Although salmonella remains one of the most frequently mentioned foodborne health threats, recent reports about meat, fish, and other products being recalled due to listeria remind us to be cautious even with ready-to-eat foods.
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Salmonella is most commonly associated with raw poultry, eggs, and cross-contamination in the kitchen, and it is prevented by properly cooking or boiling food, maintaining hand and surface hygiene, and separating raw food from ready-to-eat food. However, Listeria monocytogenes is much more insidious: it can multiply even at low temperatures, making it especially dangerous when products stored in the refrigerator do not require heating before consumption.
Listeriosis can cause severe health consequences for pregnant women and their unborn babies, newborns, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. Reports about listeria are most often linked to smoked or otherwise processed fish, cheeses, cooked, smoked or cured meat products, pâtés, sliced delicatessen products, and ready meals. Since these products are not reheated, contamination occurring after the last bacteria-killing production stage directly reaches the consumer.
One of the biggest production control challenges is listeria’s ability to persist for a long time in moist and hard-to-reach places, such as slicers, conveyor belt joints, or drainage channels – biofilms can form in such places, which are difficult to remove with regular cleaning.
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As a result, even thermally processed products can later become contaminated during slicing, portioning, or packaging. For this reason, testing the final product alone is not enough – contamination can be uneven, so responsible authorities continuously test the production environment itself and assess the effectiveness of cleaning.
Practical advice for consumers:
- Check the product batch number – do not consume products from publicly recalled batches. You can verify this on the VMVT notice board.
- Store properly and consume on time. Keep perishable products at the specified temperature and do not consume them after the expiration date (“Best before”), even if their appearance or smell has not changed.
- Consume on time: use opened packages within the shorter period indicated by the manufacturer.
- Do not rely on your senses: food contaminated with listeria may look and smell completely normal.
A public announcement about a product recall is not a reason to panic – it is simply a warning to check the products you have at home and follow the instructions of the responsible authorities. The situation in the country is continuously monitored, and you can conveniently check any emerging risks at any time on the VMVT real-time notice board for unsafe food and feed announcements.
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