Technical Abstract: A novel technology has been developed using infrared as an intervention strategy to pasteurize the surface of cooked meat products such as hot dogs contaminated with potentially fatal Listeria monocytogenes prior to final packaging. A laboratory infrared surface heating device was constructed to treat hot dogs (turkey frankfurters) coated with approximately 106-7 cells/cm2 of a mixture of four strains of freshly prepared Listeria monocytogenes. The temperature of the hot dog surface was raised from refrigerated conditions to 70, 75, and 80 EC, achieving 3.47, 4.25, and 4.52 log kills, respectively, in the bacterial population. The average heating time for raising the surface temperature to 70, 75, and 80 EC was 82.1, 92.1, and 103.2 s, respectively. The color of all the hot dog samples treated in the infrared heaters, as represented by L*, a*, and b* values, was not significantly different from the control. The process of surface treatment was also simulated using finite element analysis. The results of computer simulation agreed closely with the experimental observations, indicating that this numerical method could be used in the design and analysis of infrared surface pasteurization. Experimental results of this study suggested that infrared surface pasteurization was an effective technology that could be used to decontaminate the surface of cooked meat products prior to final packaging.