This special BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters focuses on Listeria Right Now, an environmental Listeria test offering molecular-level accuracy, with no enrichment and a total time to results of under one hour. This innovative food safety product was introduced at the annual IAFP meeting this year, with many people remarking that it was a “game changer”.

Because of the pervasiveness of Listeria in the environment, the risk that Listeria can be introduced into a food processing facilities can happen at any time. The goal of an environmental monitoring program is to verify the effectiveness of contamination control programs, identify microbial harborage sites, and ensure that corrective actions have eliminated organisms such as Listeria from the plant.

With the intent of helping to control this ubiquitous pathogen in food processing facilities, Neogen has developed a one-hour Listeria test that features the total elimination of the enrichment process. Neogen’s new Listeria Right Now test is fast and flexible enough to be used in a “seek and destroy” mode, as well as to identify vectors and sources of contamination.   

To understand the practical applications of this innovative new pathogen test and the possibilities it brings to food processing and production we spoke with Jim Topper, a senior marketing development manager with Neogen.

In this episode, we speak with Neogen’s Jim Topper about:

• Conventional environmental monitoring methods and how Listeria Right Now has moved the needle.
• FDA’s guidance on Listeria testing that supports “seek and destroy” methods.
• What the Listeria Right Now actually is.
• Obtaining Listeria test results in under one hour and the timeline to results.
• The types of validations performed for the Listeria Right Now system.
• How this product will be used throughout the food industry.
• Whether the product should be used for all Listeria testing.

Resources
For more information, visit the resource page on Neogen’s website for Listeria Right Now
or call Jim Topper at 1-800-234-5333

Sponsored by:

Justyce Jedlicka serves as the Food and Beverage Regulatory Liaison in North America for MilliporeSigma, where she is responsible for engaging with influencers in the food and beverage industry to align initiatives with regulatory compliance and promote best practices for food safety and quality testing methods. Justyce has been serving the food and beverage industry since 2013, and received both a B.S. degree in Chemistry and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Missouri in St. Louis. She currently serves as the Food Sciences Section Chair and Executive Board Member of the American Council of Independent Labs, and is a member of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT), and AOAC International.

Sally Powell Price is MilliporeSigma's Regulatory and Public Health Expert for Food and Beverage Safety Testing in North America. Previously, she served as Director of Lab Operations at a biotech startup in Boston and was the Food Lab Supervisor at the New York City Department of Health Public Health Laboratory. She holds a B.S. degree in Biology from Hamilton College, an M.S. degree in Microbiology and Immunology from James Cook University in Australia, and did continuing coursework in public health and foodborne disease at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She is a member of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), and AOAC International.

Thomas Gremillion, J.D., M.A. is the Director of Food Policy at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). He oversees research, analysis, advocacy, and media outreach for the group's food policy activities, and monitors food safety activities at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and in Congress, where he advocates for strong food safety protections for consumers. He also coordinates the Safe Food Coalition, a group of consumer, trade union, and foodborne illness victim organizations dedicated to reducing foodborne illness by improving government food inspection programs.

Paul Shapiro is the author of the bestselling book, Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World. He is also CEO of The Better Meat Co., a company that uses fermentation to turn microbes into alternative meat. Paul is a five-time TEDx speaker, the host of the Business for Good Podcast, and a long-time leader in food sustainability.

As an authority on food and agriculture sustainability, Paul has been interviewed by numeorous news outlets—ranging from CNN to StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He has also published hundreds of articles in publications like the Washington Post, Scientific American, FORTUNE, and academic journals. In 2023, Paul was named as a Most Admired CEO by the Sacramento Business Journal.

Johanna Velez is Vice President of Quality Assurance for Monin Americas, having joined the brand in 2002. With more than 27 years in the food industry, Johanna has a wealth of experience in leading, directing, and guiding the company’s food safety and quality programs at all Monin North America locations. She successfully led Monin to achieve Safe Quality Foods (SQF) and Organic certifications for both the Clearwater, Florida and Sparks, Nevada facilities, resulting in an "Excellent" rating for the brand’s food safety practices. Prior to Monin, Johanna spent five years at Wild Flavors (now Archer-Daniels-Midland Company) in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), including the Florida IFT Division, as well as the Bay Area Manufacturers Association (BAMA). Johanna graduated from Louisiana State University and later attended Michigan State University to obtain her certification in Food Law and Regulations.

Carolyn Ross, Ph.D., M.Sc. is a Professor in the School of Food Science at Washington State University (WSU), Affiliate Professor in the WSU School of Medicine, and Director of the WSU Sensory Science Center. Since starting at WSU in 2004, Dr. Ross has established her lab and the WSU Sensory Science Center as a hub for graduate student training in the areas of sensory science and analytical chemistry. Specifically, the overall objectives of Dr. Ross's research and graduate education program are to understand the theoretical basis underpinning the sensory perception of foods and wines and correlate these attributes with quantifiable characteristics. Dr. Ross has also expanded her research to explore food texture perception in children. She has thrice been awarded the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT's) Tanner Award for most‐cited article in the Journal of Food Science (in the Sensory and Food Quality section). Dr. Ross was also awarded the WSU Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction and is a Fulbright-Australia Scholar at Deakin University in Melbourne. She holds a Ph.D. in Food Science/Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University and an M.Sc. degree in Food Science from the University of Guelph.

Lone Jespersen, Ph.D. is a published author, speaker, and the Principal and Founder of Cultivate SA, a Swiss-based organization dedicated to eradicating foodborne illness, one culture at a time. Dr. Jespersen has worked to strengthen food safety through organizational culture improvements for 20 years, since starting at Maple Leaf Foods in 2004. She chaired the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) technical working group "A Culture of Food Safety," chaired the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) professional development group "Food Safety Culture," and was the technical author on the BSI PAS320 Practical Guide to Food Safety Culture. Dr. Jespersen holds a Ph.D. in Culture Enabled Food Safety from the University of Guelph in Canada and a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Syd Dansk University in Denmark. She is also a visiting Professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. Dr. Jespersen serves as Chair of the IFPTI Board and as Director on the STOP Foodborne Illness Board. She is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine and a member of the Educational Advisory Board of the Food Safety Summit.