Assessment of growth potential risk of Listeria monocytogenes in humus salad ready to eat

Abstract

Listeriosis, infection produced by Listeria monocytogenes (Lmo), is a foodborne zoonosis that affects humans, especially some risk categories, such as the pregnant women, neonates, immunocompromised patients, elderly. Humus salad, as ready-to-eat products (RTE), presents a risk of contamination with Lmo, especially through the processing environment, considering the increased resistance of this bacteria. The Lmo growth risk throughout shelf life of RTE products represents a food safety issue. Commission Regulation (EC) no. 2073/2005, on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs, sets out specific food safety criteria for LMO in ready-to-eat foods in Annex I for categories 1.1 to 1.3. The obtained results showed that the growth of Listeria monocytogenes is not possible throughout shelf life of humus salad, since the highest growth potential (δ) among three batches is < 0.5.