The objective of this study was to determine the factors involved in the transfer of Listeria monocytogenes from surfaces to foods. We evaluated the influence of surface type (stainless steel and high-density polyethylene), inoculation method (biofilm growth and attached cells), hydration level (visibly dry and wet), and food type (bologna ...

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa and Actinidia chinensis) is allergenic to sensitive patients, and, under Japanese regulations, it is one of the food items that are recommended to be declared on food labeling as much as possible. To develop PCR-based methods for the detection of trace amounts of kiwifruit in foods, two ...

AIMS: The effectiveness of freeze-dried powder, fermented with bacteriocin producing Carnobacterium piscicola CS526, was evaluated for the inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes in a food model. METHODS AND RESULTS: A 10% solution of milk whey powder was fermented with a bacteriocinogenic C. piscicola CS526 Bac(+) or its nonbacteriocinogenic mutant strain CS526 ...

Listeria monocytogenes (commonly called Listeria) is a Gram-positive facultatively intracellular foodborne pathogen often found in food and elsewhere in nature. It can cause a rare but serious disease called listeriosis, especially among pregnant women, the elderly or individuals with a weakened immune system. In serious cases, it can lead to ...

The antilisterial efficacy and organoleptic impact of an octanoic acid (OA)-based treatment for ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products were investigated. Whole-muscle and comminuted RTE products were inoculated with a five-strain mixture of Listeria monocytogenes. The OA treatments were applied to the surface of RTE products by dispensing a specific ...

The food industry faces two paradoxical demands: on the one hand, foods need to be microbiologically safe for consumption and on the other hand, consumers want fresh, minimally processed foods. To meet these demands, more insight into the mechanisms of microbial growth is needed, which includes, among others, the microbial ...

Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from raw milk, whey and curdled milk produced and collected in the region of Algiers and Blida between September 2003 and July 2004. Four out of 153 (2.61%) farm milk samples and 6 out of 80 (7.50%) tankers' samples tested positive for L. monocytogenes. All samples ...

The performance of a single-tube nested-PCR (STNPCR) technique was evaluated for plague diagnosis in comparison to conventional (one step) and two step nested PCR (NPCR). Assays were carried out with primers targeting the gene caf1 that encodes the Yersinia pestis F1 antigen. For STNPCR inner primers were immobilized onto the ...

A sensitive qualitative detection method for soybeans in foods by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed. For specific detection of soybeans with high specificity, the primer pair of Gym 81/Gym 82 was designed on the gene encoding the Glycine max repetitive sequence. The trace amount of soybeans in ...

Not all viruses harm people. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a mixture of viruses as a food additive to protect people. The additive can be used in processing plants for spraying onto ready-to-eat meat and poultry products to protect consumers from the potentially life-threatening bacterium Listeria monocytogenes (L. ...

Qualitative and quantitative contamination of ready-to-eat food-stuffs with the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes was studied in 1586 samples collected from 103 supermarkets (n = 946) and 61 households (n = 640) in Vienna, Austria. Seventeen groups of ready-to-eat foods were classified into three risk categories for contamination (CP1-CP3). Three to four ...

This study investigated contamination sources of Listeria spp. in frozen, ready-to-eat, roasted, steamed, and fried chicken meat products from a plant in Thailand, as well as the correlation between Listeria contamination in the production environment and the finished product. The cooking processes used in this factory (with a product core ...

Divercin V41 is a class IIa bacteriocin produced by Carnobacterium divergens V41 with a strong anti-Listeria activity. We have previously produced a recombinant form of divercin V41 (DvnRV41) in Escherichia coli strain Origami, by cloning a synthetic gene that codes for a mature divercin RV41 peptide. In this work we ...

Different cultural techniques and molecular methods for the detection of Vibrio vulnificus during cold storage in a model broth system were compared. Two strains of V. vulnificus were grown to stationary phase and inoculated (10(6) CFU/mL) into tryptic soy broth with 2% sodium chloride (TSBN2) or artificial seawater (ASW), both ...

Free-living amoebae (FLA) are distributed ubiquitously in aquatic environments with increasing importance in hygienic, medical and ecological relationships to man. In this study, water samples from Belgian industrial cooling circuits were quantitatively surveyed for the presence of FLA. Isolated, thermotolerant amoebae were identified morphologically as well as using the following ...

In this study we report the development and application of a Multiple-Locus Variable number of tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA) strategy for subtyping Listeria monocytogenes. Genome profiles of a collection of forty-five food-borne L. monocytogenes isolates were compared using MLVA. These isolates were obtained as part of an active surveillance programme ...

