CHANGES IN POPULATIONS OF LISTERIA-MONOCYTOGENES INOCULATED ON PACKAGED FRESH-CUT VEGETABLES

A variety of wholesale and retail packaged vegetables and salads were inoculated with a mixture of strains of Listeria monocytogenes and inc ubated at 4 and 10 degrees C. Whole rutabagas, butternut squash, and o nions, as well as packaged Caesar salad, carrots, coleslaw mix, and st ir-fry vegetables were purchased from local supermarkets in the Ottawa area. L. monocytogenes population levels remained constant on all fre sh-cut vegetables stored at 4 degrees C for 9 days, except for carrots and butternut squash: counts of cell numbers declined on carrots and increased on the butternut squash. Fresh-cut vegetables stored at 10 d egrees C, however, supported good growth oft. monocytogenes on all veg etables tested, except for chopped carrots, where the population decre ased approximately 2 log units over a 9-day storage period. As in the situation with the produce stored at 4 degrees C, butternut squash sup ported the highest rate of cell growth. In addition, Caesar salad and coleslaw mix were kept at 25 degrees C for 1 or 2 days before subseque nt storage at 4 or 10 degrees C to simulate extreme temperature-abuse conditions. In Caesar salad stored at 4 degrees C, by day 6 an initial 24- and 48-h temperature abuse at 25 degrees C led to a 1.21- and 2.5 5-log-unit population increase, respectively, over the control. Simila r increases were observed on Caesar salads stored at 10 degrees C. Com pared to Caesar salad, coleslaw mix temperature-abused at 25 degrees C and then stored at 40C supported slightly greater increases in the po pulation of L. monocytogenes, i.e., a 3.22- and 3.83-log-unit increase over the control for the 1- and 2-day abused samples, respectively. C oleslaw mix samples temperature-abused and then stored at 10 degrees C , however, only showed log unit increases of 1.75 and 1.94, respective ly compared to the controls. These results point to the importance of strict temperature control to prevent or reduce the growth of L. monoc ytogenes cells on fresh-cut vegetables.