Word: botulinum
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...precaution, however, was well taken. Of the first 324 cans of Bon Vivant vichyssoise recalled and tested, five were found to be contaminated. A number of others had telltale bulges, which often but not always signal the presence of botulinum toxin, one of the most deadly poisons known to man. (One ounce of the poison is enough to kill the entire population of the U.S.) The toxin is produced by the hard-shelled spores of the Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which lie dormant in !he soil but flourish in the airless environment of canned foods when they are improperly processed. Heating...
...Because we were working with the dangerous Clostridium botulinum bacteria," says Dr. Grecz, "we were put in a greenhouse away from the main buildings" -though his smelly raw materials also had something to do with his isolation. Undaunted, Grecz discovered that a common microbe, Brevibacterium linens, found on many soft, surface-ripened cheeses, manufactures an antibiotic that kills off many other microbes, though it is harmless to man. Among the vulnerable microbes is the bug of botulism...
Cause of the disaster, as in similar instances rarely but regularly reported in the U.S., was botulin-a deadly nerve poison secreted by a microbe (Clostridium botulinum), probably from soil. The germs produce botulin only under airless conditions, are hard to kill even by boiling. And since the beets were served cold, Mrs. Gruwell had not boiled them-which might have destroyed the poison...
Another triumph: production and isolation in pure crystalline form of the most deadly biological poison known to man, the toxin secreted by Clostridium botulinum, type A, bacteria which sometimes grow in home-canned vegetables...