A new study evaluating the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) operation provided insights into potential contamination risks and effective environmental monitoring and sanitation approaches.
The project was conducted by researchers with the Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC) and published in Food Control. The findings confirmed the critical importance of environmental monitoring for detecting potential microbiological contamination risks, informing appropriate intervention measures, and confirming the effectiveness of corrective actions.
For the study, the researchers collected a total of 156 environmental samples from a commercial hydroponic pak choi growing operation. Samples were collected on three occasions over a period of eight months, focusing on food-contact surfaces, non-food-contact surfaces, and crop water sources (i.e., irrigation community water, nutrient solution, and drainage solution).
L. monocytogenes was only detected in two of the 156 samples, both of which were collected during the first sampling occasion. One L. monocytogenes-positive sample was collected from boot covers worn by personnel walking through pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest zones, demonstrating the effectiveness of using boot covers as a swab tool to evaluate cleaning and sanitation.
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