Fate of Listeria monocytogenes in experimentally contaminated French sausages

However, the high inoculum levels used in the study (104 cfu g−1) are not representative of the natural contamination of L. monocytogenes commonly encountered in the raw material for sausages. If such contamination happened to be inferior to 100 cfu g−1, then the manufacturing process used in this study would be able to produce “safe” sausages according to the European regulation requiring the absence of L. monocytogenes in 25 g of food with a tolerance of below 100 cfu g−1 at the best before date.