Other pathogens

Bacilus cereus can be detected in many raw foods of plant origin and in raw milk. As with C. perfringens, their spores will survive cooking, and poor temperature control after cooking may result in germination of the spores and subsequent growth. B. cereus is of greatest concern in plant or cereal based ready-to-eat foods and cream based sauces. Ready-to-eat foods containing raw components may contain low levels of B. cereus.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, present in the marine environment and is of relevance to foods containing seafood. It is common for raw seafood to contain low levels of V. parahaemolyticus and this would not be an indication of poor food processing practices.Effective cooking of seafood will destroy V. parahaemolyticus and their presence in cooked food may be an indication of post-cooking contamination or insufficient heat treatment.

Yersinia enterolitica causes Yersiniosis. The symptoms include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, pharyngitis, acute mesenteric lymphadenitis, pseudo appendicitis, vomiting and arthritis.

Tuberculosis (caused by Mycobacterium sp.) can be transmitted from infected animal to human through consumption of meat or raw milk.

The other group of organisms that are generally considered as harmless for human health, but these being psychrotropic, are able to multiply on the product during refrigeration storage. They develop off-odour and ultimately the self-life of the product is shortened, though, number of spoilage bacteria as well as storage temperature history is also important in determining the shelf-life of the product. Main spoilage bacteria during aerobic storage of poultry meat under

chilling conditions include Pseudomonas spp. as the predominant one followed by Acinetobacter, Candida and yeasts while during modified atmospheric stoarage include Lactobacillus, Corynaebacterium, Shewanella and Enterobacteriacae (psychrotropic strains).