Industry Focus: Control of Listeria Monocytogenes

Abstract

Accumulated evidence to date clearly demonstrates the need for the food industry to employ measures to minimize the potential for L. monocytogenes to be present in foods at the point of consumption in numbers considered hazardous to health. Many products can potentially present a risk of causing outbreaks of listeriosis but in most outbreaks a failure in the control Systems can be identified that has lead to the outbreak. In such cases,hazard analysis and implementation of controls at the critical points identified could have prevented the outbreaks, provided the control Systems were operated consistently correctly. It is strongly recommended that all persons involved in the primary production, processing and sale of food adopt a hazard analysis approach to consider all relevant pathogens, including L. monocytogenes.