Thank you for the question. Listeria monocytogenes is an environmental pathogen. As a result, it can be present in a wide variety of products as an environmental contaminant. The approach that the agency uses in terms of its oversight with respect to listeria includes sampling and testing of a diverse range of products. We have seen over the years listeria-related recalls range in products from fresh-cut fruit, frozen vegetables, to most recently, chocolate milk. That wide diversity of product types highlights the challenge for the agency in terms of its oversight.
The methodology for the detection of the organism, however, is primarily focused in food processing plants on environmental sampling of the plants through swabbing of the food production environment and laboratory testing of those samples to detect that listeria is present in the plant environment, as well as final food product sampling and testing. That methodology is similar between both meat and non-meat products.