Vacuum-Packed Steak Tartare: Prevalence of and Evaluation of Efficacy of Listex P100.

Steak tartare is a raw, ready-to-eat meal popular in European countries, the safety of which is often discussed due to the risk of foodborne illness. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of in vacuum-packed steak tartare from retailers in the Czech Republic, characterize the strains obtained by typing methods and to evaluate the efficacy of Listex P100 against artificially inoculated into steak tartare samples. The prevalence of was 55% and 17 isolates belonging mostly to serotype 1/2a were obtained. Altogether 11 sequence types and 11 clonal complexes were assigned based on the whole genome sequencing (WGS) signifying the high diversity of isolates obtained. Core genome multi-locus sequence typing (cgMLST) did not confirm an epidemiological connection with human cases of listeriosis. The efficacy of Listex P100 treatment at concentrations of 10 and 10 PFU/g on artificially inoculated beef steak tartare samples was not efficient. Based on the results of this study, steak tartare from retailers can be considered as a source of that remains a challenge to the food industry.