Prevalence of Bacillus spp. in different food products collected in Argentina

The prevalence of Bacillus spp. in 279 samples of different food products collected in Argentina was studied. Bacillus spp. was confirmed in 28 out of 70 honey samples, 29 out of 29 flour samples, 15 out of 50 cheese samples, and 30 out of 30 spice samples, while Bacillus spp. was not found in fresh anchovy. Among the 70 honeys studied, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus laterosporus and Paenibacillus larvae subspp. larvae showed an incidence of 23%, 4%, 8% and 38%, respectively. More diversity of Bacillus species was found in rye flours than in white flours, Bacillus subtilis being the predominant species isolated from rye flour. B. cereus had an incidence of 50% in Port Salut Argentino cheeses. Meanwhile, B. pumilus was identified in both Port Salut and Quartirolo cheeses with an incidence of 50% and 25%, respectively. All the spices analysed showed Bacillus mycoides as the sole aerobic spore-forming bacilli isolated. The association of the presence of B. cereus, B. subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis with both the potential spoilage of foods and foodborne outbreaks is well known. In this study, Bacillus spp. had an incidence of 38% among all the samples analysed, therefore the monitoring of those species should be routinely done in microbiological food analyses.