Isolation of B. cereus s.l. from dried herbs and spices products and milk products purchased from local markets in Negeri Sembilan / Nurhamimah Zainal Abidin, Camelia Allysa Calextus and Hazwanie Iliana Hairul Hisham

Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming bacterium that is widely distributed in the environment and can be detected in a variety of food including dried herbs and spices and milk products. When the vegetative form of the bacteria produces toxins, these can result in food borne illness and pose a significant public health hazard. However, no or less study in food health safety related to B. cereus has been done in Malaysia. This study aims to isolate B. cereus in dried herbs and spices and milk products using selective and differential Mannitol Egg-Yolk Polymyxin (MYP) agar and Gram staining. The presumptive colonies of B. cereus were selected based on mannitol and lecithinase utilization on MYP agar and showed Gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria by Gram staining. These presumptive B. cereus were then confirmed using 16S rRNA sequencing. For the dried herbs and spices, four out of ten samples were presumptive B. cereus, however only three were confirmed and identified as B. cereus s.l. From these three samples with positive B. cereus s.l., two samples were contained more than 104 CFU/g indicating the samples contain a high number of colonies that may result in food poisoning. Meanwhile, for the milk products, out of 12 samples, three samples showed presumptive B. cereus on MYP plates, however identified as non B.cereus using 16S rRNA sequencing. Thus, further isolation and identification of the isolated bacteria in a larger sample need to be carried out to provide the data prevalence of B. cereus in Malaysian dried products and milk products and to serve as extra information about the safety of consuming dried items that may cause harm to people.