On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 04:01:31 GMT, Reg > wrote:

>OK, you want a scenario (in addition to the Chi-Chi's case, of course).
>Somebody decides they want to create an oil infusion using green onions.
>They put their onions in a bottle of olive oil, leave it around for
>awhile at room temperature and end up with a bottle full of botulism
>toxin.
>
>So ya see Mr crypto-vegan, my assertion stands. Green onions (or *any*
>food product for that matter), if improperly handled, can carry food
>poisoning. It can, but does not necessarily have to, come from human
>contact with the food item in question.

when it come to C. botulinum spores and vegetables, they are
__ALWAYS__ infected, no matter how it is handled. But only by spores
from contact with the soil it grows in. All kind of soil contain
spores of C. botulinum, and immersing in oil and kept at room
temperature for some week is certainly a condition good enough to
waken up most of the spores to make living bacterias. It's basic
microbiology.
Even sterilized soil contain spores of C. botulinum. They may be
viable even after many thousands of years in soil. Only heating wet at
130 deg C or dry at more than 300 deg C will kill them. But that would
destroy most of the soil too.