CFA Working Document: Bacillus Relevance to chilled prepared foods

Relevance of B. cereus to chilled prepared foods including produce

It is important to understand the pathogenic potential of various B. cereus Groups and their relevance to chilled prepared foods including fresh produce. B. cereus is responsible for two types of food poisoning, diarrhoeal (an infection) and emetic (an intoxication); however, no reported outbreaks of food poisoning have been associated with B. cereus and correctly stored commercially-produced minimally processed chilled foods, of which in the UK alone, more than 10^10 packs of these foods have been sold in recent years without reported illness, thus the risk presented is very low. The lack of association between diarrhoeal food poisoning and correctly stored commercially-produced minimally processed chilled foods indicates an infectious dose has not been reached. This may reflect low pathogenicity of psychrotrophic strains. The lack of reported association of psychrotrophic B. cereus with emetic illness and correctly stored commercially-produced minimally processed chilled foods indicates that a toxic dose of the emetic toxin has not been formed. Laboratory studies show that strains form very small quantities of emetic toxin at chilled temperatures.

Our Working Document "Bacillus relevance to chilled prepared foods" sets out technical detail and controls to be used.

This document is a free digital download.