· 2017: 74 registered cases in Belgium
· 2017: 2480 registered cases in the EU
· Symptoms when contaminated: fever, headache, diarrhea and muscle pain.
· Can grow at temperatures of 0-45 °C and will survive at – 18°C.
· Resistant to a ph of 4.3-9.4. The bacteria is less resistant towards a high degree of acidity at low temperatures.
Choice of product
Some particular points of interest to fight against Listeria:
· Cleaning is more important than disinfecting
· Respect the instructions of use from the cleaning or disinfecting product.
· BPR Guideline => Listeria is easy to destroy, specific tests and claims are nog obliged.
The test organisms used in efficacy tests are normally stated in the applicable standard test methods. For food area disinfectants Salmonella Thyphimurium, Salmonella spp., Listeria spp. and Campylobacter jejuni are relevant target organisms. For products which claim general efficacy against bacteria, the standard test bacteria should be tested. For these products efficacy against Salmonella spp., Listeria spp. and Campylobacter jejuni is assumed, because they are more susceptible than the standard test bacteria.