THE REGULATORY AND INDUSTRIAL-RESPONSES TO LISTERIOSIS IN THE USA - APARADIGM FOR DEALING WITH EMERGING FOODBORNE PATHOGENS

The emergence of Listeria monocytogenes as a foodborne pathogen in the USA during the 1980s prompted rapid, but often overlapping and confli cting, responses by the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Depart ment of Agriculture and the food industry. Nonetheless, because of the se responses, there have been no outbreaks of foodborne listeriosis re ported in the USA during the past nine years. This article briefly dis cusses the history and etiology of listeriosis, and examines the natur e of and reasons for the varied regulatory and industrial responses ai med at preventing listeriosis and L. monocytogenes contamination in re ady-to-eat foods. Based on the experience gained from the response to L. monocytogenes, a paradigm for dealing with novel foodborne pathogen s in the future is proposed.