Risk assessment used to evaluate the US position on Listeria monocytogenes in seafood.

Human listeriosis has been associated with consumption of food including seafood. Surveillance information on the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in seafood products is presented as a background for steps that are being taken to inform risk managers of risks associated with particular food products. United States policy for L.

Use of microbial data for hazard analysis and critical control point verification--Food and Drug Administration perspective.

This paper examines the role that the microbiologist and microbiological testing play in implementing hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) programs. HACCP offers a more comprehensive and science-based alternative for controlling food safety hazards compared with traditional sanitation programs based upon good manufacturing practices. Controlling hazards under an HACCP program requires a systematic assemblage of reliable data relating to the occurrence, elimination, prevention, and reduction of hazards.

Outbreaks of listeriosis/Listeria-contaminated foods.

Outbreaks of food-borne listeriosis in recent years have caused governmental regulatory and health agencies and the food industry to focus on the problem of food contamination by Listeria monocytogenes. A review is presented of the association of L. monocytogenes with human illness and its occurrence in foods and the environment.

Estimates of incidence and costs of intestinal infectious diseases in the United States.

The incidence of acute episodes of intestinal infectious diseases in the United States was estimated through analysis of community-based studies and national interview surveys. Their differing results were reconciled by adjusting the study population age distributions in the community-based studies, by excluding those cases that also showed respiratory symptoms, and by accounting for structural differences in the surveys. The reconciliation process provided an estimate of 99 million acute cases of either vomiting or diarrhea, or both, each year in this country, half of which involved more than a full day of restricted activity.