Combined Approaches to Differentiate the Common Mister Bacillus and the Super Spoiler

Sporeforming bacteria are ubiquitous in the environment and exhibit a wide range of diversity leading to their natural prevalence in foodstuff. In most cases, Bacillus and related genus enter the industrial plants via spore contaminations of raw material or dehydrated ingredients and may persist in the environment. While spore is the resistant but dormant state of these bacteria, food spoilage and food poisoning is only due to the vegetative cells multiplication of specific strains. Better knowledge on biodiversity, in particular regarding spore resistance, germination, growth and spoilage abilities may explain why specific strains, called here super spoiler, are able to survive process and develop in food during shelf life. Based on combined screening approaches, either common Bacillus contaminant or super spoiler may be identified. Deep characterization of these contaminants provides an added value when conducting challenge tests in food as it ensures the evaluation of different scenario of relevance for food business operators to better adjust process and shelf life.