There’s nothing like a good potluck.  I love it.  Everyone shows up with a big plate or bowl or crock pot of something great and everyone shares and eats too much and then eats more, because there’s so much stuff left over.  The epicenter of potlucks in the South is usually the local church, but potluck attendees at the Cross Pointe Free Will Baptist Church in Lancaster, Ohio had an unwanted guest in the form of botulism toxin.  A church potluck is the center of a botulism outbreak that has sickened 23 people and killed a 54-year-old woman.

“It might have been part of a salad or something, and it was probably part of the canned component of it that was the cause,” said Dr. Andrew Murry of Lancaster’s Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster.  “Every person that we’ve seen was at this potluck.  In other words, it’s not something that was spread throughout this community.”

That’s always the concern with casseroles like you see above.  A little bad mayo, some mystery gelatin, something left at room temperature a little too long and you’re going to have some problems.  I’ve never gotten sick at a potluck, but I never go for anything too casserole-y or mayo-riffic.  Probably for the best.

Tags: botulism, church potluck botulism outbreak, 23 sickened by church botulism outbreak, cross pointe free will baptist church, lancaster, ohio, andrew murray, fairfield medical center, church potluck center of botulism outbreak, unusual diseases, church potluck diseases

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