Vacuum pickles with garlic and botulism risk

[Michael Ochnicki]

I vacuum infused some celery with gin, vinegar, salt, dried onion, and FRESH GARLIC and threw it in the fridge for a day. I didnt remember that i had read somewhere before that garlic is a botulism risk in vacuum until after I'd already had a few pieces of celery earlier today. Any experiences that anyone can share to either assuage my fears or prepare me for the worst?

[Martin Fisher]

Botulinum growth is inhibited or eliminated below 38 degrees F and/or if the pH is below 4.6

Edited November 12, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Shalmanese]

The concern for botulism was always with long term storage. Storing it for a day makes it not a risk.

Also, for some reason, the popular food world has somehow caught the link of Garlic <=> Botulism the same way as Raw Chicken <=> Salmonella despite neither of those being the major vector of contamination. In truth, botulism outbreaks in the US are extremely rare and highly treatable. People collectively freak out about botulism because it's been hyped up and has easily defined criteria but the truth is you're probably doing many things in your kitchen that have food risks thousands of times higher than your botulism risks.

[pbear]

Agreed. As I recall, the garlic-botulism scare was based on a handful of cases, i.e., two, which happened more than ten years ago.

Edited to correct grammar.

Edited November 12, 2013 by pbear (log)

[Michael Ochnicki]

Thank you all for the replies, it helped me sleep last night and I am indeed just fine.

[pbear]

BTW, to put a little meat on the bones, so to speak, here are a couple of references on the subject. First is the most recent comprehensive report on botulism in the United States. This report is the basis of my recollection that the garlic-botulism scare was founded on just two cases (both of which were by inference, by the way, as no product remained to be tested for contamination). Notably, it covers the years 1990 to 2000 and no similar report was prepared for the succeeding decade AFAICT. But, the CDC has prepared annual reports on botulism for each year since. I just went through these and found no incidents implicating garlic. In other words, there really were just two cases.

Which isn't to suggest botulism doesn't exist and can be ignored. The spores are ubiquitous and will bite if you don't take appropriate precautions, e.g., refrigeration, acidity, proper canning and/or low available water. But garlic of itself isn't a special hazard.