Aug 4, 2017

By: Ashley Eisenbeiser, MS, CFS, Director, Food and Product Safety Programs, Food Marketing Institute

Floor drain cleaningThe International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) recently held its annual meeting in Tampa, Florida. Since 1912, the IAFP Annual Meeting has brought food safety professionals together from all around the globe to hear from leading experts on hot topics, latest science, and new technology in food safety.

FMI’s Chief Food and Product Safety Officer and Senior Vice President of Food Safety Programs, Hilary Thesmar, participated in several symposiums where she shared the retail food industry’s recent food safety efforts. One of the symposiums she participated in, “Cross Pollination of Listeria Learnings across the Industry” featured leaders from different food sectors who shared some of their key learnings on Listeria control.

One theme that was echoed by all the symposium’s presenters was that Listeria is a challenge the entire food industry faces but it is a challenge that everyone is committed to overcoming. Over the past decade or two, the food industry has learned a lot about Listeria monocynoteges (Lm) and the risk it poses.

Dr. Thesmar highlighted some of the work the retail food industry has done on Listeria over the years. Retail delis and prepared food departments provide an ideal environment for Listeria—cold temperatures, moist, high protein foods, and lots of water. Training and execution of proper sanitation and employee practices as well as applying appropriate temperature controls to limit Lm growth are the core items retailers focus on to minimize the risk of Lm at retail. 

With the support of the FMI Foundation, FMI has funded research to identify the gaps in Listeria control at retail as well studies to develop effective and validated control strategies. This research is the foundation of FMI’s best practice resources on Listeria.

Here are some of FMI’s Listeria resources:

Dr. Thesmar closed by emphasizing that although we don’t know what our future will hold, we don’t expect Listeria to go away and therefore Listeria will continue to present many challenges. However, if we commit to educating ourselves and the people we work with and focus on the basics (training, cleaning and sanitation, and allocating resources for food safety), then we will be in a much better position to overcome any challenge that comes our way.

For more food safety resources, visit www.fmi.org/food-safety.