ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1681344
Prevalence and characteristics of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat Chilled 1 pot skewer products
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Beijing CDC), Beijing, China
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Listeria monocytogenes contamination in ready-to-eat chilled pot skewer products 12 represent a significant public health concern in China. This study assessed the 13 prevalence, molecular characteristics, and potential transmission risks of L. 14 monocytogenes in 340 commercially available chilled pot skewer samples collected in 15 2019 and 2021. Bacterial isolation revealed an overall contamination rate of 20.6% 16 (70/340), with no significant differences among meat-based (15.5%), vegetarian 17 (19.5%), or mixed meat-vegetable (26.5%) products. Serogroups 1/2b, 3b, 7 (47.4%) 18 and 1/2a, 3 (35.5%) predominated. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) identified 19 high-risk clones ST87 (27.6%) and ST121 (22.4%)—both associated with listeriosis 20 outbreaks—along with rare lineages such as ST378 (1.3%). Core genome MLST 21 (cgMLST) analysis of 76 isolates revealed extensive genetic diversity (59 cgMLST 22 types), suggesting multiple contamination sources within production facilities. 23 However, persistence of specific strains (≤2 allelic differences) across time points 24 (2019–2021) was observed in certain manufacturers. Comparative genomics with 25 clinical isolates from Beijing (2013–2022) revealed shared sequence types (e.g., 26 ST87/CC87). These findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced surveillance in 27 food processing environments. Future investigations should adopt a One Health 28 framework to trace contamination routes and evaluate intervention control measures 29 for this emerging food safety challenge.
Keywords: foodborne, Listeria monocytogenes, Whole-genome sequencing, Monitoring, Ready-To-Eat (RTE)
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhang, Wang, Wang, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoai Zhang, zhangxiaoai_0922@163.com
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