Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. in Different Ready to Eat Foods from Large Retailers and Canteens over a 2-Year Period in Northern Italy

This study aims to give an overview of the prevalence of and spp. in 9727 samples (2996 for and 6731 for spp.) from different categories of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods, collected over 2 years from 28 large retailers and 148 canteens in the regions of northern Italy. The RTE samples were classified into two groups according to the preparation methods: ( ) multi-ingredient preparations consisting of fully cooked food ready for immediate consumption, or with minimal further handling before consumption (Group A), and ( ) multi-ingredient preparations consisting of cooked and uncooked food, or preparations consisting of only raw ingredients (Group B). and spp. were investigated in both of these categories. The overall prevalence of and spp. was 0.13% and 0.07%, respectively. More specifically, was found in 0.04% of 2442 analysed RTE food samples belonging to group A and in 0.54% of 554 samples belonging to group B. Furthermore, 0.03% of 5367 RTE food samples from group A and 0.21% of 1364 samples from group B tested positive for spp. In conclusion, the results obtained in this study can provide a significant contribution to and spp. risk analysis in RTE foods.