Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming bacterium that occurs naturally in many kinds of foods and can cause illness in humans. It can form spores that are resistant to heating and dehydration and can therefore survive cooking and dry storage.

The purpose of a Risk Profile is to provide contextual and background information relevant to a food/hazard combination so that risk managers can make decisions and, if necessary, take further action. Risk Profiles include elements of a qualitative risk assessment, as well as providing information relevant to risk management. Risk profiling may result in a range of activities e.g. immediate risk management action, a decision to conduct a quantitative risk assessment, or a programme to gather more data, ranking of a particular food safety issue.

This Risk Profile (RP) considers Bacillus cereus in dairy products intended to be consumed as whole foods, including milk (raw, processed, concentrated, powder), cream, butter, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream and foods where dairy is the main ingredient (e.g. custard). The purpose of the RP is to critically review available information to answer risk management questions related to the ways of contamination and levels and behaviour of B.cereus in dairy products.