A French company, La Ruche, has recalled all Les Délices de Marie Claire preserves and has suspended operations after a production batch of its Tapenade verte aux amandes was linked to eight cases of botulism.
L’Institute Pasteur reported finding botulinum toxin type A in a sample of the implicated batch of olive-almond tapenade.
Consumers in France
On July 20, 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that Euphoria Fancy Food Inc. of Brooklyn, New York is recalling Herring Special Salting due to a possible contamination with Clostridium botulinum spores. During a routine inspection and subsequent analysis of the product, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Food Inspectors confirmed
On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, announced that it is seeking a permanent injunction against BCS African Wholesale Food Supply LLC (BCS African Wholesale) of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and its principal officers because the company’s products present food safety
3000 cases of 105-ounce canned pickled sliced beets have been voluntarily recalled by Lakeside Foods, Inc. of Manitowoc, Wisconsin due to a potential contamination with certain harmful organisms including Clostridium botulinum. The recall, announced yesterday, was issued because some cans of the company’s product may not have been fully processed, creating a breeding
The FDA has announced the recall of Haifa Smoked Fish brand vacuum packaged Whole Schmaltz Herring with the lot number 20, because the product was found to be uneviscerated. The risk to consumers is that, due to the errors in production, the fish may be contaminated with clostridium botulinum.
The lot being recalled is
It may surprise some people to learn that the often-lethal toxins produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which cause botulism illnesses, are a chief ingredient in certain cosmetic/medical products. In fact, the FDA recently updated its safety warnings about medical products that contain botulism toxins. The FDA advisory concerns four drugs specifically: Botox, Botox Cosmetic, Myobloc, and Dysport. The safety warning states, in part, as follows:
The boxed warning cautions that the effects of the botulinum toxin may spread from the area of injection to other areas of the body, causing symptoms similar to those of botulism. Those symptoms include potentially life-threatening swallowing and breathing difficulties and even death.
These symptoms have mostly been reported in children with cerebral palsy being treated with botulinum toxin for muscle spasticity, a use of the drugs that has not been approved by FDA. Symptoms have also been reported in adults treated both for approved and unapproved uses.
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No definitive serious adverse event reports of distant spread of toxin effect have been associated with dermatologic use of Botox/Botox Cosmetic at the recommended doses (for frown lines between the eyebrows or severe underarm sweating). As well, no definitive serious adverse event reports of distant spread of toxin effect have been associated with Botox when used at approved doses for eyelid twitches or for crossed eyes.
Continue Reading Botulism: Equal Parts Public Health Scourge and Cosmetic Miracle?
I moved to Seattle in 2002 and have never experienced a heat wave in late May and early June like the one we are enjoying now. There are few places I’d rather be than Seattle in the summertime, and to our benefit this year, everyone in the Seattle area who planted their garden around Mother’s
The discovery that 1,026 cans of green beens were possibly contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that causes botulism, resulted in a recall of the product last week. The Food and Drug Administration issued a notice to consumers, which was subsequently distributed through the media. According to MSNBC:
New Era Canning Company
Castleberry’s, the company whose products were recalled this summer after confirmed botulism cases were linked to consumption of its products, will resume processing tomorrow after a two-month period when the company was shut down. According to Examiner.com:
The company was green-lighted to reopen the plant last week by both the U.S. Food and Drug