This study reports an evaluation performed at Food Service Federal University Viçosa in Southeast Brazil, as a contribution to estimate the risks that users of similar public food services are exposed to, by identifying environmental surface areas from which Bacillus cereus may be transferred to food. Samples have been collected in order to evaluate the environmental contamination, using the "swab" technique and surface platting in MYP agar, for expressing the number of CFU/cm² in 24 stainless steel tables that may have contact with raw or cooked foods. Each table was analyzed twice. Although some samples did not exhibit contamination (73%), counts up to 60 CFU/cm² were found, with the higher values being obtained from the vegetable pre-preparation section samples. The presence of this pathogen reinforces the need of using adequate sanitary procedures, especially in places where contamination may occur in ready to eat foods, in order to prevent food borne disease outbreaks due to the microrganism.
Bacillus cereus; bacterial contamination; hygiene; food microbiology; institutional feeding
