Bacilli are common in agricultural soils and therefore can be expected
to be part of the natural vegetable microflora. Due to their sporeforming
capability, they are highly resistant to processing steps like
heating or drying. Consistently Bacillus spp. were not only found to be
the dominant aerobic mesophilic bacteria in pasteurised and packed
commercial purees of various vegetables such as broccoli, carrot,
leek, potato, split pea and zucchini (courgette)