A review of the research that has been conducted in our efforts to better understand this organism and its threat to human health. Determining the appropriate level of protection from food borne listeriosis is complicated by a number of factors. These include the need to establish the maximum frequency and/or concentration of the bacterium in RTE meat at the time of consumption and the insurance of appropriate hygiene practices in production and storage. The author investigates the methodologies that have been employed to detect this bacteria and contends that more quantitative approaches are necessary. Bibliography lists 41 sources.
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numerous problems in the processing of food (Bille, Rocourt, and Swaminathan, 1999). The bacterium can be passed from human to human, animal to human, or through a variety of
food products (Cahill, 1995). Ready to Eat (RTE) meats, however, seem to present the most concern for contamination. Contamination can occur in every type of ready to eat meat from
packaged lunch meat (Wederquist, Sofos, and Schmidt, 1994; Wenger et. al., 1990) to prepackaged sandwiches (Wilson, 1995; Wilson, 1996). Seafood seems to be of particular concern in regard to
Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Farber (1991, 1997, 2000) notes outbreaks of listeriosis as a result of contaminated fish products. A diversity of ready to eat meat products have been
implicated in Listeria contamination, however. The first documented occurrence of foodborne listeriosis in the U.S. was reported in 1953 and was
associated with contaminated raw milk (FDA, USDA, and CDC, 2001). Anyone can succumb to Listeria monocytogenes. Some individuals are more susceptible to the ravages of this bacteria than
are others, however. Stipp (2001) reports that pregnant women are particularly susceptible to this food-borne bacterium (Bille, Rocourt, and Swaminathan, 1999). Those that are in any state of
compromised resistance, i.e. the elderly, the very young, and those with immune deficiencies are all susceptible to this bacterium. In fact, anyone that consumes large numbers of these bacterium
is at risk. Some twenty-five hundred cases of listeriosis are reported annually in the U.S. (FDA, USDA, and CDC, 2001). The bacterium is responsible for about five
hundred deaths per year in the U.S. alone (Stipp, 2001; FDA, USDA, and CDC, 2001). It is important to note, however, that many cases of listeriosis go unreported