1) Bacillus cereus food poisoning Below is an extract from an article by Les Kennedy (March 27, 2008) in the Sydney Morning Herald.

1)   Bacillus cereus food poisoning

Below is an extract from an article by Les Kennedy (March 27, 2008) in the Sydney Morning Herald. Read the report and answer the following questions

Mr Gunn was giving evidence at the Westmead Coroners Court inquest into the death of 81-year-old retired Pymble accountant William Hodgins.

The pathogen Bacillus cereus was found at almost 10 times its toxic level in a cream asparagus sauce seized by a Food Authority inspector from the cool room of the Tables Restaurant on Saturday January 13, last year after Mr Hodgins had been found dead in an ensuite bathroom of his home at 6.30am that day.

Hornsby Police who attended the scene were told by Mr Hodgins's widow, Audrey, that he had begun vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea within an hour of leaving the nearby Tables restaurant at 9.30pm the night before where her husband had dined on the snapper fish of the day special that included the asparagus cream sauce. In earlier evidence to the inquest before Coroner Jane Culver, police said scientific analysis of the high toxicity level of the Bacillus cereus bacteria had concluded it could only have arose from being subjected to "temperature abuse'' in that it was taken from the cool room and reheated and cooled a number of times over a 48 hour period.

Mr Gunn who had been employed at Tables restaurant for three years before the death, said he had prepared the sauce at 3.30pm on Thursday, January 11, on instructions from Tables restaurant co-owner Daniel Brukark for the following night's fish of the day special and that it was placed in the cool room overnight.

a)    Suggest:

i)     a likely source of the B. cereus and how it could have got into the meal. 

ii)   how it would have become a hazard (fatal in this case).

iii)  How could have this been avoided?

b)   What characteristics of this organism make it a common food poisoning agent?

2)   Dynabeads.

a)    In the experiment in the lab did the use of the beads increase the chance of isolating E. coli O157 by:

i)     By greatly concentrating the number of E. coli O157 organisms

ii)   By reducing the number of other E. coli strains

iii)  both