Survival of Listeria Monocytogenes in Tomato Juice at 5 and 30°C Storage

Ioannis Diakogiannis^1*, Charalampos Proestos¹, Theodoros Varzakas² and Panagiota Markaki¹

¹Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis Zografou, Athens, Greece, 157 84

²Tei Peloponnese, Dept. of Food Technology, School of Agricultural Technology, Food Technology and Nutrition, Kalamata, Greece, 24100

Corresponding Author Email: gdiako@chem.uoa.gr

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen and has been associated with a variety of food products including fruits and vegetables, which are important for a healthy human diet. L. monocytogenes survives and grows at low temperatures and thus it can be multiplied to dangerous levels in a product which is kept at refrigeration temperatures. This work examines the ability of L. monocytogenes to survive, in a product of high consumption frequency, such as tomato juice, in correlation to storage temperature. The results indicate that a significant number of cells survived in tomato juice whether the storage temperature was 30°C or 5°C, although the refrigerator temperature slightly reduces the survival of L. monocytogenes cells.

An understanding of the cold stress response of the pathogen will be helpful in the design of effective methods to control L. monocytogenes in freezing foods in order to provide consumers with a safe product.

Listeria monocytogenes; Refrigeration; Tomato juice; Vegetables; Food safety.

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