Life-threatening poisoning: a woman paralyzed by expired vegetable soup

A Frenchwoman living in the Essonne region near Paris was left almost completely paralyzed after eating expired vegetable soup. The woman has suffered life-threatening poisoning and has little chance of recovery, a family friend told media earlier this week.

At the Institut Pasteur, a leading medical research center, scientists found that the soup is contaminated with the toxin botulinum toxin, a severe toxin that paralyzes muscles.

“Of all the known poisons, it is currently the strongest poison. It has no specific odor, nor a specific taste. If in doubt, for example, if the package is swollen, if the poison produces a lot of gas, it is better not to consume it. , “explains Christelle Mazuet of the Pasteur Institute.

Only after a week and a half did doctors find out that the woman was suffering from botulism. Since then she has been treated at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

The deadline for the vegetable soup in question was August 4 and therefore expired three weeks ago. Fraud investigators found the soup in the woman’s refrigerator. This was announced by the regional health agency ARS.

The manufacturer of the soup said it is “taking this information very seriously” and is helping with the investigation. He also responded to family concerns about why the other 630 soups sold in the supermarket in question were not revoked: the product in question, with a deadline of August 4, had been out of supermarket shelves for a month.

Most pre-date is not the same as use to date

Food is usually marked with the best by date. After this date, products are usually still edible because it is not a deadline, as is often assumed.

Because: The best date only indicates how long products retain properties such as taste or smell when they are properly stored. So when such foods expire, they do not automatically spoil.

Foods with a deadline, on the other hand, are often perishable. They are also marked differently – they say “Use with”.

.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *