Listeria spp. in Street-Vended Ready-to-Eat Foods.

Street-vended ready-to-eat food sold in Egypt, including sandwiches and dishes of traditional food, was examined for the presence ofListeriaspecies. Out of 576 samples, 24% were found to containListeriaspecies.L. monocytogenesandL. innocuawere isolated from 57% and 39% of the contaminated samples, respectively. OtherListeriaspp. were detected with lower frequency.L. monocytogenesof ≥103 CFU/g were detected in 7% of the total examined samples, which represent 49% of the contaminated food samples (meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, and products of plant origin). Most of the samples contaminated byL. monocytogeneshad high levels of total viable bacterial counts. The results obtained may h…