The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has assessed the risks to public health from Listeria contamination of vegetables that are blanched – scalded in hot water or steam for a short time – before they are frozen, concluding that the risks associated with the consumption of these products are lower than for ready-to-eat foods such as smoked fish, cooked meat, sausages, pâté, soft cheese – which are usually associated with listeria contamination.
Listeria is a family of bacteria that contains ten species, one of these causing the disease listeriosis. According to the latest data gathered by EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), around 2.500 people were infected in 2018 and, similar to the year before that. However, the trend has gone up over the past ten years.
EFSA’s experts identified relevant control activities that food business operators can implement to lower the risks of contamination of frozen vegetables, ranging from cleaning and disinfection of the food-producing environment to water, time, and temperature control at different processing steps, and accurate labeling. They stress the importance of monitoring the food-producing environment for Listeria monocytogenes. This is because Listeria can persist in the food processing environment from which it can contaminate food.