Sausage Product Recalled Due to Temperature Abused Rice Ingredient

A Texas company is recalling a Boudin, a sausage product made with cooked rice, after USDA found that the company did not properly handle the cooked rice from a temperature control standpoint.

Boudin is a Cajun type product that is a mixture of cooked rice, pork, and seasonings.  It may contain onions and green peppers.  The mixture is ground and stuffed into a sausage casing.    

One of the primary risks associated with temperature abused rice is Bacillus cereus.  B. cereus can cause illness when people ingest B. cereus cells (diarrheal syndrome) or by the toxin it produces (emetic syndrome).  In this particular case, the concern would be the emetic syndrome.  With this, the spore-forming organism is not destroyed when the rice is cooked, and then grows in the temperature-abused cooked rice.  As it grows to high numbers, it produces the toxin.  When the toxin containing food is eaten, it results in severe vomiting.  This toxin is heat stable..