A total of 124 botanical products consisted of 11 beverages, 20 desserts, 6 meat stews, 28 instant cereal powders, 43 herbs and 16 herbal combinations collected from May through October 2000 were examined for the presence of Bacillus cereus using the Chinese National Standard method. The microrganism was isolated from 45 samples (36.3%). Regarding the B. cereus count, all 124 samples met the Food Sanitary Standards regulation set by the Department of Health. The isolation rates of B. cereus from beverage, dessert, meat stew, cereal powder, herbs and herbal combinations were 0%, 15.0%, 33.3%, 35.1%, 48.8% and 56.3%, respectively. The statistical analysis of χ2 was used to compare the prevalence of B. cereus between packed and not packed, cooked and raw, herbs and herbal combination samples. The results showed that there were no differences between packed and not packed, and herbs and herbal combination samples (p>0.01). However, there was a significant difference in the isolation rates between cooked and raw samples (p<0.01).
A total of 124 botanical products consisted of 11 beverages, 20 desserts, 6 meat stews, 28 instant cereal powders, 43 herbs and 16 herbal combinations collected from May through October 2000 were examined for the presence of Bacillus cereus using the Chinese National Standard method. The microrganism was isolated from 45 samples (36.3%). Regarding the B. cereus count, all 124 samples met the Food Sanitary Standards regulation set by the Department of Health. The isolation rates of B. cereus from beverage, dessert, meat stew, cereal powder, herbs and herbal combinations were 0%, 15.0%, 33.3%, 35.1%, 48.8% and 56.3%, respectively. The statistical analysis of χ2 was used to compare the prevalence of B. cereus between packed and not packed, cooked and raw, herbs and herbal combination samples. The results showed that there were no differences between packed and not packed, and herbs and herbal combination samples (p>0.01). However, there was a significant difference in the isolation rates between cooked and raw samples (p<0.01).