Overview

• A nationwide recall of broccoli in oil was ordered after 52-year-old Luigi Di Sarno died and nine others were hospitalized with botulism symptoms in Diamante, Calabria.
• The Paola Public Prosecutor’s Office impounded all jars of broccoli in oil and the implicated food truck as part of a criminal investigation into the toxin’s source.
• Calabria’s Department of Health and Welfare activated emergency procedures requiring immediate notification to the Poison Control Center in Pavia for antitoxin management.
• Additional vials of botulism antitoxin were flown by aircraft from Rome’s San Camillo Hospital and staged for distribution through Pavia to affected hospitals.
• This outbreak follows an earlier Sardinia cluster in late July where contaminated guacamole sickened eight people and caused one death.