Until recently, B. cytotoxicus had only rarely been isolated. Food
products of plant origin, namely potato and vegetable puree, cooked
semolina and spices, were the common source (Guinebretiére et al.,
2013). Our investigation shows the prevalence of this potential
foodborne pathogen in a representative collection of potato products
as available on retail level. The isolation of B. cytotoxicus from 100% of
nine samples of ready to eat mashed potatoes from kitchens also
shows that this thermotolerant spore-forming bacterium can survive
heat steps as performed during common preparation of food from
dehydrated potato pre-products.