Made a couple batches of sausage yesterday

[Habanero Smoker]

Ken;

I've never heard that the toxin is neutralized at 200 degrees. I would be cautious of that information, unless you read it from a reliable source. Usually when a time is given, that is usually associated with keeping the internal temperature at that point for 10 minutes to kill live bacteria.

[Ken Riddle]

I found it on the CDC website.  There is a bunch of information on it.  Evidently home-canned food and, oddly enough, honey seem to be popular places for it to come from.

Man, it is scary stuff and you can BET I will be careful next time!

[Habanero Smoker]

I'll take a look around that site, because it is something that I would like to know. Still that is pressure cooking and home canning, and it seems like it's to ensure the destruction of live bacteria, not the toxins produced by the bacteria.

Botulism is something that one should be concerned of, but smoking sausage at home is safe. It's a matter of just becoming aware of and applying some simple procedures. Go to the USDA/FSIS site and do a search on smoking sausage. That will give all of the information you need to safely smoke sausage at home.

[manxman]

toxin cannot survive if cooked at 200 degrees for at least 10 minutes.

The four out of seven botulism toxins relevant to food poisoning are destroyed at "cooking" temperatures as stated above, quite a few other toxins such as marine shellfish / fish toxins (e.g. scombrotoxic) are not destroyed by cooking and avoidance is the only way!

However these toxins are generally a lot less dangerous than botulism toxins.