Hot smoking sausages - is botulism a concern?

[YetiDave]

I just plain love smoked sausages, there is no better way to cook a sausage! I make plenty of my own and I've also cooked up supermarket sausages this way and always aim for 75C, which is pretty much the highest minimum internal temp for any food, as far as I'm aware

[Tiny]

Hi Chaps,
Before blindness got the better of me I was a scientician a long time ago, and I was musing on botulism. Luckily Mrs Tiny is still a scientician and she confirmed what I thought.

You cant get botulism from an undercooked sausage. The bug itself is anaerobic and the thing that does you the wrong un is what it leaves behind, not the bug itself. So if you have something contaminated with clostridium botulinum then it is going to do you wrong, no amount of cooking will save you the evil nerve toxin will still be there rare, medium or well done.

Hazelnut peree most common thing to have been the cause of an outbreak, not sure why I am sure some more web savvy person will know.

Lots of other bugs will happily do you wrong as well but at most smoking temps these will be proper dead and not have the poor manners to do you with a hideous nerve toxin.

Cheers
Tiny

[keith157]

I bow to greater knowledge and as to the meat I try to buy off the carcass as much as possible, but I know where you are coming from and the worst season will soon be upon us (supermarket turkeys ).

[aris]

Right on Tiny - was about to comment. Botulism is basically "poo" from a specific microorganism - cooking will not get rid of it. Botulism is more of a concern in preserved foods - like dried sausages, meats, canned foods etc, and not fresh food. Of course, we still want to kill other pathogens - so make sure internal temps are 160f/70C

By the way - the botulism toxin is what they make Botox from

[YetiDave]

It's also the most toxic substance on the planet, I think I read somewhere that less than 1g of the botulism toxin is used to manufacture the world's supply of botox for a year

[keith157]

Most of which is bought by Joan Rivers I believe