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Date: Sun 14 Oct 2006
Source: Toronto Star
The single bottle of carrot juice contaminated with botulism that paralyzed 2 patients was stored properly in their home, Toronto Public Health confirmed yesterday, 13 Oct 2006.
"There was no evidence of lack of refrigeration by the cases," Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto Public Health associate medical officer, said. "Information obtained from patient interviews regarding storage and transport of the carrot juice did not confirm mishandling by the patients."
Bolthouse Farms in Bakersfield, California, told the Star that the carrot juice could not have developed botulism if it was stored properly. "When the product was on the market and it was properly refrigerated through the distribution and sale it would be consumed safely," Bolthouse Farms spokesperson Tim Warner said.
The USA's FDA and CDC launched an investigation of Bolthouse Farms after the juice was voluntarily recalled by the company. Several bottles of the company's carrot juice were tested for the toxin, Yaffe said, and all bottles came back with negative results.
Following the recall, Toronto Public Health sent a sample of the carrot juice that was left in the refrigerator to a lab in Ottawa, where it tested positive for botulism on 7 Oct 2006, Yaffe said. The 2 Toronto patients, who remain seriously ill in hospital, live together, and both ingested the toxic carrot juice before falling ill, Yaffe confirmed.