A SURVEY OF SOME SELECTED FOOD ITEMS FOR THE PRESENCE OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES AND OTHER LISTERIA SPECIES

Document Type : Research article

Authors

Abstract

Various retail food products were analyzed for the presence of listeria species, including 10 luncheon, 7 sausage, 9 burger, 100 kareish and 50 damietta cheese samples. Out of 7 sausage samples, one (14.20%) was positive for Listeria monocytogenes, while the organism failed detection in the examined lucheon and burger samples, and it was found in one sample of kareish (1%) and one of damietta cheese (2%), respectively. However, Listeria innocua could be isolated from one (10%), 2(28.57%), 3(3%) and one (2%) of the examined luncheon, sausage, kareish and dami etta cheese samples, respectively. Listeria welshimeri could be detected in one sample of burger (11.1%) and one sample of kareish cheese (1%). The public health importance of Listeria species and the suggestive measur es were recommended.