title: Occurrence of Cronobacter spp. in retail foods.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the occurrence of Cronobacter spp. in foods and to investigate the phenotypic properties of the strains isolated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 53 strains of Cronobacter spp. isolated from 399 food samples were identified using conventional biochemical methods and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Foods of plant origin were the most frequently contaminated samples. No Cronobacter spp. were found in infant milk formula, wheat-based infant food, pasteurized and raw cow milk, mincemeat, chicken, chickpea and potato dumpling powder. The individual species were identified as Cronobacter sakazakii (54·7%), Cronobacter malonaticus (28·4%), Cronobacter dublinensis (7·5%), Cronobacter muytjensii (7·5%) and Cronobacter turicensis (1·9%). Cronobacter sakazakii and C. malonaticus belong to biotype 1, 2, 2a, 3, 4 and 5, 5a, respectively. Cronobacter dublinensis strains were subdivided into biotypes 6 and 12. All strains were resistant to erythromycin and two of them were resistant to both erythromycin and tetracycline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cronobacter spp. were isolated from various food samples pre-eminently of plant origin and dried food ingredients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings will increase and detail our knowledge of the presence and diversity of Cronobacter spp. in foods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic. igor.hochel@vscht.cz
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hochel
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Růžičková
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krásný
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Demnerová
mesh_terms: D059126:Cronobacter / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D044083:Cronobacter sakazakii / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004756:Enterobacteriaceae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial