Study reveals that partially cooked chicken nuggets are good growth medium for Listeria monocytogenes
Ready-to-eat chicken nuggets could be contaminated by L. monocytogenes. This is what a new study, published in Food 2021, says. The Agricultural University of Athens, the University of Patras in Greece, and the North Carolina State University collaborated to do this research. They inoculated L. monocyotgenes in several chicken nuggets commercially prepared and partially cooked, then they stored the samples at different stock temperatures (from 4 to 16°C). The microbiological analysis was made after 24 hours, 48 hours, and then every 48 hours for 22 days, where the end of commercial shelf life is 10 days. These tests report alarming growth of the pathogen during the first 12 days, after which it reaches a plateau.
The authors concluded that: “According to the findings of this study, fresh chicken nuggets support the proliferation of L. monocytogenes, with the pathogen being capable of reaching potentially hazardous concentration levels in the course of the product’s shelf life, even under well-controlled refrigerated storage conditions.”
This research is another proof that industrial meat products like chicken nuggets, sausages, or hot dogs must be cooked even if the packaging claims that they are “ready to eat”.
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