Does anyone else have an inordinate fear of canning jams or pickling veggies? Every time I read an article espousing the brine-laden wonders of canning your own home-grown vegetables, I think, “how hard could this really be? I can do this!”. And then I hear the niggling voice in the back of my head that whispers, “but what if you get botulism?” And then I mutter in response, “maybe I’ll just buy my own autoclave.” Or not.
Inuit men taking a tea break during a seal hunt. Image: Dr. John Tyman. Source: Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Click for source
Thinking about the merits of my own pickled spicy asparagus versus an emergency hospital visit reminded me of a story briefly mentioned several years ago in a Bacterial Pathogenesis class. In our lecture on the spore-forming obligate anaerobe Clostridium botulinum, the organism responsible for the production of the botulism toxin, our professor noted that several cases of botulism in Alaskan Natives occurred as a result of changing methods of fermenting meat. Professor, you had me at “fermenting meat”.
Investigating the veracity of this anecdote I found that tried and true Alaskan Native methods of burying meat underground to ferment had been modified by the introduction of Western conveniences. Tupperware containers and sealable plastic bags were now being used to create a meaty, anaerobic environment that C. botulinum was happy to vacation in. Oh plastics, you synthetic polymers, what have you wrought!
