Listeria innocua Transformed with an Antibiotic Resistance Plasmid as a Thermal-resistance Indicator for Listeria monocytogenes .

Listeria innocua PFEI is a chloramphenicol- and erythromycin-resistant organism obtained by electotransforming L. innocua ATCC 33091 with the plasmid pGK12. L. innocua ATCC 33091 and L. innocua PFEI were more heat resistant between 56 and 66°C than Listeria monocytogenes F5069 and Scott A when evaluated in sterile phosphate buffer or milk. Decimal reduction times of each L. innocua strain were 1.5 to 3 times longer in either heating menstruum than were D-values of the most heat resistant L. monocytogenes strain studied (F5069). L. innocua PFEI retained the plasmid during heating so that, of 300 survivors evaluated, 100% were resistant to chloramphenicol and 98% were resistant to erythromycin. Thus, L. innocua ATCC 33091 or PFEI would be useful indicator organisms to evaluate the lethality of thermal processes with respect to L. monocytogenes . L. innocua PFEI has the advantages that it could easily be selected and enumerated among a large, complex, background microflora, but it may not be appropriate for application in a food processing environment.