Bacillus cereus is a major foodborne pathogen of great concern to the dairy industry owing to its resilient spores as well as the adverse effect of its toxins. At present, there is no informational study available to solve or pinpoint the UHT chocolate milk contamination issue in Malaysia. This work aimed to investigate the prevalence and contamination level of B. cereus s.l. in UHT chocolate milk and to suggest the appropriate solution for the issue. In the present study, B. cereus s.l. prevalence and contamination level in individually packed UHT chocolate milk from processing factories was evaluated. The prevalence and concentration of B. cereus s.l. were determined via MPN-PCR (Most Probable Number-Polymerase Chain Reaction) assay. Results showed that 31.11% from 220 of UHT chocolate milk tested contained Bacillus spp.; of this Bacillus spp. positive samples, 24.30% were also positive for B. cereus s.l. with concentration ranging from less than 3 to more than 1100 MPN/mL. Findings from this study highlighted the possibility of UHT chocolate milk as a potential source of B. cereus s.l. infection. Therefore, findings emphasized the needs to revise, monitor and improve UHT sterilization process to reduce infection risk. Furthermore, it is also essential to maintain the hygiene to minimize initial microbial load and contamination of UHT chocolate milk, beginning from production to retail.
Bacillus cereus spores are capable of surviving the harsh environment and more often, they cause great concern to the dairy industry. The current research was conducted to study the effect of temperature on germination and growth of B. cereus spores in UHT chocolate milk; the study was carried out at 8°C, 25°C and 35°C over a span of seven days. The results showed that no growth was observed at 8°C. At 25°C, a rapid increase in growth was observed as early as Day 1, from an initial count of ten spores to 4.01 log 10 CFU/mL. Meanwhile, at 35°C, the growth on Day 1 was more rapid in which the count promptly increased to 8.07 log 10 CFU/mL. Analysis of graph trend showed that the number of vegetative cells decreased while the number of spores increased with incubation time due to nutrients exhaustion. This study fills up the data gap towards understanding the possible issues that might arise in the actual scenario and at the same time, suggests a suitable approach to minimize infection risk caused by B. cereus spores.
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