Listeria in Seafoods: A Review

Listeria is an environmental contaminant which has been isolated from marine and fresh waters, as well as various seafoods. Furthermore, Listeria , including Listeria monocytogenes , has been isolated from processed seafood products such as smoked fish, cooked and frozen seafoods, marinated fish, surimi products, etc. The pathogen, L. monocytogenes , does have a certain degree of heat resistance. It was found to survive in internally infected shrimp after boiled for up to 5 min. However, the commercial pasteurization process for crab meat was found to be sufficient to inactivate Listeria . The current recovery methodology for L. monocytogenes from seafoods is the Food and Drug Administration Listeria protocol.