In summer, there is an increase in the variety of fruits and vegetables, and many enthusiasts of "private food" try to pickle red bayberries, beans, chili peppers, etc. They believe that this "pure natural, non additive" "home flavor" is absolutely safe. Experts in the field of Food science said that the home-made food that looks "beautiful" could easily lead to botulinum toxin poisoning due to microbial pollution. Consumers should not blindly start to avoid trouble or even danger. Case: poisoning caused by eating self-made fermented food During the Dragon Boat Festival this year, Ms. Du from Changsha, Hunan, made a jar of perilla and bayberry ginger according to the online strategy. Ms. Du stored the ingredients in the refrigerator for a few days before undergoing pickling, exposure, and other procedures to seal them into a jar. On the evening of June 30, Ms. Du ate more than half a jar of self-made perilla bayberry while chasing the drama. Unexpectedly, she began to have diarrhea in the middle of the night. The next morning, she arrived at the community health service center and was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. According to analysis, it is likely that the cause of Ms. Du's diarrhea is botulinum toxin produced during the fermentation process of food ingredients. In May this year, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Henan Province announced that several hospitals in the province had received a number of consecutive cases caused by the consumption of homemade fermented bean curd milk or Stinky tofu. The patients presented with dizziness and nausea, which led to dysphagia, blurred vision, choking on drinking water and other symptoms. After testing by the laboratory of Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, it was ultimately determined that all cases were food poisoning caused by botulinum toxin type B. Last August, the mother and daughter in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, suddenly felt sick and vomited after eating their own pickled pickled Chinese cabbage. They suffered from weakness in limbs, chest tightness and shortness of breath, and decreased oxygen saturation. They were sent to the local hospital ICU for emergency treatment. The local CDC took samples from the vomit of the mother and daughter and the homemade kimchi jar for testing, and confirmed that the culprit causing the poisoning was botulinum toxin. After being treated with a special antidote - botulinum toxin antitoxin, the mother and daughter were able to recover after 20 days of treatment. The reporter of China Consumer Daily found that in recent years, people increasingly prefer to use seasonal ingredients to produce fermented food, which is considered "zero addition, very healthy", resulting in botulinum toxin poisoning. Among them, most of them are homemade plant fermented food, such as Chili sauce and paste, Stinky tofu, Doubanjiang, pasta, etc., and others, such as dairy products, canned food and bacon, bacon, dried beef and other non heated instant food, as well as Pickled vegetables Incidents of botulinum toxin poisoning caused by cold dishes and other foods have also occurred from time to time. Ruan Guangfeng, director of the Science Communication Department and associate research librarian of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, said in an interview with the China Consumer Daily that after the self-made Stinky tofu, flour paste, soy sauce, lobster sauce and other fermented foods as well as ham, bacon, canned or bottled food were contaminated by Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium botulinum can reproduce in large numbers under anoxic conditions to produce Exotoxin, which will lead to food poisoning after consumption. Analysis: How does botulinum toxin contaminate family dining tables? In the impression of many beauty enthusiasts, botulinum toxin should be the "frozen age" responsible for anti-aging and wrinkle removal. Why does this substance appear in food and cause poisoning? Ruan Guangfeng explained that the production of botulinum toxin originates from Clostridium botulinum. Clostridium botulinum itself is non-toxic, and it is an anaerobic bacterium widely distributed in nature. Generally speaking, Clostridium botulinum is most commonly detected in soil and occasionally in animal feces