In plain words
Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium found in soil, in the gut, and in raw meat and poultry. Its spores can survive cooking. If cooked food is left to cool slowly at room temperature, the bacteria can multiply quickly. Illness usually comes from eating large amounts of food that were held too long at warm temperatures, such as big pots of stew, gravy, or cooked meats. Symptoms usually start within about a day, with cramps and diarrhea. Most healthy adults recover on their own, but dehydration and other complications can be serious. Cooling food quickly and keeping it cold is the usual guidance for home cooks and food handlers.
The deeper version
C. perfringens is a spore-forming, gram-positive, anaerobic bacterium. Type A strains cause most foodborne illness, through enterotoxin production in the intestine after ingestion of large numbers of vegetative cells. Spores survive typical cooking and germinate during slow cooling through the range the USDA defines as the danger zone, 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, with generation times that can approach ten minutes near 43 to 47 degrees Celsius. The CDC estimates roughly one million US illnesses per year, mostly from restaurant and institutional outbreaks. Cooling guidance in the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service documents recommends rapid cooling in shallow containers. The main uncertainty is how much of the outbreak risk applies to home cooking in smaller batches.
Where it comes up
- Bone brothNourishment and Traditions
- Stocking the freezer before birthNourishment and Traditions
- Food safety: listeria, mercury, raw foodsPregnancy: Eating
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Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Clostridium perfringens: foodborne illness facts and estimates
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service — Cooling and storage of cooked food guidance