Listeria monocytogenes is a serious public health hazard responsible for the foodborne illness listeriosis. L. monocytogenes is ubiquitous in nature and can become established in food production facilities, resulting in the contamination of a variety of food products, especially ready-to-eat foods. Effective and risk-based environmental monitoring programs and control strategies are essential to eliminate L. monocytogenes in food production environments. Key elements of the environmental monitoring program include (i) identifying the sources and prevalence of L. monocytogenes in the production environment, (ii) verifying the effectiveness of control measures to eliminate L. monocytogenes, and (iii) identifying the areas and activities to improve control. The design and implementation of the environmental monitoring program are complex, and several different approaches have emerged for sampling and detecting Listeria monocytogenes in food facilities. Traditional detection methods involve culture methods, followed by confirmation methods based on phenotypic, biochemical, and immunological characterization. These methods are laborious and time-consuming as they require at least 2 to 3 days to obtain results. Consequently, several novel detection approaches are gaining importance due to their rapidness, sensitivity, specificity, and high throughput. This paper comprehensively reviews environmental monitoring programs and novel approaches for detection based on molecular methods, immunological methods, biosensors, spectroscopic methods, microfluidic systems, and phage-based methods. Consumers have now become more interested in buying food products that are minimally processed, free of additives, shelf-stable, and have a better nutritional and sensory value. As a result, several novel control strategies have received much attention for their less adverse impact on the organoleptic properties of food and improved consumer acceptability. This paper reviews recent developments in control strategies by categorizing them into thermal, non-thermal, biocontrol, natural, and chemical methods, emphasizing the hurdle concept that involves a combination of different strategies to show synergistic impact to control L. monocytogenes in food production environments.
Background and Objective Adventitious presence (AP) or unintentional commingling of genetically modified (GM) grain in non‐GM grain lots is a concern for stakeholders who wish to produce non‐GM grain and grain‐based products. AP that exceeds tolerance levels results in the loss of product marketability as “non‐GM” and subsequent loss of a premium market price. The objective of this study was to evaluate the US commodity corn supply chain using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) to assess factors contributing to AP in supply chains that handle both GM and non‐GM products. Findings Systematic analysis of the farm‐to‐feed supply chain identified key processes and actors involved. FTA identified 27 factors potentially contributing to AP along with their root causes. Ranking of factors using FMEA prioritized 14 factors as “critical” with a comparatively higher likelihood of occurrence and impact on AP levels. Conclusions AP contributing factors were found across the supply chain, indicating that successful segregation relies on all supply chain participants. Identification and prioritization of critical factors make it possible to target resources to a small number of significant factors to attain low AP levels rather than distributing resources across the entire set of factors. Significance and Novelty This study is an initial attempt to provide insights into the assessment and management of AP in the grain and feed supply chain with a novel application of FTA and FMEA techniques.
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