Listeria monocytogenes in small-scale cheese production: Occurence, contamination routes and preventive measures (195981).

Soft cheeses have been involved in several outbreaks with the food pathogenic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, including an outbreak in Norway in 2007 with soft cheese from a small-scale producer. This outbreak revealed the need for more knowledge about how production routines and production facilities in small-scale cheese production influence contamination, survival and prevalence of L. monocytogenes. Since the small-scale food production is often very different from industrial production, the knowledg e about risk factors in industrial production is not necessarily relevant. The aim of the proposed project is to reduce risk of L. monocytogenes in cheese from small-scale producers. This will be achieved through a project involving researchers with year- long competence on L. monocytogenes, as well as the small-scale cheese producers and their organisations. The project will focus on contamination, transmission and reducing prevalence of L. monocytogenes in the small-scale cheese production environment. C ritical practices for production of cheese will be identified through surveys and studies risk factors and persistence of L. monocytogenes. Risk preventing measures will be identified and evaluated. The project will provide advices on environmental sampli ng programmes and how to reduce risk for contamination of L. monocytogenes in small-scale cheese production.