High-Risk Foods for Listeria

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is seeking a Contractor to deliver:

1. an up-to-date, in-depth evidence review of the foods with a known association with L. monocytogenes to reflect the current evidence base, and
2. the development of a prioritised list of these high-risk foods, ranking them based on their risk to vulnerable consumers, based on the most appropriate evidence and legitimate factors identified in the evidence review.

The Contractor must have an ability to review incidents, surveillance and outbreak data in the literature to analyse available evidence on the risk of L. monocytogenes in food products. FSS can provide food sampling data from Scotland from 2015 - 2025, but it is expected that the Contractor will source alternative, relevant published international datasets and literature to supplement this evidence review.

Currently, named food groups of potential risk from L. monocytogenes, developed from previous evidence and reviews from several years ago, are wide-ranging (e.g. pre-cut fruits and vegetables), comprising of several different food products with potentially varying levels of risk. Therefore, a key outcome of this research would be to produce a list of foods that vulnerable consumers should be aware of that are specific food commodities where possible, rather than wide-ranging food groups, based on the evidence provided.

It is expected that the outputs of this work will enable FSS to tailor its consumer messaging on L. monocytogenes to protect those consumers most at risk of food borne illness, as well identify areas which require further work or surveillance. This will ensure that these vulnerable groups have accurate information and are not avoiding foods of lower risk unnecessarily.