Baby food botulism recall at Babies-R-Us

Posted by Fred Pritzker in Botulism Recall

A baby food botulism recall is a reminder to everyone how critical its is for food manufacturers and our nation’s food safety system to insist on purity of food from farm to fork.

Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. There are 10 to 30 botulism cases in the United States each year.  Since foodborne botulism results from ingestion of the toxin, determination of the source of a botulism outbreak is based on detection and identification of toxin in the food involved. It is a test that takes seven days.

Typical sources include improperly canned commercial foods and home-canned foods with low acidity.

In the current Plum Organics recall of 4.22 ounce Apple and Carrot Portable Pouch baby food from all Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us stores nationally, the California-based company that made the product said it did not meet FDA guidelines for proper acidity levels. The recall was based on the possibility that it might be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Parents and care providers mush check their inventories for any of the product with a “best by” date of May 21, 2010. The common UPC code on the containers is 89018001221.

For infants, symptoms of botulism poisoning include lethargy, weakness, poor feeding, constipation, poor head control, loss of body tone, poor gag and sucking reflex. In adults, the symptoms include general weakness, dizziness,  double-vision and trouble with speaking or swallowing. People experiencing these problems should seek immediate medical attention. If a link is found, it is important to seek the counsel of an experienced food poisoning lawyer with botulism experience who can protect your legal rights.

This is not the first baby food botulism recall. In February 2007, the FDA issued a warning that certain jars of organic baby food produced by Earth’s Best should not be fed to infants because of the possibility they were contaminated with the botulism toxin. In that case, production and distribution of the product was halted while the company worked with federal health officials to determine the root cause.