Terroir

Baked Potato Was Culprit in Prison Hooch Botulism Outbreak

It's all about terroir.
It’s all about terroir. Photo: Shutterstock

The inmate who made the jailhouse pruno that sickened eight people in 2011 had reportedly made the drink “20 times before,” but this time, he threw in a baked potato as an “experiment,” and it ended up being the source of Clostridium botulinum. The results of the investigation were published online this week by the Annals of Emergency Medicine, in case you had any doubt just how bad it is to let juice and canned fruit ferment with tubers inside a mattress for a week and then ingest the results. [Annals of Emergency Medicine via ABC, Earlier]

Baked Potato Was Culprit in Prison Hooch Botulism Outbreak