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17.02.2021 - Foods
BfR: More and More Listeriosis Cases – Connection with Ready-to-Eat Foods?
The BfR (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) published opinion No. 004/2021 "Listeriosis cases are increasing – What role does ready-to-eat food play?" on February 2, 2021. The following is a summary:
The number of listeriosis cases is steadily increasing in Germany and Europe. Listeriosis can lead to life-threatening blood poisoning and brain or meninges inflammation. Pregnant women, newborns, and immunocompromised people are at an increased risk of contracting listeriosis.
The cause of these diseases is primarily Listeria monocytogenes contaminated foods – often ready-to-eat foods in recent years.
The BfR assessed 40 ready-to-eat foods in which Listeria can survive well, to determine whether these products have been consumed more frequently in recent years and to what extent they were contaminated with Listeria moncytogenes:
A trend toward increased consumption was shown in pre-cut fruit salads, various ready meals eaten without further heating, heat-treated fish or poultry products, delicatessen salads, or fresh sprouts and shoots.
Contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes were more often ready-to-eat fish products such as cold- and hot-smoked Graved fish and meat products, especially raw minced (pork) and sliced meat (beef), as well as spreadable raw sausages like Teewurst.
Heat-treated meat products were less frequently contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, but also regularly showed high germ counts. Listeria monocytogenes could also be occasionally detected in delicatessen salads, cheese, fine pastries, and ready meals.
However, based on the data, it could not be assessed whether increased consumption of such products contaminated with L. monocytogenes is responsible for the increase in listeriosis cases.
You can access the opinion here.
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Source: Federal Institute for Risk Assessment - https://www.bfr.bund.de/