FDA's Proposed "Experimental Deli" To Look Into How Listeria is Spread

Food & Drink Weekly,  March 26, 2001  

Tags: FDA

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FDA is proposing an "experimental deli" to explore how the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes grows and is transmitted in delicatessens and similar food preparation establishments.

Although FDA and USDA in January released a draft risk assessment detailing which foods are most likely to develop Listeria contamination, there is a paucity of information on how Listeria develops in delicatessens, according to Robert Buchanan, FDA senior science adviser.

FDA has been working under a model developed decades ago for how the foodborne pathogens shigella and salmonella behave in such environments, assuming that Listeria behaves in the same way, he said.

The project is in the embryonic stage, and FDA is encouraging the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, a consortium of food companies, FDA, and academia based at the Illinois Institute of Technology, to develop the project, he said. Food industry members have shown interest in the project but want more information to be assured that this project will yield usable results.

If the industry decides it does not want to participate in setting up the experimental deli, and NCFST does not conduct the project, then FDA will "explore other avenues" for collecting the data, Buchanan said.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Informa Economics, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning