Psychrotrophic strains of Bacillus cereus producing enterotoxin

In investigations on three outbreaks of Bacillus cereus food poisoning in Spain and The Netherlands, the causative strains grew within a temperature range of 4-37 degrees C, but not at 43 degrees C. Such psychrotrophic types were found to occur in various dairy products (including ca 25% of 35 samples of pasteurized milk) and some mousses and cook/chill meals. Growth of and enterotoxin production by psychrotrophic B. cereus could be prevented by temperatures below 4 degrees C and pH-values not exceeding 5.0.