Occurrence of Bacillus cereus in Meat Products, Raw Meat and Meat Product Additives

One thousand nine hundred and sixty three samples of meat products, raw meat and meat product additives from different slaughterhouses, meat processing factories and retail meat shops in six prefectures of Japan, were examined for the presence and number of Bacillus cereus . Although B. cereus was found in meat products (18.3%) and raw meat (6.6%), the contamination levels were generally lower than 10² per gram. In contrast, meat product additives showed contamination levels ranging from 10² to 10⁴/g with the highest values (10⁴/g) in samples of spices and animal proteins. On the basis of these results, we suggest that the main source of B. cereus contamination in meat products is contaminated meat product additives.