Risk of Bacillus cereus in Relation to Rice and Derivatives

Abstract

Rice is a very popular food throughout the world and the basis of the diet of the citizens of many countries. It is used as a raw material for the preparation of many complex dishes in which different ingredients are involved. Rice, as a consequence of their cultivation, harvesting, and handling, is often contaminated with spores of Bacillus cereus, a ubiquitous microorganism found mainly in the soil. B. cereus can multiply under temperature conditions as low as 4 °C in foods that contain rice and have been cooked or subjected to treatments that do not produce commercial sterility. B. cereus produces diarrhoeal or emetic foodborne toxin when the consumer eats food in which a sufficient number of cells have grown. These circumstances mean that every year many outbreaks of intoxication or intestinal problems related to this microorganism are reported. This work is a review from the perspective of risk assessment of the risk posed by B. cereus to the health of consumers and of some control measures that can be used to mitigate such a risk.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus; poisoning; rice.