Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in delicatessen food products in China

This study was to investigate the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in delicatessen food, raw materials and environmental samples in food processing chain. Two hundred and forty-five samples of delicatessen foods in markets, 98 samples of cooked foods from restaurants and hotels, 154 samples of food product contact surfaces such as counters, iceboxes and chopping blocks etc. from processing and selling sites, 51 environmental samples from the food-cooking rooms of restaurants and hotels were collected and detected for the prevalence of L. monocytogenes. The results showed that there were 32 strains isolated from delicatessen foods in the market and the average prevalence was 13.06% which is significantly higher (p < 0.01) than those isolated from cooked foods in hotels and restaurants (1.02%) suggesting that the delicatessen food products may be contaminated during the delivery from hotels and restaurants to the markets. Ten strains were isolated from 335 raw materials and 21 strains were isolated from 154 processing equipments in selling and processing sites. No strains were isolated from 51 samples of equipments in cooked food rooms of hotels and restaurants. The study shows that the prevalence of L. monocytogenes in delicatessen foods in the market was significantly higher than those in the cooked foods of hotels and restaurants, and therefore, the critical control points were: (1) to establish relative closed selling rooms; (2) to establish the sterilizing measures to keep the delicatessens from being contaminated with L. monocytogenes during the delivery from restaurants or hotels to the retail markets.