Toxin production byBacillus cereusin dairy products

Abstract

SummarySpores of a known toxigenic and psychrotrophic dairy isolate ofBacillus cereus(HRM 44) were unable to grow and produce diarrhoeagenic toxin at 6 °C in creams and dairy-based products. These findings suggest that the production ofB. cereusdiarrhoeagenic toxin is unlikely to occur in creams and dairy-based products maintained within the cold chain. Growth and toxin production were readily demonstrated in creams and some desserts stored at 21 °C. Growth in creams was associated with obvious spoilage. However, in the flavoured desserts, spoilage was not always obvious before significant growth ofB. cereusand toxin production had occurred. Dairy desserts with high sugar content and/or low pH did not support toxin production and these findings are discussed.

Global overview of the risk linked to the Bacillus cereus group in the egg product industry: identification of food safety and food spoilage markers

“…() have reported the absence of cytotoxic activity of raw milk isolates exhibiting a high spoilage potential. Sutherland () noticed that the spoilage of flavoured desserts was not always obvious at 21°C before significant growth of B. cereus group bacteria, while toxin production was systematically observed. According to the present study, the isolates appearing as the most pathogenic at medium temperature appear as the least spoiling at refrigerated temperature (Fig.…”

Determination of Enterotoxigenic Gene Profiles of Bacillus cereus Strains Isolated from Dairy Desserts by Multiplex PCR

“…from the food chain is not possible, and the only recognised control method involves maintaining a cold temperature throughout the processing, manufacture and storage stages. It had been reported that toxogenic B. cereus strains could affect the constituents in dairy desserts during toxin formation [12] . B. cereus causes problems by degrading dairy products, creating off-flavours, sweet curdling and bitter cream because of the production of proteinase, lipase and phospholipases, and it endangers public health through food contamination [13,14] .…”

Kits for the detection of some bacterial food poisoning toxins: problems, pitfalls and benefits

“…Fluid accumulation in ligated rabbit ileal loops and vascular permeability reactions have been used routinely to detect enterotoxin (Kramer and Gilbert 1989). Vero cells (Granum et al 1993), Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells (Buchanan and Schultz 1992), and human embryonic lung (HEL) cells (Christiansson 1989(Christiansson , 1993Christiansson et al 1989) have been used in cell culture assays for enterotoxin, but neutralization of enterotoxin by specific antisera may be needed, as the lecithinase and haemolysin of B. cereus are cytopathic for some cell cultures (Sutherland 1993).…”