The occurrence of Bacillus cereus in Finnish dog food sausages; a microbiological and physiochemical survey.

A bacteriological survey of five brands of commercial dog food sausages showed that two of them were heavily contaminated with B. cereus. One of the two brands had a suspected association with food-poisoning incidents in dogs. In addition to B. cereus the other sausage brand was found to contain a high number of sulphite reducing anaerobes. B. cereus was detected in almost every raw material of the two brands of sausages. The pasteurization during manufacturing did not kill all the sporeforming organisms. The water activity of the sausages were equal to or more than 0.99 and pH in a range from 6.2 to 7.0. Methods of preventing the growth of microbes in the sausages after manufacturing are discussed.