title: Listeria monocytogenes in Retail Delicatessens: An Interagency Risk Assessment-Risk Mitigations.
abstract: Cross-contamination, improper holding temperatures, and insufficient sanitary practices are known retail practices that may lead to product contamination and growth of Listeria monocytogenes. However, the relative importance of control options to mitigate the risk of invasive listeriosis from ready-to-eat (RTE) products sliced or prepared at retail is not well understood. This study illustrates the utility of a quantitative risk assessment model described in a first article of this series (Pouillot, R., D. Gallagher, J. Tang, K. Hoelzer, J. Kause, and S. B. Dennis, J. Food Prot. 78:134-145, 2015) to evaluate the public health impact associated with changes in retail deli practices and interventions. Twenty-two mitigation scenarios were modeled and evaluated under six different baseline conditions. These scenarios were related to sanitation, worker behavior, use of growth inhibitors, cross-contamination, storage temperature control, and reduction of the level of L. monocytogenes on incoming RTE food products. The mean risk per serving of RTE products obtained under these scenarios was then compared with the risk estimated in the baseline condition. Some risk mitigations had a consistent impact on the predicted listeriosis risk in all baseline conditions (e.g. presence or absence of growth inhibitor), whereas others were greatly dependent on the initial baseline conditions or practices in the deli (e.g. preslicing of products). Overall, the control of the bacterial growth and the control of contamination at its source were major factors of listeriosis risk in these settings. Although control of cross-contamination and continued sanitation were also important, the decrease in the predicted risk was not amenable to a simple solution. Findings from these predictive scenario analyses are intended to encourage improvements to retail food safety practices and mitigation strategies to control L. monocytogenes in RTE foods more effectively and to demonstrate the utility of quantitative risk assessment models to inform risk management decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 409 Durham Hall, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA. regis.pouillot@fda.hhs.gov.
authors.forename: Régis
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pouillot
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA; Pew Charitable Trusts, 901 E Street N.W., Washington, DC 20004, USA.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoelzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 409 Durham Hall, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Sherri B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Dennis
authors.affiliation: Office of Public Health Science, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250, USA.
authors.forename: Janell R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Kause
mesh_terms: D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes; D008088:Listeriosis; D008461:Meat Products / Q000382:microbiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment