Thursday, May 12, 2016
Megaron Athens International Conference Center
Katia Rouzeau, Nestle, Lausanne, Switzerland
Markus Kranzler, Division of Functional Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Katharina Stollewerk, Division of Functional Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Michael Sulyok, Center for Analytical Chemistry, Department of Agrobiotechnology (IFA Tulln), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Laurence Blayo, Nestle, Lausanne, Switzerland
Monika Ehling-Schulz, Division of Functional Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Introduction: Cereulide is a toxin, provoking nausea and vomiting, produced by
Bacillus cereus and
commonly found in food due to its ubiquity in environment. Cereulide is raising increased concerns in food industry as it is preformed in food and cannot be inactivated due to its extreme heat and pH stability properties.
Purpose: While B. cereus growth boundaries at various temperatures are well established, less is known regarding cereulide production boundaries. The gathered data will help industry with food safety decisions and improvement of existing HACCP studies.
Methods: Gene transcription, translation, cereulide production and B. cereus growth were therefore studied with the toolbox for toxigenic Bacillus cereus in broth medium at temperatures ranging from 12 to 46°C.
Results: The results of this study showed that cereulide production is highly dependent on temperature. Additional experiments performed in food matrices showed that cereulide production is also highly matrix dependent.
Significance: As storage is a common manufacturing step where time and temperature settings are important, these results provide scientific data to assist food safety decisions in case of abusive storage conditions. They challenge as well existing food safety margins based on B. cereus growth only.
