How worried should I be about botulism??

[Joni13]

I have often, if I chop too much raw garlic, covered it in olive oil and put it in the fridge.
I did this last week at some point and used it on Sunday to make a stew. My DS (4) had the leftovers on Monday.
Pure coincidence, on Tuesday I read about the risks of botulism in garlic in oil… and I have been totally freaked out since.
Online there seem to be some sources that say in the fridge is fine, others that imply that all garlic in oil is a danger. Could someone (who knows what they’re talking about) please help me bring my anxiety down and reassure me that we’re not all about to end up in hospital?
Thank you

It's Thursday today and you are still alive full 72h after consuming it. I hazard a guess that you'll be just fine.

Doesn’t heating kill botulism.

I’ve never heard of this. We have homemade garlic oil in a cupboard. This one’s at least a year old.

We made pizzas for 6 guests in the pizza oven last weekend and they all poured it on their pizzas after cooking. I haven’t heard that we’ve killed them, so I’m assuming it’s all good.

It's a high risk factor with homemade garlic oil.
That said I used it years and was fine - but it's something I stopped doing years ago once I read about the risk. Annoying if you're on the low fodmap diet though.

I think this is a serious risk. I read about it years ago. The problem is that it only takes the one time for someone to be seriously ill.

There seems to be far more awareness of botulism in the US than UK. Would also be interested to hear stats. I’ve never heard of anyone who had it but appreciate that means nothing

C botulinum can only grow, and produce the toxin, in anaerobic conditions, hence the issue arising in canned goods and products stored under oil. The toxin is not destroyed by heat, which is why it's so important, when canning, to heat everything sufficiently to destroy any spores.

The good news is that the spores come from soil, so if your garlic cloves are clean, no problem! Also it takes a while to grow.

This time.

You can'y simultaneously claim the toxin is not destroyed by heat and then suggest heating canned goods to kill it. It is very much destroyed by heat, the question is in temperature and time. The OP stored the oil in the fridge and then used it to make a stew, both of these processes would have significantly reduced risk.

This time is the time the OP is anxious about. Obviously, nobody can predict what her lifetime exposure risk might be.

I’d freeze the excess garlic in future

The bacterium is killed by heat. The spores are less easy to kill, but can be killed by heat. However, the toxin produced by the bacteria can’t be destroyed by heat. So the important thing is to heat the food to a temperature that can kill the bacteria before it proliferates enough to produce enough of the toxin to cause poisoning.

Heating the sealed can kills the spores. It's the toxin that isn't destroyed by heat.

Sorry, I see @SnakesAndArrows already replied.

gosh well done