Table 2.
Incidence of different Bacillus species in ready to eat food, beverages and water samples tested
| Types of samples collected (no. of samples) | Type of products | No. of samples tested (%) | No. of Bacillus positive samples (%) | Bacillus species identified | Place of sample collection | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B. cereus na (%) | B. alvei n (%) | B. polymyxa n (%) | B. firmus n (%) | |||||
| Ready to eat foods (n = 120) | Chicken momo | 25 (11.4) | 2 (8.0) | 1 (4.0) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (4.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Palampur, n = 1), B. polymyxa (Kullu Manali, n = 1) |
| Paneer based | 23 (10.5) | 4 (17.4) | 2 (8.7) | 1 (4.3) | 1 (4.3) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Palampur, n = 2), B. alvei (Baijnath/Bir–Biling, n = 1), B. polymyxa (Palampur, n = 1) | |
| Khoa based | 21 (9.5) | 3 (14.3) | 3 (14.3) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Kangra, n = 2; Mandi, n = 1) | |
| Cheese based | 16 (7.3) | 5 (31.3) | 4 (25.0) | 1 (6.3) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Dharamsala–Mcleodganj, n = 2; Manali, n = 2), B. alvei (Dharamsala–Mcleodganj, n = 1) | |
| Mutton momo | 15 (6.8) | 1 (6.7) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (6.7) | B. firmus (Chamba/Dalhousie, n = 1) | |
| Cream based | 12 (5.5) | 2 (16.7) | 1 (8.3) | 1 (8.3) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Manali, n = 1), B. alvei (Palampur, n = 1) | |
| Curd | 8 (3.6) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | Nil | |
| Beverages (n = 40) | Chicken soup | 15 (6.8) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | Nil |
| Milk beveragesb | 19 | 2 | 2 | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Dharamsala–Mcleodganj, n = 1; Kangra, n = 1) | |
| Vegetable soup | 6 (2.7) | 1 (16.7) | 1 (16.7) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Dharamsala–Mcleodganj n = 1) | |
| Water (n = 60) | Water | 60 (27.3) | 5 (8.3) | 5 (8.3) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | B. cereus (Bir–Billing, n = 1; Kullu, Manali, n = 4) |
| Total | 220 | 25 (11.4) | 19 (8.6) | 3 (1.4) | 2 (0.9) | 1 (0.5) | ||
Values in bold indicate significant association (p ≤ 0.05)
aNumber of isolates
bMilk beverages included lassi (n = 10) and milk shake (n = 9) samples