Precut prepackaged lettuce: a risk for listeriosis?
The most recent outbreaks of listeriosis have been traced back to contaminated ready-to-eat (RTE) poultry and meat products. However, Listeria monocytogenes can be isolated from every food group, including fresh vegetables. This review is focused on one of the most popular RTE vegetable products, precut prepackaged lettuce. The available literature concerning Listeria contamination of vegetables is reviewed, and possible reasons why no recent outbreaks or sporadic cases of listeriosis due to contaminated precut prepackaged lettuce are explored.
Center for Food Safety-IFSE and Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72704, USA. ihanning@uark.edu
Irene B
IB
Hanning
Michael G
MG
Johnson
Steven C
SC
Ricke
D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D018545:Lactuca / Q000382:microbiology*; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000254:growth & development*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors