The effect of temperature on the maximal specific growth rate was studied in Bacillus cereus between 5 and 40°C cultivated in courgette broth and rich medium (J broth). B. cereus grown from 5 to 38°C in rich medium. No growth was observed in courgette broth below 10°C. The Arrhenius plot was fitted from experimental data of B. cereus grown in rich medium and at regulated pH, oxygen and temperature. Two domains which are separated by a critical temperature around 13°C can be distinguished with regard to temperature dependence of maximal specific growth rate. Over the cold domain from 5 to 13°C, the temperature characteristic was 2.6 fold higher than over the sub-optimal domain from 13 to 38°C suggesting that the growth temperature regulates several metabolic pathways.