• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.520-527
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• 2021

In this study, toxin gene and antibiotic resistance of food poisoning strains isolated from indoor air in the cafeteria were analyzed to prevent food poisoning. Staphylococcus aureus (16 strains) and Bacillus cereus (37 strains) isolated from indoor air in child care center were tested. The toxin genes of S. aureus and B. cereus were detected by PCR assay. The antimicrobial susceptibility test followed the disc diffusion method described by the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute. The seg and sei toxin genes were detected in 11 of 16 S. aureus strains (68.6%). The nheA and nheB toxin genes were detected in 37 B. cereus strains. In this study, a total of 12 toxin gene patterns of B. cereus were found, among which the nheA-nheB-nheC toxin gene was found to be the most frequent pattern. The result of the antimicrobial susceptibility test of S. aureus revealed 93.8% and 87.5% resistance to ampicillin and penicillin antibiotics, but methicillin resistance S. aureus and vancomycin resistance S. aureus were not detected. All 37 B. cereus tested in this study were resistant to ampicillin and penicillin antibiotics. Based on the result of this study, it was judged that regular ventilation and air quality management were necessary to prevent food poisoning caused by S. aureus and B. cereus contaminated in the indoor air of child care centers.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1301-1304
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• 2009

Macelignan is a bioactive compound isolated from nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) which has been traditionally used for the food and pharmaceutical purposes. In this study, the activities of macelignan against vegetative cells and spores of Bacillus cereus were evaluated in vitro. Our results showed that the vegetative cells of B. cereus were significantly inhibited in growth by macelignan with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of $4{\mu}g/mL$. The vegetative cells of B. cereus were completely killed with minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of $8{\mu}g/mL$ of macelignan. Killing time of macelignan against vegetative cells of B. cereus was very fast; endpoint of macelignan was reached after 4 hr of incubation at $4{\times}MIC$. Macelignan inactivated more than 3-log (99.9%) of spores/mL of B. cereus at the concentration of $100{\mu}g/mL$. Macelignan was found to be effective against vegetative cells and spores of B. cereus. These results suggest that macelignan might be good to be developed as a food preservative.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.274-276
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• 2011

Distinction of Bacillus cereus from other closely related bacilli is challenging and new efficient methods are continually demanded. From our previous work on RAPD profiles of bacilli, we found a possibility that B. cereus strains could be distinguished from other bacilli. In this work, RAPD-PCR profiles of B. cereus strains were obtained using a 10-mer (S30) as a primer, and a B. cereus specific 0.91-kb band was produced from all tested strains. The RAPD-PCR procedure also successfully detected B. cereus from spiked cheonggukjang when B. cereus cells were present at more than $10^2$/g sample.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.425-429
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• 2009

Identification of virulent Bacillus cereus strains was examined by PCR using primers specific for the detection of plcR-papR, which encode regulatory proteins controlling the transcription of virulence factors in B. cereus. Total 96 strains of B. cereus that carried at least one of diarrheal toxin genes including hblACD, nheABC, and cytK showed all positive PCR products, while other 48 Bacillus strains that lacked the toxin genes were plcRpapR-negative. This PCR method targeting the plcR-papR genes appears to be simple and effective in identifying the enterotoxin genes-harboring B. cereus strains.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.113-122
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• 2003

This study was conducted to examine the antagonism of useful microbes against soybean sprout rotting pathogens and their effect on the growth of soybean sprouts. The antagonism against soybean sprout rotting pathogens and the effect on the growth of soybean sprouts were examined by using P. areofacience 14H-3, P. fluorescens R1-12 and B. cereus Yell, bacteria were shown to inhibit mycellial growth of Rhizotonia solani strongly. The results of this study are summarized as follows. P. areofacience 14H-3 and B. cereus Yell were highly antagonistic against Rizoctonia solani, while they were especially highly antagonistic against bacterial diseases. The effect of inhibiting the proliferation of soybean sprout rotting pathogens was also examined by adding the culture solution for antagonistic bacteria to the PDA. Both P. areofacience 14H-3 and P. fluorescens Rl-12 showed the inhibition rate of 78.8%, while B. cereus Yell did 52.9%. The fresh weight and length of soybean sprouts were measured after raising them with added antagonistic microbes and culture medium. Soybean sprouts treated with B. cereus Yell showed increased higher, compared with those not treated with it. Soybean sprouts were also raised in the culture solution with antagonistic bacteria to examine the growth of soybean sprouts. Soybean sprouts treated with the culture solution of 200 times showed better growth than those not treated with it. Analyze proximate composition in soybean sprout showed that moisture, ash, total sugar did not appear difference, but in case of crude protein B. cereus Yell(8.9%) increased about 2 times than control(3.6%), but occasion of crude fat and crude fiber were P. areofacience 14H-3, P. fluorescens Rl-12 increased about each 2 times than control. In occasion of vitamin, bacterial antagonist(9.4∼10.8mg%) was more higher than control(9.9mg%).

