PhageGuard Listex — Innovative Listeria Treatment

So what is it about listeria that causes so many problems compared to other food poisoning bacteria? The worrying fact is that listeria is a hardy cold-loving microorganism that can multiply rapidly at refrigerated temperatures in most foods.

With a growing market for ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and the relentless push to extend shelf life, any relaxation in hygiene control can increase the risk. In other words, a single listeria cell can easily multiply and reach the infective dose levels to cause listeriosis when ingesting food contaminated with listeria. This can occur within a few days.

For a food manufacturer, if the food product has a detection and is on hold and destroyed before it’s released it’s a minor loss. If not, it becomes a major problem and there is a possibility of a recall. That’s what you don’t want.

So how can the risk of listeria cross contamination be prevented?

The most effective way to prevent listeria contamination is to control it, by providing all employees with proper training on contamination prevention, cleaning, and sanitizing procedures.

Listeria often thrives on dirty floors, drains, cleaning and washing areas, food contact equipment, walls, ceilings, compressed air and HVAC systems, permeable surfaces, open seams, cracks, crevices, and hard-to-reach or hard-to-clean parts of equipment. Even with the best cleaning and sanitation program in place — listeria can still survive. That’s why you also need a robust and regular environmental listeria monitoring program to identify potential hotspots. This targeting allows extra controls to be added and make sure listeria does not cross contaminate other cleaned areas.

Is there another way; a safer solution that you can just add to the product that targets and destroys listeria?

Phageguard Listex

FMCG Industry Solution have partnered with Micreos, a Dutch-based company in the field of targeted antibacterial technology to offer PhageGuard Listex. It is a culture of bacteriophages (or phages for short) that effectively eliminates Listeria monocytogenes.

Found naturally in the environment, phages offers its own best solutions, as exemplified by the ability of phages to eliminate many pathogenic bacteria. PhagegGuard Listex goes further as it targets and destroys Listeria monocytogenes.

Current food safety solutions that are being used include chemically based preservatives, which are added to the product to inhibit listeria. According to Dirk de Meester, Director of Business Development at Micreos: “Better than suppressing the bacteria, phages targets and kills listeria cells.”

PhageGuard is different in that it can be applied in the environment and even food products, without affecting taste, odour or texture. It’s also safe and has been approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) as a processing aid.

Why use PhageGuard Listex?

Even with the best manufacturing practices in place, gaps in hygiene control can still occur as listeria is commonly found in the environment — especially drains.

There is a likely risk listeria may cross contaminate and end up in the products, particularly for RTE foods.

PhageGuard Listex offers that extra insurance; that peace of mind knowing that even with the best hygiene controls and practices in place, low-level listeria cross contaminations are eliminated during and after the food is packed. Imagine a vaccine-like treatment for your food product against listeria!

It can also eliminate listeria in the environment such as direct food contact surfaces and even floors and drains.

How is it applied?

PhageGuard Listex is applied onto the food via spraying, misting or in a bath solution such as brine which can be easily incorporated into the food producer’s production process.

For the environment it can be sprayed directly onto food contact surfaces or in the processing environment. It’s that simple.

For more information, visit https://www.fmcgis.com.au/product-category/hygiene-control/phageguard/. Alternatively, contact us on (02) 9540 2288 or info@fmcgis.com.au.