Prevalence of Bacillus cereus in ready-to-eat boiled and fried rice in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana

The most popular street vended foods in Ghana; fried rice, Jollof and Waakye were examined inthe Tamale Metropolis from April to May 2015 to determine the prevalence of B. cereus. Street vended Fried rice, Jollof rice and Waakye were purchased, transported aseptically and Bacteriological Analytical Manual guidelines were used to isolate and enumerate B. cereus. The samples were classified based on the microbial loads of <103 cfu/g, 103≤104 cfu/g and >105 cfu/g for satisfactory, borderline and unsatisfactory respectively. Fried rice recorded the highest number of unsatisfactory samples 18/30 (60.0%), followed by Waakye 8/30 (26.7%) and the least was Jollof 7/30 (23.3%). There is the need for regular training for vendors and further work to determine toxins produced by B. cereus.