The recent Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 establishes microbiological criteria in foods. For the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in the category ready-to-eat foods able to support its growth, other than those intended for infants and for special medical purposes, two different microbiological criteria are proposed: (i) L. monocytogenes levels should be ...

AIMS: This study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence and lineages of Listeria monocytogenes in different kinds of food products in local Chinese markets. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 2686 food samples and 645 water samples were collected and L. monocytogenes was isolated from 2.28% (76 of 3331) of ...

AIMS: Routine procedures for monitoring viruses in water samples have not been drawn up for the water-microbiology screening panel. Enteric viruses, including astroviruses, are able to persist under environmental conditions and may cause public health problems by contaminating natural and drinking water resources. The aim of this study was to ...

Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen that must be controlled to ensure food safety. For the years 2003 and 2004, L. monocytogenes caused 20 deaths per 100 listeriosis cases and was responsible for most food recalls for pathogen contamination. The objective of this work was to develop a quantitative ...

Coffee is one of the most important world food commodities, commercial trade consisting almost entirely of Arabica and Robusta varieties. The former is considered to be of superior quality and thus attracts a premium price. Methods to differentiate these coffee species could prove to be beneficial for the detection of ...

The incidence of Listeria monocytogenes in modified atmosphere packaged fresh-cut fruits and vegetables from chill cabinets of a supermarket in Ireland was investigated over a 2-year period. Overall, 9.58% of fresh-cut produce was contaminated with Listeria spp. Various species of Listeria were isolated from samples, including L. monocytogenes, L. seeligeri, ...

Enterococcus faecalis, a member of the natural microbiota of animal and human intestinal tracts, is also present as a natural contaminant in a variety of fermented foods. Over the last decade, E. faecalis has emerged as a major cause of nosocomial infections. We investigated the genetic diversity in 30 clinical ...

Biogenic amines are toxic substances that appear in foods and beverages as a result of AA decarboxylation. The enzyme histidine decarboxylase catalyzes the decarboxylation of histidine to histamine, the biogenic amine most frequently involved in food poisoning. The aim of the present work was to develop a real-time quantitative PCR ...

A practical approach was used to achieve specified food safety objectives (FSOs) by incorporating risk assessment methodology. A series of cross-contamination scenarios at the retail level were evaluated in a spreadsheet and ranked according to their level of risk, and the degree to which they exceeded an FSO for Listeria ...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the resistance of biofilms of Listeria monocytogenes to sanitizing agents under laboratory conditions simulating a food processing environment. Biofilms were initially formed on stainless steel and Teflon coupons using a five-strain mixture of L. monocytogenes. The coupons were then subjected to repeated ...

The foodborne pathogen Listeria is the causative agent of listeriosis, a severe disease with high hospitalization and case fatality rates. Listeria monocytogenes can survive and grow over a wide range of environmental conditions such as refrigeration temperatures, low pH and high salt concentration. This allows the pathogen to overcome food ...

The virulence of 82 Listeria monocytogenes isolates from human cases and cold-smoked salmon, cooked peeled shrimp, and their production environments was assessed using the plaque-forming assay and a subcutaneous inoculation test in mice. These isolates were previously typed using serotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The isolates from food-production environments were ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a molecular technique that is fast and reliable in detecting porcine contamination or ingredients in foods. METHODS: The method applied involved DNA amplification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. Thus, the sequence of a certain gene found uniquely in pork was identified and its sequence was used ...

Listeriosis associated with Hispanic-style soft cheese is an ongoing public health concern. Although rapid detection methods based on molecular and immunological technologies have been applied successfully for detecting Listeria monocytogenes in foods, obtaining isolates of the pathogen is a critical procedure for epidemiologic studies and regulatory analysis. Oxford agar, a ...

Concentrations above the MIC of caspofungin allow growth of some Candida isolates. A strain demonstrating paradoxical growth was grown in the presence and absence of caspofungin, and the cell wall content was analyzed. Beta-1,3-glucan declined 81% in the presence of caspofungin, as expected. Beta-1,6-glucan declined 73%. Chitin increased 898%, demonstrating ...

An understanding of Listeria transmission and contamination patterns in processing environments of ready-to-eat foods is critical for improving control of Listeria monocytogenes. A cold-smoked fish processing operation was the site used to study variability in Listeria contamination in a processing environment associated with a ready-to-eat food product throughout one production ...

AIM: Rapid identification of Listeria in food is important in protecting consumers from infection. The development of chromogenic media such as agar Listeria according to Ottaviani and Agosti (ALOA) has allowed more rapid detection of Listeria monocytogenes, with presumptive identification of this pathogenic species after only 24 h of incubation. ...

For rapid, accurate and sensitive detection of Listeria monocytogenes in food samples, colonies developed on the selective agar (Oxford agar) after immunomagnetic separation (IMS) were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay with the prf A1-2 primer pair. The proposed assay system was shown experimentally to be capable of specifically ...

