It's nasty and can be fatal yes, but in terms of risks in life it just doesn't warrant mentioning, and yet it is so often. (And I do not believe it's bloggers feeling the need to warn about it that's suppressing the numbers!) You're probably more likely to get run over on your way to the shop for whatever you want to can/ferment.
> but American food writing always needs FDA recommendations and general fearmongering, for some reason.
Maybe fearmongering is one of the reasons the deaths are so low?
That, and the fact that the recipes that have become a part of the culture in many cases happen to be recipes that prevent botulism (i.e., things that are sour).
> (And I do not believe it's bloggers feeling the need to warn about it that's suppressing the numbers!)
As for safe recipes being established part of the culture (no puns intended?) - yeah, well that's somewhat the point, C. botulinum spores can't be seen, but other things can, we've developed preservation techniques that work for both, it's rare anyway, it doesn't warrant worrying about specifically. It's the nastiest thing that almost certainly isn't going to happen.
15 episodes (62 patient cases) in the UK between 1922 and 2005. https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/28/4/337/1622732... Mostly not home-prepared, and of those that were only one was canned vegetables (mushrooms).
It's nasty and can be fatal yes, but in terms of risks in life it just doesn't warrant mentioning, and yet it is so often. (And I do not believe it's bloggers feeling the need to warn about it that's suppressing the numbers!) You're probably more likely to get run over on your way to the shop for whatever you want to can/ferment.