Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets

Listeria monocytogenes is the causative organism of listeriosis, a debilitating and often fatal infection, which occurs mostly via food consumption. However, some foods such as dairy, probably due to their nutritious nature and handling characteristics, are more prone to contamination and thus are r...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Appiah, J.
Formato: Tesis
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: University of Ghana 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21684
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author Appiah, J.
author_browse Appiah, J.
author_facet Appiah, J.
author_sort Appiah, J.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Listeria monocytogenes is the causative organism of listeriosis, a debilitating and often fatal infection, which occurs mostly via food consumption. However, some foods such as dairy, probably due to their nutritious nature and handling characteristics, are more prone to contamination and thus are relatively more culpable. To prevent L. monocytogenes contamination of such products, it is critical to be insightful of listerial contamination routes in food processing environments. This study investigated L. monocytogenes contamination routes along the informal milk value chain from production to consumption. Microbiological methods according to the US/ FDA protocol (Hitchins, 1998) including chromogenic Listeria agar (ISO) OCLA use and biochemical methods including the Gram, Catalase and the Beta- haemolysis were employed to isolate L. monocytogenes from 304 samples of milk/ milk products. Results indicated that prevalence generally increased with repeated handling though it decreased with boiling (p<0.05). Prevalence in samples at production, retail (i.e. raw milk on the market), after boiling and fermentation were 42.1, 78.9, 18.4 and 59.2 percent respectively. Also 14.8, 57.9, 6.6 and 46.1 percent of samples had mean counts ≥100 CFU/ mL at production, at retail, after boiling and fermentation respectively (p<0.05). A Quantitative Risk Assessment indicated a higher exposure and probability of illness when raw milk at retail was consumed and the least when boiled milk was consumed. Crude Sensitivity Analysis also predicted the most effective mitigation strategy for exposure to be boiling. Hence boiling of raw milk was crucial to its safe consumption. However, with contamination at all stages of the value chain, it was important to emphasize on the hygiene regimen along the whole continuum as safety at one stage could very easily be undone by the lack of proper procedures at another.
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spelling CGSpace216842025-11-05T04:06:34Z Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets Appiah, J. dairies animal products health Listeria monocytogenes is the causative organism of listeriosis, a debilitating and often fatal infection, which occurs mostly via food consumption. However, some foods such as dairy, probably due to their nutritious nature and handling characteristics, are more prone to contamination and thus are relatively more culpable. To prevent L. monocytogenes contamination of such products, it is critical to be insightful of listerial contamination routes in food processing environments. This study investigated L. monocytogenes contamination routes along the informal milk value chain from production to consumption. Microbiological methods according to the US/ FDA protocol (Hitchins, 1998) including chromogenic Listeria agar (ISO) OCLA use and biochemical methods including the Gram, Catalase and the Beta- haemolysis were employed to isolate L. monocytogenes from 304 samples of milk/ milk products. Results indicated that prevalence generally increased with repeated handling though it decreased with boiling (p<0.05). Prevalence in samples at production, retail (i.e. raw milk on the market), after boiling and fermentation were 42.1, 78.9, 18.4 and 59.2 percent respectively. Also 14.8, 57.9, 6.6 and 46.1 percent of samples had mean counts ≥100 CFU/ mL at production, at retail, after boiling and fermentation respectively (p<0.05). A Quantitative Risk Assessment indicated a higher exposure and probability of illness when raw milk at retail was consumed and the least when boiled milk was consumed. Crude Sensitivity Analysis also predicted the most effective mitigation strategy for exposure to be boiling. Hence boiling of raw milk was crucial to its safe consumption. However, with contamination at all stages of the value chain, it was important to emphasize on the hygiene regimen along the whole continuum as safety at one stage could very easily be undone by the lack of proper procedures at another. 2012-06 2012-08-24T19:43:20Z 2012-08-24T19:43:20Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21684 en Open Access application/pdf University of Ghana Appiah, J. 2012. Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets. MPhil thesis. Legon, Ghana: University of Ghana. 170 pp.
spellingShingle dairies
animal products
health
Appiah, J.
Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title_full Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title_fullStr Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title_short Assessment of the risk of consuming milk/milk products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
title_sort assessment of the risk of consuming milk milk products contaminated with listeria monocytogenes from the informal markets
topic dairies
animal products
health
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21684
work_keys_str_mv AT appiahj assessmentoftheriskofconsumingmilkmilkproductscontaminatedwithlisteriamonocytogenesfromtheinformalmarkets