Evaluation of the European Union monitoring programme on the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes (Decision 2010/678/EU) in Turin, Italy

Abstract

Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous bacterium, widely distributed in the environment; morover, its ability to survive at low temperatures and form protective biofilms makes it colonise and persist in food processing plants. Epidemiological data provided by EFSA in 2009 show that ready-to-eat (RTE) food – in particular, soft and semi-soft cheese, and fishery and meat products subjected to heat treatment –represents the most likely contaminated foodstuff. For this reason, the European Commission has developed (Dec. 2010/678/EU) a monitoring plan designed to evaluate the prevalence of L. monocytogenes in these products. The programme, developed in detail with reference to each member state, involved, among others, the city of Turin and has been set out from June to December 2011. The aim of this paper is to report the results obtained in the city of Turin. In total, 160 samples were analysed; only samples of smoked fish were found to be positive, while the pathogen was absent in cheese and meat products.

Keywords

• Listeria monocytogenes, Ready-to-eat food, Survey, Microbiological criteria