Clostridium Perfringens - Food Poisoning Bacteria

Clostridium Perfringens - This short paper in our series covering food poisoning bacterium considers the bacteria Clostridium perfringens and looks at where it is found and its symptoms.

Clostridium perfringens is found in low numbers in many foods, particularly meat and poultry and their products. It is also found in the soil, the intestines of humans and animals, in sewage and in animal manures. Infection with Clostridium perfringens normally causes diarrhoea and severe abdominal pain. It may occasionally cause nausea but it rarely causes vomiting or fever. Unlike many other types of bacteria that cause foodborne disease, clostridium perfringens isn't completely destroyed by ordinary cooking. This is because it produces heat-resistant spores.

Clostridium Perfringens

The bacteria are killed at cooking temperatures, but the heat-resistant spores they produce are able to survive and may actually be stimulated to germinate by the heat. If the food is not eaten at once but is allowed to cool slowly, the bacteria produced when the spores germinate multiply rapidly. Unless the food is reheated so that it is piping hot (at least to 60oC and preferably to 75oC), the bacteria will survive. After ingestion, if there are sufficient numbers present, the bacteria will produce toxins and the toxins will cause symptoms.

Foods most likely to be associated with Clostridium perfringens food poisoning are those that are cooked slowly in large quantities and left to stand for a long time at room temperature.

©Crown copyright. This article was reproduced with the kind permission of the Food Standards Agency - www.foodstandards.gov.uk

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