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<pre>Dan,
Many thanks for your interesting posting. This should only serve to caution
the home/novice producers of certain unpasteurised tapenades, olive pates
and the like, although I would presume that the salt/acid content would
normally make these products absolutely safe.

Regards,

Guido

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Burnet" <springgullyolives@...>
Subject: [OliveOil] Botulism in Olive Oil


> Good morning (Australian time),
>
> Having raised this question and made reference to the people who
> introduced me to the problem I received 16 emails last night from a
> learned friend. Every one of them was from various articles in papers
> and magazines giving examples of botulism (toxin) poisoning from matter
> preserved in olive oil.
>
> Although there are no recorded case of death or illness from olive oil
> without something preserved in it my learned friend makes the point that
> if sediment is contained in the oil then the conditions are right for
> the growth of organisms. If I understand it correctly the smallest
> filter used in oil filtration is 5 microns. If that is correct then
> the C botulism spore which is smaller than 5 microns will pass through
> into the oil. We only need one example to ruin us.
>
> There is probably nothing in the world which can be taken as 100%
> safe/correct, or whatever but it behoves us to do the best we can at the
> bulk storage end of our process by removing the water/sediment.
>
> Yours,
> Dan (the unlearned!)
</pre>
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