TABLE 1.

Prevalence and contamination level of B cereus in different ready-to-eat foods.

Type	Contamination rate (%)a	MPN value (MPN/g)b
		MPN < 3 (%)	3 ≤ MPN < 1100 (%)	1100 ≤ MPN (%)
Cooked meat	224/656(34)	55/224(25)	151/224(67)	18/224(8)
Rice/noodles	59/119(50)	10/59(17)	39/59(66)	10/59(17)
Cold vegetable dishes in sauce	19/85(22)	2/19(11)	16/19(84)	1/19(5)
Total	302/860(35)	67/302(22)	206/302(68)	29/302(10)

^aContamination rate = Number of positive samples/Total samples. ^bMPN value (MPN/g) = Most probable number of B. cereus per gram sample.