The objective of the present work was to investigate the presence of virulent genes, encoding diarrheal enterotoxins (hblC, nheA, and cytK genes) and emetic toxin (ces gene) among the B. cereus group strains with origin in ice cream, and to characterize the strains based on their production of extracellular enzymes, hemolysis, betalactamase, as well as antimicrobial resistance patterns