France reports food poison death after eating sardines: What is botulism

Botulism is deadly in five to 10 percent of cases because of a toxin generated by clostridium botulinum bacteria.

A woman died in France from botulism after eating sardines at a restaurant last week, health officials said, adding that 12 other people were in treatment for the rare condition. Botulism is a serious neurological illness caused by eating food that has been improperly preserved. The DGS health authority said that the restaurant in Bordeaux in southwestern France had preserved the sardines itself.

France Botulism: Botulism is usually caused by eating food that has been improperly preserved. (Representational)

A doctor at the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux said that 12 more people were still receiving emergency treatment. Five of them were on respiratory support, he informed. The group included American, Irish and Canadian nationals, he said while a German national travelled home for treatment, as did a resident of Barcelona, Spain.

All of them had eaten at the restaurant, the "Tchin Tchin Wine Bar" in Bordeaux, between September 4 and 10. They all ate sardines that had been stored by the restaurant owner himself in jars, the DGS said. Authorities were still running tests at the restaurant, it said as it could not rule out the emergence of further cases of botulism which has an incubation period of up to several days.

The restaurant owner said that he had thrown out some of the jars containing sardines because of a "strong smell" coming from the containers when he opened them. Others "appeared in good condition and were served up to customers", he said.

Botulism is deadly in five to 10 percent of cases because of a toxin generated by clostridium botulinum bacteria that can appear when preserved food is insufficiently sterilised. It can cause muscle paralysis lasting several weeks. The most immediate danger stems from affected respiratory muscles.