Influence of various environmental parameters and of detection procedures on the recovery of stressed L. monocytogenes: a review

Listeria monocytogenes is well recognized as a serious foodborne pathogen in humans. However, the performance of methods for detection and enumeration may be altered by large amounts of stressed cells within the L. monocytogenes population. Many results have been published which concern factors affecting the recovery of injured L. monocytogenes: they include temperature, atmosphere, pH, and the addition of various components to the media, including sugars, yeast extracts, egg yolk, salt, osmoprotectants, cations, reducing agents and antioxidant enzymes. Current analytical methods for L. monocytogenes have also been compared regarding their ability to recover stressed Listeria. Moreover, research has focused on the development of methods, including an improved resuscitation step. A review of these studies is presented in this paper.