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Food Science & Technology vocabulary · Food Microbiology

Clostridium botulinum

Meaning in food science & technology, with examples

nounCommon term

In food science & technology, Clostridium botulinum means: A spore-forming bacterium that grows without oxygen and produces botulinum toxin, one of the strongest known poisons, which causes the rare but potentially fatal illness botulism.

In Turkish: Clostridium botulinum, botulizm etkeni

How it is used

The main target of canning: low-acid canned foods (pH above 4.6) get a '12D' botulinum cook, usually at least the equivalent of 3 minutes at 121 °C (an F0 of 3). Risks include home-canned vegetables, poorly processed fish and some vacuum-packed chilled foods. After the first mention it is written 'C. botulinum'.

Example sentences

  1. The retort process is designed to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores at the cold spot of the can.

  2. Clostridium botulinum cannot grow at pH 4.6 or below, so acidified vegetables need less heat.

Common collocations

  • botulinum cook
  • botulinum toxin
  • C. botulinum spores
  • low-acid canned food
  • 12D process
  • canningPreserving food by sealing it in airtight containers such as cans or jars and heating it enough to destroy the microorganisms that could grow during storage.
  • sterilizationA treatment, usually with high heat, that destroys microorganisms and their spores so that a food can be stored at room temperature without spoiling or becoming unsafe.
  • pHA scale from 0 to 14 that shows how acidic or alkaline a food or solution is; 7 is neutral, lower values are acidic and higher values are alkaline.
  • D-valueThe time needed at a given temperature to kill 90 percent of a population of a particular microorganism, which is a one-log reduction.
  • vacuum packagingPackaging in which the air is removed from the pack before it is sealed, so that the film fits tightly around the product and oxygen is kept away.

More terms: Food Microbiology

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