oo BOTULINUS POISON. The poison which caused the death of six persons in one New York family fam-ily following the eating of a bottle of olives is never found in sound food, I says a bulletin from the department of. agriculture. This bulletin contains much that is of interest in connection with this little known menace In bad food. We publish it ln part: "Botullnus poisoning which recently killed six In ono family In Now York is caused by eating spoiled food infected in-fected with tho bacillus botullnus, say . the officials of the bureau of chemis- i try, United States department of agri-, culture, who have investigated this ( and other poisoning cases in connec-' tion with the enforcement of the food j I nnd drugs act. In the New York case ' death was caused by botullnus poison j . in ripe olives. Tho olives remaining l i in tho bottle In this case had an of- i fenBlve odor. Tho same condition was 1 found in tho food in other cases in- Ivestlgated by tho department. All spoiled food does not contain this poison, poi-son, but any spoiled food even though j tho spoilage bo slight may contain it, and for this reason, say the officials, I all food showing oven tho slightest unnatural un-natural odor, unnatural color, swelling of the container, signs of gas, or any evidence of decomposition whatovor, ' should be dlscardod. "Tho department of agriculture has used every' posalblo effort and gone to tho limit of Its legal authority to remove re-move all dangerous foods from tho market by seizuro under the food and drugs act, say the officials. Each time when botullnus poisoning has occurrod food Inspectors havo traced through the channels of commerce the batch from which tho poisonous food came and have used all measures under the law to remove it from the market. Samples from all other brands put out by the packer have been examined. Since tho law authorizes seizure in such cases only when the foods are actually found to be decomposed or to contain poisonous ingredients, since only an occasional packago In millions J Is infected with bacillus botullnus, I and since it is physically possible to I open and examine but a comparatively j fow of the millions of cans entering interstate commerce, it is beyond the ' power of tho authorities to protect the public completely. For this reason thoy emphasize the necessity for scrupulous caro on tho part of per sons opening and serving foods to discard dis-card anything which is spoiled. In products not obviously spoiled, if there Jr doubt in the recognition of the odor proper to the product, thorough cooking cook-ing will removo the possibility of danger dan-ger from botullnus. If spoilage Is apparent, ap-parent, destruction is recommended by the specialists." oo |