The performance of BBL CHROMagar Listeria chromogenic agar for the detection of Listeria monocytogenes was evaluated for its ability to isolate and identify L. monocytogenes from food and environmental samples. The medium was compared to non-chromogenic selective agars commonly used for Listeria isolation: Oxford, Modified Oxford, and PALCAM. BBL CHROMagar ...

AIM: To assess the effect of different foods, which have been implicated or not in cases of listeriosis, on the in vitro virulence-associated phenotype level of different Listeria monocytogenes strains. METHODS AND RESULTS: The virulence-associated phenotype level of L. monocytogenes was studied with the in vitro cell test based on ...

In the past 25 years, Listeria monocytogenes has become increasingly important as a food-associated pathogen. Most European Union countries have an annual incidence of human listeriosis of between two and ten reported cases per million. Because of its high case fatality rate, listeriosis ranks among the most frequent causes of ...

Listeria monocytogenes is an important re-emerging pathogen which is commonly found in the environment. Many outbreaks have been associated with the contamination of food produce, often linked to cross-contamination from surfaces or equipment to prepared foodstuffs. In the present study a number of copper-base metal alloys have been used to ...

An investigation of Listeria monocytogenes in Irish retail smoked salmon products and other unrelated food products was undertaken. Serotyping and genotyping methods were applied. Twenty-six L. monocytogenes isolates cultured from ready-to-eat smoked salmon and an additional 20 L. monocytogenes isolates from various commercially available food products (other than smoked salmon) ...

This paper deals with the use of an electrochemical genosensor array for the rapid and simultaneous detection of different food-contaminating pathogenic bacteria. The method includes PCR amplification followed by analysis of the amplicons by hybridisation with toxin-specific oligonucleotide probes. A screen-printed array of four gold electrodes, modified using thiol-tethered oligonucleotide ...

Proper storage and handling of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods can help reduce the risk of listeriosis. A national Web-based survey was conducted to measure consumer awareness and knowledge of Listeria and to estimate the prevalence of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-recommended consumer storage and handling practices for frankfurters and deli meats. ...

Two recent listeriosis outbreaks involving butter prompted this first cross-sectional study on the prevalence, levels, and types of Listeria species in 3229 samples of butter from production, retail, and catering premises in the United Kingdom during May and June 2004. When the criteria of the Microbiological Guidelines were used, 99.4% ...

Listeria monocytogenes can pose a serious threat in several areas of the nation's food supply including ready-to-eat seafood products. Use of irradiation processing can potentially reduce the risk of listeriosis caused by consumption of ready-to-eat seafood products. This study measured the effect of X-ray irradiation on reducing the population of ...

Pork meat and processed pork products have been the sources of outbreaks of listeriosis in France and in other European countries during the last decade. The aim of this review is to understand how contamination, survival and growth of Listeria monocytogenes can occur in pork meat products. This study discusses ...

Detection of juice-to-juice adulteration based on chemical composition studies is a common method used by government regulatory agencies and food companies. This study investigated the use of major carbohydrate (fructose, glucose and sucrose), polyol (sorbitol), proline, and phenolic profiles as indicators of pear adulteration of apple juice (PAAJ). For this ...

Obtaining quantitative data concerning the relative impact of various factors that may influence bacterial growth is of great importance for microbial risk assessment and predictive microbiology. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of the initial Listeria monocytogenes density on all the growth parameters of this pathogen ...

AIMS: To isolate and characterise Streptococcus mutans from Irish saliva samples and to assess their sensitivity to a food-grade preparation of the lantibiotic, lacticin 3147, produced by Lactococcus lactis DPC3147. METHODS AND RESULTS: Saliva samples collected from children with varying oral health status were screened on Mitis Salivarius agar for ...

Clostridium perfringens is one of the etiologic agents of gas gangrene that can occur when a wound is contaminated with soil. Type A C. perfringens can cause foodborne and nonfoodborne gastrointestinal illnesses due to an enterotoxin (CPE) produced by some strains during sporulation. We developed a quantitative real-time PCR assay ...

The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes has many physiological adaptations that enable survival under a wide range of environmental conditions. The microbes overcome various types of stress, including the cold stress associated with low temperatures in food-production and storage environments. Cold stress adaptation mechanisms are therefore an important attribute of L. ...

Microbial contamination of public water supplies is of significant concern, as numerous outbreaks, including Cryptosporidium, have been reported worldwide. Detection and enumeration of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in water supplies is important for the prevention of future cryptosporidiosis outbreaks. In addition to not identifying the oocyst species, the U.S. EPA Method ...