Back to scare the Listeria in Italy. After the cases of recent months involving various products processed and marketed in our country, other products have been blocked and withdrawn from supermarkets in recent days due to the possible presence of the Listeria bacterium.
What is Listeria
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that causes listeriosisan infection usually due toingestion of contaminated food and therefore classified among the diseases transmitted through food.
In Western countries, listeriosis is an increasingly important public health problem. In 2020 listeriosis was the 5th most reported disease in the European Union and interested mainly people over 64 years old: 1,876 cases have been registered. Also, it is among the most severe diseasesboth in terms of hospital admissions and in terms of deaths.
The Listeria bacterium is able to reproduce at very variable temperatures, from refrigeration temperatures up to 45°C, which makes it particularly resistant to various environmental conditions, including those encountered in food production and processing. It can grow in contaminated food until it reaches concentrations high enough to cause infection in humans, and can develop in ready-to-eat (RTE) products and in products with a long commercial life (shelf-life ), kept at refrigeration temperatures.
What foods is it found in?
I riskier foods I am:
- smoked fish, such as salmon
- meat products, such as meat pates, hot dogs, cold meats typical of delicatessens
- soft cheeses, blue cheeses, slightly aged cheeses
- prepackaged vegetables
- unpasteurized milk.
Although less frequent than other “foodborne diseases” such as salmonellosis, listeriosis can manifest itself with severe clinical pictures and high mortality rates, especially in frail subjects such as the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and adults with compromised immune systems.
Symptoms of listeriosis
Listeriosis has very long incubation times, even up to 70 days. Regarding the symptoms, it can give several: from acute febrile gastroenteritis more typical of food poisoning, which occurs within a few hours of ingestion, to invasive or systemic, which in the most serious cases can lead to the onset of meningitis, encephalitis gravis septicemia.
In pregnant women, listeriosis can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and neonatal infections. Listeriosis can occur at any point in pregnancy but has been most frequently documented during the third trimester.
How to avoid it: what to do when we eat
The best way to avoid catching listeriosis at home is the application of general rules of hygiene and attention required to prevent all other foodborne infections:
- wash raw foods, such as fruits and vegetables, thoroughly under running water before consuming, peeling, cutting, or cooking them
- clean the surface of foods such as melons and cucumbers with a clean brush
- dry the products with a clean cloth or paper towel
- separate raw meats from vegetables and cooked and ready-to-eat foods
- wash hands, knives, countertops, and cutting boards after handling and preparing raw foods
- maintain the correct operating temperature of refrigerators and freezers by separating raw food from cooked food
- keep the refrigerator clean by washing the inside walls and shelves frequently with hot water and liquid soap
- Thoroughly and thoroughly cook raw meat and meat products
- consume pre-cooked or ready-to-eat products as soon as possible
- do not store or consume refrigerated products beyond the expiry date
- keep the leftovers of cooked food in the refrigerator in shallow containers with lids, so that they cool down more quickly and consume them in a short time.
Those at risk, such as pregnant women and immunosuppressed people, should avoid consumption Of:
- fresh dairy products, especially soft, short-aged and blue cheeses
- short seasoned cured meats
- fresh smoked fish ready for consumption
- gastronomic preparations to be consumed without heat treatment
- fresh meat pates.
Being a bacterium, the treatment of the disease involves a antibiotic therapyboth for adults and children. Early antibiotic treatment given to pregnant women can prevent transmission of the infection to the fetus.
Products recalled for suspected listeria
Listeriosis is one of the group of diseases for which reportable food safety surveillance networks have been established in both the United States and Europe. These networks, aimed at identifying outbreaks of infection and determining their cause, make it possible to act both by withdrawing products from the market and by adopting the necessary measures against production plants and informing the population at risk.
Perhaps not everyone knows that the so-called OSAfood business operators, have an obligation to inform their customers on the non-compliance found in the food placed on the market ea pick up the product from the market. In addition to the withdrawal, if, as often happens, the product has already been sold to the consumer, the FBO must also arrange for recallthat is, it must inform consumers about products at risk, also through ad hoc notices in the points of sale, and publish the recall in the specific area of the Ministry of Health portal.
Publication of the warning on the Ministry’s internet portal is the responsibility of the regional authority responsible for the area, which receives it directly from the OSA, after evaluation by the ASl.
In addition to food recalls, revocations of recalls following favorable test results, expiration or for other reasons are also posted online. Warning: only the recalls and their revocations published on the Ministry of Health portal are authentic and fulfill the obligations of informing consumers.
But let’s see in detail which products have been recalled.
As stated on the website of the Ministry of Health, this product was withdrawn due to a “serious” risk to the health of consumers due to the presence of the Listeria bacterium:
225 g Boreal Brine Prawns (drained 125 g)
- brand: Joy of the sea
- production batch: L510WS-B
- expiration date: 5/5/2023
- sold by: Maxi Di Srl
Possible presence of Listeria also for:
Country salami 400 g
- brand: Gabba Salumi
- produced by: Gabba Salumi, Candelo (BI)
- production batch: 0312
- without expiration date
Horse meat 100 g
- Brand: Good Flavors
- production lot: all those expiring from 2/6/2023 to 13/8/2023
- brand: Bernardini Gastone
- produced by: Giovanni Coppiello, Vigonza (PD).