Authors: Bērziņš, Aivars¹; Terentjeva, Margarita²; Korkeala, Hannu³

Source: Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 72, Number 6, June 2009 , pp. 1283-1287(5)

Publisher: International Association for Food Protection

Abstract:

Nine groups of different retail ready-to-eat vacuum-packaged meat products from 10 Baltic meat processing plants were analyzed for presence and numbers of Listeria monocytogenes at the end of shelf life. A total of 38 (18%) of 211 samples tested positive for L. monocytogenes serotype 1/2a (88%) or 1/2c (12%). The prevalence of L. monocytogenes in cold-smoked, sliced, vacuum-packaged beef and pork products (42%) was significantly higher than in cooked, sliced, vacuum-packaged meat products (0.8%) (P < 0.001). Enumeration of L. monocytogenes showed that 84% of the positive samples contained <100 CFU/g upon expiry of product shelf life. The numbers of L. monocytogenes exceeded 100 CFU/g only in cold-smoked, sliced, vacuum-packaged beef products. Identical pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types were recovered from different production lots of cold-smoked vacuum-packaged beef and pork products produced by the same meat processing plant, demonstrating L. monocytogenes contamination as a recurrent problem within one meat processing plant.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 66, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland; Institute of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Latvia University of Agriculture, K. Helmaņa str. 8, LV-3004, Jelgava, Latvia 2: Institute of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Latvia University of Agriculture, K. Helmaņa str. 8, LV-3004, Jelgava, Latvia 3: Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 66, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland

Publication date: 2009-06-01

More about this publication?

• IAFP members must first sign in on the right to access full text articles of JFP
  
  First published in 1937, the Journal of Food Protection^®, is a refereed monthly publication. Each issue contains scientific research and authoritative review articles reporting on a variety of topics in food science pertaining to food safety and quality. The Journal is internationally recognized as the leading publication in the field of food microbiology with a readership exceeding 11,000 scientists from 70 countries. The Journal of Food Protection^® is indexed in Index Medicus, Current Contents, BIOSIS, PubMed, Medline, and many others.
  
  Print and online subscriptions are available to Members and Institutional subscribers. Online visitors who are not IAFP Members or journal subscribers will be charged on a pay-per-view basis. Information can be obtained by calling +1 800.369.6337; +1 515.276.3344; fax: +1 515.276.8655, E-mail: info@foodprotection.org or Web site: www.foodprotection.org
• Information for Authors
• Submit a Paper
• Subscribe to this Title
• Membership Information
• Information for Advertisers
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Nutrition & Food
• By this author: Bērziņš, Aivars ;  Terentjeva, Margarita ;  Korkeala, Hannu

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers