Quantitative Assessment of the Risk Associated to Bacillus cereus Group for the Attieke Consumer in Daloa City (Côte d’Ivoire)

Aims: Attieke is a fermented cassava product. It may be contaminated by species of Bacillus cereus group, responsible for food poisoning. The objective of this study was to assess the risk associated with B. cereus group for the attieke consumer in Daloa city (Côte d’Ivoire).

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Formation and Research in chemistry and food sciences, Laboratory of Industrial Process Synthesis and Environment, Felix Houphouet-Boigny National Polytechnic Institute, between April and November 2017.

Methodology: First, an investigation procedure was followed. In this method, 386 persons were interviewed in order to determine the general pattern of attieke consumption and potential symptoms related to its suse. Then, physicochemical and microbiological analyses were carried out on thirty attieke samples collected in eight suburbs of Daloa city following standard methods. A probabilistic approach was followed to assess the risk related to attieke consumption quantitatively. Finally, the risk of ingesting the infectious dose of 1010 B. cereus cells was estimated by Monte Carlo simulation using both load distribution and consumption one. Data collected were subjected to statistical analyses.

Results: Physicochemical characterisation showed that the pH value, acidity and moisture content of attieke were 4.74 ± 0.76, 49.08 ± 28.93 meq.g/100 g and 51.46 ± 1.72%, respectively. These characteristics are within the recommended standards for attieke. The enumeration of B. cereus group gave loads ranging from 103 to 107 CFU/g. Besides, all the attieke samples were contaminated by these germs. A proportion of 50% of samples had poor quality. It appears that the risk exists and is 0.13% i.e., 130 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Conclusion: Attieke was contaminated by bacteria belonging to B. cereus group. Its consumption represents a risk of food poisoning. This risk is estimated to be 130 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.