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Steve Pope Steve Pope is offline
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Default Homemade dill pickles question

> wrote:

>On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 05:37:04 GMT, "BeeBop" >


>>Also, can you get botulism from homemade dill pickles? I am wondering if I
>>should let my 2 year old son eat them.


>C. Botulinum spores can only produce toxin if the pH is higher than
>4.6 (i.e - low acid) and there is no oxygen present. If the pickles
>are made with vinegar, the pH is probably low enough. If they are
>traditional dill pickles - that is to say fermented - then the
>fermentation process produces enough acid.
>
>There is no way of testing for botulin toxin at home other than
>eatiing it and subsequently being hospitalized - it's really bad and
>it doesn't take much.


BeeBop was asking about whether an infant 2 or younger should eat
the pickles. There, you have the concern that even if there is no
botulin toxin, the botulism spores themselves can sicken the infant.
(This doesn't happen to older children or adults.) So it's not clear
to me the low acid environment makes it safe in this case.

Steve