Aims: To evaluate the food safety and spoilage risks associated with psychrotrophic Bacillus cereus group bacteria for the egg product industry and to search for relevant risk markers.
Methods and results: A collection of 68 psychrotrophic B. cereus group isolates, coming from pasteurized liquid whole egg products, was analysed through a principal component analysis (PCA) regarding their spoilage and food safety risk potentials. The principal component analysis showed a clear differentiation between two groups within the collection, one half of the isolates representing a safety risk and the other half a spoilage risk.
Conclusions: Relevant risk markers were highlighted by PCA, that is (i) for the food safety risk, the presence of the specific 16S rDNA-1m genetic signature and the ability to grow at 43°C on solid medium and (ii) for the spoilage risk, the presence of the cspA genetic signature.
Significance and impact of the study: This work represents a first step in the development of new diagnostic technologies for the assessment of the microbiological quality of foods likely to be contaminated with psychrotrophic B. cereus group bacteria.
Keywords: Bacillus cereus group; egg products; food safety; psychrotrophy; risk markers; spoilage.
© 2014 The Society for Applied Microbiology.