Uma reflexão sobre o Botulismo Alimentar (Clostridium botulinum)

The food is of great importance to the nutritional needs of humans, becoming a vehicle for the body's metabolic activities and innocuous, making it essential to the control of food quality and hygienic conditions. It is necessary to pay attention on food safety, quality control, sanitary, hygienic conditions in which these measures must be audited by government agencies, thus avoiding the occurrence of foodborne diseases (FBD). These measures focus on prevention of these diseases, which are for biological, chemical and physical agents. The present work had as objective reporting the seriousness attached to public health through the ingestion of the toxin released by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, emphasizing methods of preventing the development of the disease, based on the guidelines of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance. The bacteria that cause botulism, should not be associated only to eating food prepared at home, but also in restaurants and processed foods. Therefore, the botulism by contaminated food is of inestimable importance to global public health control, and preventive measures are essential to easing the incidence of cases of this disease.