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Food Plant Closes 16 Months After Botulism Outbreak

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

The Castleberry's canning plant that spawned a rare foodborne botulism outbreak last year was permanently closed by its owner Friday after 82 years of operation in Augusta, Georgia.

Television stations in the area reported that all 327 employees of the plant will lose their jobs.

The production facility created national headlines in July 2007 after the nerve toxin Clostridium botulinum was discovered in cans of Castleberry's hot dog chili sauce. Cans of the sauce had been dropped in cool water on a faulty production line before they could be thoroughly heat-treated.

When health officials linked four cases of botulism to the product, a huge recall ensued and the plant was shut down for inspection. Eventually, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tied the hot dog chili sauce to eight cases of botulism, a disease that can cause paralysis and death. Initial symptoms can include double vision and slurred speech. The victims lived in Indiana, Texas and Ohio.

The plant in Georgia reopened, but was closed again in March 2008 when the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration suspended its temporary operating permit . Weeks later, it reopened. Then in September, the Toronto-based owner of Castleberry's sold the brand name and other assets to Hanover Foods.

The Castleberry's botulism scare was so unusual (most of the 25 to 30 cases in the U.S. each year are related to foods canned at home) that it became the subject of a scientific case study funded by the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. You can read the study here.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).