Nontypical Bacillus cereus outbreak in a child care center

On October 29, 1998, The Garland Health Department in Texas investigated seven illnesses at a church day school. The six children and one adult had handled hydrated, orange-colored rice before consuming a meal. B. cereus organisms were found in the rice at an estimated concentration of 5.6 x 10(5) per gram. As far as the authors can determine, this outbreak is the first one documented to have occurred from indirect ingestion of B. cereus by way of contaminated hands, as opposed to ingestion of the toxin in the food product in which the organisms grew.