WASHINGTON—The presence of Listeria in all ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products has declined 81% since 2000, according to new data released by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Listeria in RTE meat and poultry products was .28 in 2010, down from .37 in 2009.
FSIS analyzed 3,153 and 8,704 samples for L. monocytogenes in its ALLRTE and RTE001 sampling projects respectively. Ten positive samples were observed in ALLRTE (0.32% positive), and 24 positive samples were observed in the in RTE001 samples (0.28% positive). FSIS analyzed 1,854 products for L. monocytogenes in the RLm sampling program in CY 2010. The sampling results produced four positives samples, resulting in 0.22% positive rate.
