Viability and heat resistance of murine norovirus on bread

• ce:italic>/ce:italic> strain 1 (MNV-1) remains viable on bread.
• MNV-1 was easily transferred from gloved hands to the surface of bread.
• MNV-1 would remain viable on bread if the heating temperature is insufficient.

Contaminated bread was the cause of a large-scale outbreak of norovirus disease in Japan in 2014. Contamination of seafood and uncooked food products by norovirus has been reported several times in the past; however the outbreak resulting from the contamination of bread products was unusual. A few reports on the presence of norovirus on bread products are available; however there have been no studies on the viability and heat resistance of norovirus on breads, which were investigated in this study. ce:italic>/ce:italic> strain 1 (MNV-1), a surrogate for human norovirus, was inoculated directly on 3 types of bread, but the infectivity of MNV-1 on bread samples was almost unchanged after 5 days at 20 °C. MNV-1 was inoculated on white bread that was subsequently heated in a toaster for a maximum of 2 min. The results showed that MNV-1 remained viable if the heating period was insufficient to inactivate. In addition, bread dough contaminated with MNV-1 was baked in the oven. Our results indicated that MNV-1 may remain viable on breads if the heating duration or temperature is insufficient.