The Incidence of Listeria in Processed Meats in South Africa.

Three types of processed meats, vienna sausages, ham, and cervelat, were purchased from 17 supermarkets on three occasions in the Pretoria area (South Africa) during spring 1990. The 134 samples were monitored for Listeria , with total plate counts also being determined. Listeria occurred in 11 (8.2%) of all the samples, with the highest incidence in ham (14.0% of all ham samples). Except for one vienna sausage sample, all the samples containing Listeria had total plate counts of between 105 and 107 organisms per g sample.