Expired Food and Botulism

I was having a conversation with a friend of mind recently about an email that goes around every so often regarding expiration dates of food items.

 

 

She told me she had bought a bottle of a well known brand name salad dressing at a major chain grocery store on the same day that she was using it.

 

That evening she was fixing a salad for dinner and when she opened the salad dressing it made a slight fizzle sound. Other than that, it appeared alright.

 

She did what we often do and tasted the dressing before adding it to the salad. Then the phone rang and she sat the bottle down.

 

After talking on the phone for a short time, she started to feel muscle weakness, difficulty speaking and swallowing.

 

She knew enough to call 911.

 

My friend had a very serious form of botulism and came very close to death.

 

Come to find out this salad dressing had an expiration date of over a year from when she bought it.

 

In Donna’s case she did not give it a thought because she just bought it.

 

I was always cautious with food and expiration dates. Now I not only go through my refrigerator and pantry often, I also make extra sure I check dates while shopping.

 

Donna is doing fine now,it took awhile for her to recover. We both agree taking a little extra time to check dates is worth it, your life may depend on it.