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In this study, a total of 105 samples, composed of a variety of spices, such as black pepper, cummin, ground hot red pepper, ground sweet red pepper, flaked hot red pepper, cinnamon, sumac, chicken spice mix, coriander and ginger; and a variety of herbs such as thyme, mint, basil and rosemary, offered for sale in the markets and district bazaars in Bursa were examined for the presence of Bacillus cereus.
In the spices sold in package, mean B. cereus counts were found as 8.5x103 cfu/g in black pepper. 4.8x102 cfu/g in cummin, 2.9x105 cfu/g in ground hot red pepper, 7.7x 101 cfu/g in flaked hot red pepper, 3.9x 102 cfu/g in chicken spice mix and 8.8x 102 cfu/g in cinnamon. In the samples sold without package, mean B. cereus counts were determined as 1.6x I04 cfu/g in black pepper, 9.8x 104 cfu/g in cumin, 3.1x105 cfu/g in ground hot red pepper, 2.2x105 cfu/g in Raked hot red pepper, 3.3x105 cfu/g in ground sweet red pepper, 3.2x102 cfu/g in sumac, 3.1x104 cfu/g in ginger and 1.1x103 cfu/g in coriander.
Mean B. cereus counts in packaged thyme, mini and basil were 4.0x102 cfu/g, 1,3x 104 cfu/g and 9.8x102 cfu/g, respectively. Mean B. cereus counts thyme and mint samples without package were found as 4.6x103 cfu/g and 2.9x102 cfu/g, B. cereus could not be detected in rosemary samples.