1971 Bon Vivant botulism incident

Vichyssoise is a soup primarily made up of leeks, potatoes, onions, and cream. It is served cold.^[1] It was invented in 1917 at the New York Ritz-Carlton by chef de cuisine Louis Diat.^[2]

Bon Vivant was a canned soup company based in Newark, New Jersey, United States.^[3] Bon Vivant was founded as Moore & Co. in 1863. It was renamed Bon Vivant in the 1950s, and by 1971 had been operating for 108 years.^[4][5]

On June 29, 1971, in Bedford Village, New York, couple Samuel and Grace Cochran (at the time aged 61 and 64, respectively)^[6] had a meal of Bon Vivant vichyssoise straight from the can, as it had been a hot day.^[3][7] They did not finish the soup, as it tasted spoiled.^[3][8][7] By 8 a.m. the following day, Sam was experiencing double vision. Within hours, he had developed difficulty speaking and was rushed to the hospital. Once there, he lost the ability to move his arms and legs.^[7] He died at around 11:30 p.m.^[6] The next morning, Grace was admitted to the same hospital exhibiting complete paralysis. Four hours later, she was transferred to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan.^[6] Both were diagnosed with botulism.^[6][7] Grace was given the botulism antitoxin^[7] and did eventually recover, though she remained paralyzed for months.^[9]

After the poisoning, Bon Vivant recalled all cans of soup in the lot V-141, from which the Cochrans' tainted can originated.^[6] Cans from batch V-141 were sent to many major US cities, including Houston, Albuquerque, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Birmingham, and Washington, D.C.^[6] The lot consisted of 6,444 individual cans of soup.^[10] On July 3, Bon Vivant voluntarily recalled all remaining cans of their vichyssoise, including soup manufactured under 22 different private label brand names.^[10] However, Bon Vivant continued to stress the fact that V-141 was the only batch proven to be affected.^[10] Nevertheless, the New York State Commissioner of Health warned against eating any Bon Vivant products.^[10]

FDA tests on 324 cans from batch V-141 discovered five other cans containing the botulism toxin.^[7][3] Further FDA inspection of the Bon Vivant plants showed questionable processing procedures,^[3] and inaccurate record-keeping made it impossible to determine which batches were or were not potentially tainted.^[9] This led to Bon Vivant's plant being shut down and all Bon Vivant products being recalled,^[3] including those manufactured under 34 different store brands.^[7] Because Bon Vivant produced soup under so many other brand names, consumers were suspicious of canned soups as a whole.^[3] On July 7, the government seized all Bon Vivant products, totaling 1.5 million cans.^[4] Bon Vivant considered the seizure unreasonable, as only a very small amount of soup was proven to be contaminated. While the US government had discovered no additional instances of the Clostridium botulinum bacteria – which causes botulism – in samples of various Bon Vivant products, they had found some other bacteria cultures in the company's canned foods indicating that they may not have been cooked properly.^[4]

On July 26, Bon Vivant filed for bankruptcy, since all their products were confiscated, and they would be unable to make any money.^[4][11][5] In an attempt to salvage the company's reputation, Bon Vivant reverted to the original name, Moore & Co. Soups.^[4][12] Since BV maintained that their confiscated products were perfectly safe to eat, they spent several years trying to get them back to be sold.^[4] On June 3, 1974, the company consented to having the soup destroyed. Bon Vivant's main reasons were the rising legal fees they were accumulating, and the fact that the products would have soon expired.^[13]

After Bon Vivant relented, the FDA originally planned that the stocks would be crushed by bulldozers and sent to various landfills in Hudson County.^[13] After about two-thirds of the cans were destroyed, Chemical Control Corporation of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was contracted out by the United States Marshals Service to dispose of the remaining 516,756 cans in an automated machine which would open the tins, dump them, and pump the contents to an incinerator.^[14][15] To avoid any potential sickness from the possibly contaminated contents, no human would touch the contents once the cans were open. It was estimated that it would take 30 days to burn the 60,000 US gallons (230,000 L) of soup.^[15]

Consumer trust in Bon Vivant, and canned foods in general, had been destroyed by the recall.^[3] Despite their attempts to regain popularity, Bon Vivant shut down in 1974, after 111 years in business.^[9]

The incident was a popular subject for stand-up comedians directly following the incident.^[5] A 1971 panel from The Addams Family comic strip features Uncle Fester gathering cans of Bon Vivant vichyssoise.^[5][16]

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