Food poisoning possible?

[SkipMorrow]

I remember when I was a kid, may parents used to can a lot of vegetables and fruits. They were always super worried about food poisoning. I was careful with my first batch to sterilize everything after the boiling phase. My question is, how much of a threat is food poisoning in this hobby? What would happen if a few little buggies got in my batch? Have you ever gotten food poisoning or know anyone that got it from a home brew? If it is not a real threat, can someone explain the difference as to why it is such a threat with canning but not home brewing?

 

[beergolf]

Not to worry. The long boil kills everything and then after fermentation the harsh environment of alcohol and low pH makes beer safe to drink.

Unless you lace your beer with cyanide or some other poison it is safe to drink.

 

[Chadwick]

Food poisoning isn't an issue. I wish I could provide a scientifically grounded reason for why that is. I know it has something to do with how nasty bugs that make us sick (food poisoning) cannot out-compete the good bugs that are making our beer. So essentially, the beer is purifying itself. Even if your beer gets what is called an "infection", the bugs that it can get infected with are harmless to us. They just don't make the best tasting beer.

I'm sure someone else will be able to chime in with a more scientific explaination. In the meantime, consider this. Since I've been brewing beer I've suffered food poisoning twice. Once from a chicken sandwich from McD's and from some chilidogs at a public event the second time. Never has my beer made me or anyone else sick. I kind of think it is almost impossible to poison your yourself with home brew unless you drink so much you give yourself alcohol poisoning.

 

[ianw58]

Food poisoning is thecresult of putting a poison in the beer.

Food Bourne Illness is the result of natural toxins from a contamination.

Beer has both alcohol and hops and tends to be on the acidic side of the pH scale. All three of which reduce possibility of contamination with "nasties" that will do harm.

The adage I was taught when I started brewing over 20 years ago was, "if you can drink it, it won't kill you." Meaning if you can stand the taste it smell of the brew, it's not likely to be dangerous.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Zero possibility.

The organisms that cause food poisoning can survive in wort, but they cannot survive in beer. The combination of boiling killing almost all microorganisms (it doesn't sterilize but it comes close), low pH, and after yeast has been pitched the presence of alcohol, creates an environment where no pathogenic organisms can survive. The only microorganisms that can have an impact on your beer are beer spoilage organisms, which can make your beer tasty funky and sour (that can be good or bad depending on a bunch of circumstances and your own preferences), but no matter what they cannot hurt you.

Now, it is possible for toxic substances to make it into beer, but not food poisoning from bacteria. Contamination from chemicals, bad water (say, lead or something like that), contamination from equipment, or wort that doesn't get fermented under normal means (spontaneous fermentation can sometimes pick up some enteric bacteria, although even that will typically correct itself with time as lactic bacteria reduce the pH, as seen in Lambics).

The reason why food poisoning is an issue with canning is that many canned foods (when improperly canned) don't have the benefits of low enough pH, and alcohol in particular. Lower pH foodstuffs are a little less dodgy. But like I said above, the boil only sanitizes, not sterilizes, and if you only boil when you can something, things like botulism spores can survive the boil. Hence why you're supposed to can foods in a pressure cooker, which can reach the heat necessary to fully sterilize.

So, the thing to take away is that if you follow proper procedure, no problem. If you're leaving wort unfermented for a period of time, then there's a potential issue. The biggest risk is when you do something like canning real wort, where the conditions are possible for botulism just like canned food. If you're canning wort, use a pressure cooker.

End point is, unless you're doing something really unusual, even if you screw things up you have nothing to worry about.

 

[philipCT]

I remember when I was a kid, may parents used to can a lot of vegetables and fruits. They were always super worried about food poisoning. I was careful with my first batch to sterilize everything after the boiling phase. My question is, how much of a threat is food poisoning in this hobby? What would happen if a few little buggies got in my batch? Have you ever gotten food poisoning or know anyone that got it from a home brew? If it is not a real threat, can someone explain the difference as to why it is such a threat with canning but not home brewing?

Bottom line, the difference can be explained in one word: alcohol.

 

[RM-MN]

Bottom line, the difference can be explained in one word: alcohol.

Not quite. The danger in canning vegetables is that many are low in acid. Botulin spores can survive boiling so vegetables that are low in acidity must be pressure canned so the temperature reached is high enough to kill the spores.

Acid vegetables like tomatoes can be canned in a water bath because the botulin cannot grow in such an acidic environment. Beer is acidic enough that botulin isn't growing. Add to that the hops which are a natural antiseptic and you have a drink that is safe....provided you don't drink to much of it. Alcohol is a different subject.

 

[masaba]

It is not just alcohol but also the low Ph. Pickling, for example, has been used for centuries (if not longer) as a way of preserving food for the same reason.