Listeria was everywhere this year, and the USDA is finally cracking down.
Your imagination isnt playing tricks on you.
The saving grace in all of this?
Photo:Eating Well/Getty Images
The USDA is enhancing its testing efforts to catchListeriabefore, they hope, it reaches our refrigerators.
While it might be worrying to see more food being recalled, its a practice thats rooted in prevention.
What Prompted These Changes?
New Testing Guidelines: Whats Changing?
In January 2025, the FSIS will establish a more rigorous approach toListeriatesting.
Theyll be checking everything from new construction to damaged equipment and even cracked floors that could harbor bacteria.
Yes, theyre, quite literally, looking into every crack and crevice to make food even safer.
The focus on ready-to-eat products isnt random.
The Boars Head recall highlighted this vulnerability.
The contamination affected everything from liverwurst tohamand kielbasa, products many of us eat without heating.
Its all in the name of prevention.
U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service.FSIS announces stronger measures to protect the public fromListeria monocytogenes.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Listeriaoutbreak linked to meats sliced at delis.
U.S. Food & Drug Administration.Listeria(Listeriosis).
U.S. Food & Drug Administration.Listeria(food safety for moms to be).
