Critical limits in preventing Bacillus cereus growth

I'm trying to find a good reference article for what critical limits I should choose for cooling my pasta and rice products to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus. 

Does anyone have anything helpful they can provide me?

Thanks!

I'm trying to find a good reference article for what critical limits I should choose for cooling my pasta and rice products to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus. 

 

Does anyone have anything helpful they can provide me?

 

Thanks!

Dear Weebus,

Guidelines do exist. A little more context may usefully focus any replies.

Is a specific application / prepared food involved ?

Is yr process to be compliant with / audited by any particular body, eg FDA, FSIS ?

Rgds / Charles.C

Hello Mr Weebus90,

 Following are the bacillus cereus documents attached,

Dear Weebus,

Should mention that there are several threads here regarding incidents due to failure to control B.cereus in  rice-related items. Particularly where time delays / reheatings are subsequent steps.

To illustrate the spore control / B.cereus problem for baking can see this post / thread (the attachment pp1  is probably identical to that in previous post). Comments to other foods are included.

http://www.ifsqn.com...ge-2#entry58869

In practice the 4hour-2hour rule (with variations) seems to be quite popular as a general rule-of-thumb for cooling requirements of cooked food  although I forget the exact scientific basis/target species covered. FDA seem to be have slightly more restrictive “thumbs”. See this post –

http://www.ifsqn.com...eat/#entry62314

The typical manufacturing problem with regard to meeting such requirements is that blast freezing is mandated and avoidance of too thick individual units. There are also some older threads here discussing the scientific aspects.

Of course yr specific situation may have some additional unusual characteristics. :smile:

Rgds / Charles.C

Thank you all for your help.

I should tell you that we are producing several different types of USDA lasagna's and also a stuffed pepper that has rice in the filling. 

I am thinking that the critical limits should be 140 F to 70 F in 2 hours and 70F to below 40F in 4 hours.

The HACCP plan that was currently in use does not address Bacillus cereus, it only called out clostridium perfringens and clostridium botulinum. 

I guess i would not only need reference material to show the critical limits reduce/ eliminate the growth of b. Cereus but also that clostridium perfringens and clostridium botulinum are reduced/ eliminated as well.

Thanks again!

Weebus90,

I have some info about Bacillus. It´s general, but hope it´s useful for your case.

2013 Advances in microbial food safety Volume 1.pdf   177.73KB   122 downloads

Rgds

Thank you all for your help.

I should tell you that we are producing several different types of USDA lasagna's and also a stuffed pepper that has rice in the filling. 

 

I am thinking that the critical limits should be 140 F to 70 F in 2 hours and 70F to below 40F in 4 hours.

 

The HACCP plan that was currently in use does not address Bacillus cereus, it only called out clostridium perfringens and clostridium botulinum. 

 

I guess i would not only need reference material to show the critical limits reduce/ eliminate the growth of b. Cereus but also that clostridium perfringens and clostridium botulinum are reduced/ eliminated as well.

 

 

Thanks again!

Dear Weebus,

Yr products not my area but I can point you to the procedure which FDA generated to answer yr (multiple) queries for cooling of cooked seafoods (including control of spore-related hazards). i would imagine that a similar approach is used for yr products assuming that the relevant data actually exists. (?)

Personally, i rather suspect that USDA will possess another "product-related" rule-of-thumb with a similar generic type reference source. It is also possible that some of yr individual product characteristics may act as inhibitors.  :dunno:

As you might expect a substantial amount of data is involved. And probably a fair amount of reading. :smile:

Please refer to this FDA reference manual - 

spg1 - Fishery Hazards and Control Guidance 2011.pdf   4.34MB   56 downloads

You need to study the tables 12.5 and (especially) A2 on pages 236 / 421 respectively. Plus the explanatory details preceding these tables, eg pgs 234-35, 417-420. There is a separate chapter for C.botulinum although the (T vs t) conclusions are included in Table A2.

From a quick look, I deduce the primary objective is to reduce the temperature sufficiently rapidly that (a) germination is minimised and (b)  any (germinated) vegetative species remain in the lag phase. This requires compliance with the listed temperatures vs times. (I have also seen approaches based on estimated times for selected "n"  generation cycles at given temperatures, one needs to study the fine print to see the exact calculation method in the [often-used] software).

The second table illustrates the kind of logic which presumably underpins the general 4hr-2hr rule although, from my link in previous post, FDA may add a further safety factor.

I hv used the data in A2 for seafood haccp plans / vegetative pathogens with no auditorial problems.

Good Luck !

Rgds / Charles.C

I'm trying to find a good reference article for what critical limits I should choose for cooling my pasta and rice products to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus. 

 

Does anyone have anything helpful they can provide me?

 

Thanks!

Hi Weebus,

There is useful information on the USDA website here:

Some useful comments and documents posted, also bear in mind B.cereus can grow at refrigeration temperatures if you are producing fresh chilled products.

Regards,

Tony