Question

Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that produces the botulism toxin, is anaerobe. So how does it get into foods?

Answer 1

ANSWER:-

Clostridium botulism is highly anaerobic which means it can grow only in low oxygen conditions and it gets into the food through endospores which are present in the surrounding environment and these spores can survive a wide range of temperature and environment so when they found some favourable conditions they tend to grow. In packaged food, lightly preserved foods , improperly processed food, canned food or bottled foods spores of clostridium perfringens tend to grow easier because when food is packed tightly in these cans or bottles they provide less oxygen to the food to prevent staling of food by oxidation which provides perfect anaerobic condition for the growth of spores so that's why bottles and cans are needed to be properly sterilised by boiled or steamed water as the only method to kill spores is to expose them at extremely high temperature and high pressure which can be done by heating the food properly or boiling it at a high temperature above the 85celcius temperature for some duration and these spores do not grow in highly acidic conditions also hence that's why they do not occur in acidic nature food like carbonated beverages.