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Listeriosis in animals and humans has been known for over 60 years. Outbreaks in humans have been reported since 1951 but the importance of foodborne transmission has only been realised recently. Listeria monocytogenes is of concern to the food industry because of its ability to grow at refrigeration temperatures and the serious nature of listeriosis. Surveys have shown a widespread incidence of L. monocytogenes in foods and high numbers in certain foods. Hygienic practices in food production are being modified to reduce this incidence, and conditions to minimise the survival and growth of listeria in foods are being determined. Listeriosis is still a relatively rare disease and the majority of people may be resistant, or develop immunity to the bacterium. Because of the fact that a significant proportion of the population is likely to be vulnerable to infection, and the trend towards increased consumption of chilled foods which may have an extended shelf life, it is important to minimise the incidence of listeria in foods.

Food has only recently been implicated as the major culprit in human acquisition of listeriosis. Procedures need to be developed for its control, notably cleanliness, and the specific problems associated with this bacterium – for instance the incubation period of between five days and six weeks – are discussed.

A quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) was developed to estimate the probability of getting listeriosis as a consequence of chicken and beef consumption in Chile. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As a first step a deterministic retail-to-home model was constructed for the Chilean susceptible population, including storage, cross-contamination and cooking. Next, two probabilistic models were developed, including variability and/or the uncertainty of some of the parameters. The probabilistic models were analyzed by Monte Carlo simulations with 100,000 iterations.

Of the total susceptible population used in the model (2.81 million people), the deterministic model estimated 11 and two listeriosis cases because of beef and poultry consumption, respectively and the variability model estimated a mean of 322 and 7,546 cases for beef and poultry consumption, respectively. The uncertainty analysis showed large ranges, with realistic estimates made with an initial concentration of Listeria monocytogenes of 0.04-1 CFU/g and a dose-response parameter r ranging from 10-14 to 10-10.

The lack of information was the major limitation of the model, so the generation of it has to be a priority in Chile for developing less uncertain risk assessments in the future.

Raw animal products can be the cause of listeriosis cases if they are not stored, cooked and/or handled properly. Consumer education seems to be an essential factor for disease prevention.

This is the first QMRA made in Chile, and also the first study of listeriosis in non-processed meat.

Investigates the conditions surrounding the spread of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes and the implications for food safety, including cook‐chill food production, temperature, contamination and storage. Concludes that food can never be made entirely microbiologically safe but the risks can be minimized.

In recent years the number of cases of listeriosis has been widely publicised. Michele Sadler PhD describes the causes of the problem and explains the reasons for this focus of attention

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), recently passed by the US Congress to safeguard the nation's food supply, and to ascertain the role of quality professionals in the management of food safety and quality systems for food facilities.

Since genesis of the Act emanates mainly from the recent upsurge in food disease outbreaks in North America, key lessons learnt from the 2008 Listeriosis outbreak in Canada were reviewed. Thereafter, a case study of developing a food safety and quality management system for a “very low risk facility” – i.e. a third party warehouse – was considered. Finally, potential connections between the sections of the FSMA and roles of various quality practitioners were discussed.

Recent study at the third party logistics warehouse revealed developing and implementing pre‐requisite programs (PRPs), i.e. mainly operational and physical controls, had a positive impact on the food safety and quality management system (FSQMS). Hence, quality practitioners may focus on PRPs to enhance compliance to FSMA requirements.

Food production, processing, packaging and/or distribution companies that export their products to the USA, as well as enterprises requiring preventive controls to ensure food safety and quality, can greatly benefit from the services of quality practitioners. Other key inputs the practitioners provide to the FSQMS include costs reduction, value addition, defects prevention, process control, maintenance and improvement.

The paper closely studies quality practitioners’ perspectives towards meeting or even exceeding the new food safety regulatory expectations in food‐related institutions.

The numbers of reported cases of Listeria particularly Listeria monocytogenes in the UK have remained at a relatively low level since the peak which occurred in 1988‐1989. The majority of cases are sporadic and often the source of contamination is unknown. This study investigates the possibility that the home environment, which has previously been found to be the most common place of contamination for other bacteria, also provides a reservoir for human infection by Listeria monocytogenes and other Listeria spp.

Of the many warnings of dangerous food given by the Government between 1988 and 1992, it is only with listeriosis that there is any evidence of improvement. The whole basis of Government action on BSE has now been shown to be flawed in that the extraordinarily optimistic hope that cattle would prove to be a dead‐end for the infection has been discredited. The chance of a large number of people succumbing from a BSE‐like illness next century is about 70 per cent. The salmonella in eggs problem is not solved because contaminated infected laying flocks have been replaced by further infected flocks. Intensive farming is beset by problems additional to that of microbial safety. These include evidence of reduced nutritional quality of the food, particularly of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Moist food processing and retailing still provide major risks to consumers because new legislation is too lax. Thus most cooked food can be kept indefinitely at temperatures of 50°C or 8°C. One bacterium which can grow at low temperatures is E. coli 0157, the incidence of which has increased during the last few years. This is transferred through food from cattle and causes acute gastro‐enteritis, followed by kidney failure, particularly in children.

The current position on Listeria monocytogenes is reviewed.

The technological developments in mass catering need to remain under close microbiological and epidemiological scrutiny. There is, however, no evidence at present to suggest that cook‐chill catering is less safe than conventional catering methods and an increasing body of evidence to suggest the opposite.