Predicting B. cereus growth and cereulide production in dairy mix

This study aims to quantify growth and cereulide production by Bacillus cereus and their potential correlation in an intermediate dairy wet-mix. Systematic experiments were carried out using the emetic reference strain F4810/72 in the suboptimal range of temperature of 12 °C to 20 °C. Growth and cereulide kinetic parameters were estimated and the three parameters (i) time to first cereulide quantification (t_cer), (ii) maximum specific growth rates (μ_max) and (iii) cereulide production rates (k) were modelled as a function of temperature. As temperature increased, growth lag time and t_cer were shorter while microbial increase and cereulide production happened earlier, and at higher rates. Maximum concentration of cells and maximum cereulide concentration proved to be temperature-independent, reaching the average values of 7.9 ± 0.3 log₁₀(CFU/mL) and 2.6 ± 0.2 log₁₀(ng.g^-1) respectively. Moreover, the time to reach the widely used threshold of 5 log₁₀CFU/mL (t_5log) was tested against t_cer, and this suggested that this threshold can be used with increased confidence at lower temperatures to assure toxin is not quantified in this matrix. The average t_cer were equal to 314 h, 118 h, 73 h and 45 h for 12 °C, 15 °C, 18 °C and 20 °C respectively. A validation study was performed using independent data sets obtained with the same strain in other dairy matrices. The microbial growth models presented good predictive power even when extrapolated beyond the temperature range of construction. Nevertheless, the models proposed for prediction of toxin production over time presented limitations, especially for food matrices that deviate significantly from the original matrix for which the model was developed, making cereulide predictions less accurate. Our findings suggest that similar modelling approaches can be used to predict growth, time to first cereulide quantification as well as cereulide formation over time for a specific matrix, but that matrix-extrapolations are more suitable for growth than for cereulide.