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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #143730
Title: VALIDATION OF THE USDA-ARS PACKAGE RINSE METHOD FOR THE RECOVERY OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES FROM NATURALLY CONTAMINATED,COMMERCIALLY PREPARED FRANKFURTERS

Author
item Wallace, Frederick
item Call, Jeffrey
item Luchansky, John

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/8/2003
Publication Date: 8/10/2003
Citation: Wallace, F.M., Call, J.E., Luchansky, J.B. 2003. Validation of the usda-ars package rinse method for the recovery of listeria monocytogenes from naturally contaminated,commercially prepared frankfurters. International Association for Food Protection. Abstract #P069, p. 83.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: To validate the utility of the USDA-ARS package rinse method for the recovery of Listeria monocytogenes, 100 packages of naturally-contaminated, commercially-prepared frankfurters were examined using this method and the currently used USDA-FSIS product composite method on the same packages. This lot of frankfurters was previously shown to have contamination with L. monocytogenes at a package frequency of approximately 16%. The USDA-ARS package rinse method was significantly (p<0.01) more effective than the USDA-FSIS product composite method at recovering L. monocytogenes from these packages, with 28 testing positive by the former method and 7 being positive by the latter. Additionally, another 100 packages of frankfurters from the same lot were examined in greater depth using four methods of sampling and enrichment. First, the fluid exudate was removed and enriched; second, a 25-g composite was removed and processed using the USDA-FSIS composite enrichment method; third, the USDA-ARS package rinse method was performed on the remaining material; and fourth, the remainder of the frankfurters was enriched. While no method yielded a positive result for every package which was positive by any one of the four methods, the USDA-ARS package rinse method was better (p<0.05) than enriching the fluid exudate and the standard USDA-FSIS composite enrichment method at detecting L. monocytogenes. These studies demonstrate the superiority of the USDA-ARS package rinse method and make a compelling case for its adoption for routine screening of ready-to-eat products.