'Food Protection Trends' publishes John Holah’s Listeria Management White Paper

The influential publication 'Food Protection Trends' has published a paper written by Kersia's Principle Scientist John Holah which details his Five Point Listeria Control Plan: A European Perspective.

With an aging population and no reduction in listeria cases, listeriosis is likely to become even more important in Europe, and all potential food industry control measures should be explored.  A Listeria 5-point Control Plan to manage occurrences of listeria in high hygiene food manufacturing areas has been developed and trialled in the UK and Ireland since 2016.

The plan comprises the following points:

• Prevent entry of listeria into high hygiene food manufacturing areas using effective barriers
• Ensure that the high hygiene manufacturing infrastructure (building structure, equipment and utensils) cannot harbour or allow the growth of listeria
• Ensure that the high hygiene good manufacturing practices limit the cross-contamination vectors that can carry listeria from sources to product or product contact surfaces
• Design an effective cleaning and disinfection program that will kill or remove listeria that has entered the high hygiene area since the previous cleaning program
• Provide an environmental monitoring and microbiological verification sampling program that monitors and verifies listeria control procedures

For further information on Listeria Management Plans is here.