Author : Bhakti Etza Setiani

Summary : A study was conducted to compare selected methods that detect the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in selected raw and processed meat products. Results indicate that rapid methods (PCR based and VIDAS-LDUO) detected Listeria monocytogenes faster than the conventional method. PCR based method was fastest followed by VIDAS-LDUO while the conventional method was slowest. It was also gathered that the VIDAS-LDUO method was the least sensitive as it occasionally failed to detect Listeria monocytogenes even in spiked samples. API Listeria kit was also used to determine the phenotypic characteristics of isolated Listeria species. Two strains of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from meat products possessed unique characteristics as determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. They were previously undocumented at the Philippine National Collection of Microorganisms (PNCM) and were therefore added to their Listeria monocytogenes strain collection.