Clostridium Botulinum
Refrigerate after opening.
Paralysis that starts in the face and spreads to the limbs. Respiratory failure. In 2015, the United States saw the biggest outbreak of botulism in 40 years. This outbreak stemmed from improperly home-canned goods (potatoes) that were shared at a potluck.
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My grandmother would not teach me how to make jelly. She knew I did not understand the consequences of botulism, or the power to poison through jelly.
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Symptoms normally appear between 18 and 36 hours after consuming the contaminated food, but can vary between 3 hours and 8 days.
Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Constipation
Abdominal distention
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In wound botulism, the nerves that connect the brain to the spine, known as the cranial nerves, experience the first symptoms.
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I would not eat the pickled corn when my partner did not follow a recipe. He threw the corn out, angry that it would be wasted if others would not try it. He had not eaten either.
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Double or blurred vision
Drooping eyelids
Facial weakness
Dry mouth
Dysphagia
Difficulty swallowing
Slurred speech
Muscle weakness
Paralysis
Death
Patients will remain conscious during this process.
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Poisoning has been deemed the “woman’s murder tool”. Shows like Game of Thrones highlight this method of murder. The King’s Hand is poisoned by the incestuous blonde queen. A potential threat is poisoned with wine by the Red Woman who has come to control a man attempting to become king. With the fear of women rebelling from a binary societal role combined with expectations of women cooking food for a family, poisoning those men in power became a trope of women being too spiteful to trust but too childlike to receive power.
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Spores producing toxins in poorly canned food.
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I close jelly containers, oils, pickled okra, anything that could potentially grow mold. In my senior year of college I began living with someone who never closed the top to any container. Honey left unsealed, oil on a cabinet top shelf open and in the dark for weeks, leftovers out on counters with no covering to be consumed the next day or the next. I stopped cooking. I slowly stopped buying food. I need the preparation of food to be orderly by law.
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Severe poisoning.
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When my dad was a kid his neighbors poured coolant in his dog’s food. The dog was dead when they returned home from vacation.
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Keep oils infused with garlic or herbs in a refrigerator.
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For my 22nd birthday, my grandmother sent me fig preserves she made from the tree in her back yard that the pig used to sleep under. I thought I had not opened them but now I am scared, thinking that I may have the day I got them while remembering the scene from Holes where the boys eat Sploosh in the desert. If Shia Lebouf and that other Disney guy can survive on ancient peach jelly left to rot under an overturned wagon, why can't I eat 6 month old figs?
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Do not taste foods to see if they are still good.
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I never trusted people who left opened canned food out then offered it to others.
I was always nervous eating at houses where I found food past its expiration date in the refrigerator. Bowls with coagulated milk sitting in kitchen sinks, crust thickly lining the rims of jars, black and gray fur expanding over the surface of baking sheets left half in standing water were red flags that I began to promise myself I would never allow in a future home.
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Throw away cans that are bulging, leaking, or appear damaged.
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There is no smell. No taste. No mold. Just drooling and limp eyelids, ragged breathing. A drunkenness that comes from honey and jams that will choke the movement of lungs.
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I developed fears around uncleanly food preparation space, and inherited my mother’s procrastination in cleaning. I once fell in love with a girl whose family never did the dishes. I adopted cats who walk in their shit then on the surface of every counter. I remember watching my grandfather pour clumps of whole milk that had sat on the counter for days into his cheerios then eat two bowls. I do not eat cheerios or drink whole milk anymore.
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Do not give honey or corn syrup to infants under 12 months of age.
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Nothing but slurred speech and crabapple jelly on a Sunday afternoon.
I never touched the insides of the mason jar lids after my grandmother told me it could kill the whole family.
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Botulism does not grow in foods with a pH of 4.4 or less.
“Botulism.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 Aug. 2019,
www.cdc.gov/botulism/index.html.
Brunner, Stephanie. “Botulism: Symptoms, Causes, Prevention, and Sources.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 24 Jan. 2018,