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.120-125
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• 2013

Food poisoning by Bacillus cereus is one of the common food-borne diseases and B. cereus is widely distributed in natural and commercial products owing to the strong resistance caused by biofilm or spore. The ethanol, NaCl, and organic acids of acetic acid, citric acid, and lactic acid for biocontrol of biofilm-forming B. cereus on glass wool were investigated. The biofilm on glass wool was observed in many developments after 48 h incubation. As the results of reduction of biofilm-forming B. cereus by sanitizers, reduction levels of each organic acid treatment ranged to 5-6 log CFU/g-glass wool. In case of combination treatments of 20% ethanol, 10% NaCl, and 1% of each organic acid for 1-5 min, the reduction level of biofilm-forming B. cereus was 7-8 log CFU/g-glass wool. Therefore, combination treatments of ethanol, NaCl, and an organic acid might effectively reduce biofilm-forming B. cereus in various food processes and industries.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.761-765
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• 2008

Bacillus cereus causes two different types of food poisoning syndromes: diarrhea and emesis. The diarrheal syndrome is attributed to various enterotoxins, including nonhemolytic enterotoxin, hemolytic enterotoxin, and enterotoxin-T, whereas the emetic syndrome is caused by the dodecadepsipeptide toxin cereulide. A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed to rapidly detect and identify B. cereus strains. Three primer pairs specific to regions within genes encoding nonhemolytic enterotoxin (nheA), molecular chaperonin (groEL), and cereulide synthetase (ces) were used to identify and differentiate between the enterotoxin-producing and emetic toxin-producing B. cereus strains. The cereulide-producing emetic B. cereus showed 3 PCR products of 325, 405, and 685 bp for the groEL, ces, and nheA genes, respectively, whereas the enterotoxin-producing B. cereus showed 2 PCR products without a ces gene specific DNA fragment. Specific amplifications and differentiations by multiplex PCR assay were obtained using 62 B. cereus strains and 13 strains' of other bacterial species. The detection limit of this assay for enterotoxin-producing strain and emetic toxin-producing strain from pure cultures were $2.4{\times}10^1$ and $6.0{\times}10^2\;CFU/tube$, respectively. These results suggest that our multiplex PCR method may be useful for the rapid detection and differentiation of B. cereus strains in foods.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-347
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• 2008

Recently, Sunshik has been issued because of easy-cook and well-being food. Sunshik basically was made of the heated cereals. Amount of spore-forming Bacillus cereus was detected and it has been caused some problem of food safety. B. cereus was isolate from 57 out of 161 Sunshik samples resulting in the isolation rate of 35.4%. Quantitative analysis of 57 samples showed that 21 samples were less than 100 CFU/g, 33 samples were between 100 and 1,000 CFU/g and distinctively even 3 (1.9%) samples had over 1,000 CFU/g. Typical morphology of B. cereus isolated from Sunshik was observed on MYP agar and then further characteristics was identified by using VITEK 2 (Biomeriux, France). 53 strains out of 57 strains isolated from Sunshik (about 93.0%) produced diarrheal enterotoxin in brain heart infusion broth which was detected by the Bacillus cereus enterotoxin reversed passive latex agglutination test kit (Oxoid England). The D-values of the B. cereus spores were $75^{\circ}C$ (37.1mim), $80^{\circ}C$ (22.5mim), $85^{\circ}C$ (4.9mim), and $90^{\circ}C$ (3.1mim) respectively. The Z-value was calculated $12.8^{\circ}C$ in Sunshik sample inoculated with B. cereus. Therefore, the management of B. cereus in Sunshik is required for the food-safety.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.603-607
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• 2008

Thirteen commercial antimicrobial products were examined to assess the sporicidal activity against Bacillus cereus spores at room temperature, 60 and $85^{\circ}C$. Neither the antimicrobials showed detectable antimicrobial activity against the B. cereus spores nor induced spore germination after the treatment at 0.5 or 1.0%(w/v, v/v) commercial antimicrobial agents at room temperature for 0.5 to 4 hr. However, when the antimicrobials such as chitosan, lactic acid, fermented pollen, grapefruit extract were applied with heat at $85^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, more than 1 log CFU/mL spores were additionally inactivated compared to only heat treatment without antimicrobials. Imposition of $60^{\circ}C$ to B. cereus spores with the higher concentration of 5.0%(v/v) lactic acid or 2.5%(w/v) thiamine dilaurylsulfate for the longer time incubation of 24 hr resulted in 3 log CFU/mL spore inactivation. This work showed that low concentrations of commercial antimicrobials by themselves did not inactivate B. cereus spores. However, when physical processes such as heat were combined together, antimicrobials showed a synergistic effect against B. cereus spores.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.272-276
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• 2015

The microbial distribution of raw materials and beef jerky, and the effect of nisin on the growth of Bacillus cereus inoculated in beef jerky during storage, were studied. Five strains of pathogenic B. cereus were detected in beef jerky, and identified with 99.8% agreement using API CHB 50 kit. To evaluate the effect of nisin, beef jerky was inoculated with approximately 3 Log CFU/g of B. cereus mixed culture and nisin (100 IU/g and 500 IU/g). During the storage of beef jerky without nisin, the number of mesophilic bacteria and B. cereus increased unlikely for beef jerky with nisin. B. cereus started to grow after 3 d in 100 IU nisin/g treatment, and after 21 d in 500 IU nisin/g treatment. The results suggest that nisin could be an effective approach to extend the shelf-life, and improve the microbial safety of beef jerky, during storage.