NETHERLANDS – Corbion, a leading food ingredients supplier, has upgraded its Listeria control model to increase the accuracy of food safety measures and enhance speed-to-market for new product developments.

Improvements to the newly relaunched CLCM have made the job of identifying the most effective and cost-efficient Listeria control method very simple, says the Dutch company.

It uses pH, water activity (Aw), salt content and other parameters to determine the optimum antimicrobial to achieve the desired level of Listeria control.

Developers of the enhanced Corbion Listeria Control Model (CLCM) leveraged the company’s 20-plus years research of Listeria in foods to make the new system more robust and easier to understand.

“This tool gives our customers a speed-to-market advantage,” says Lonneke van Dijk, director of sustainable food solutions at Corbion.

“And it’s a tool that gets better with time as we incorporate more real-world data and customer-requested improvements. The latest version of CLCM is more powerful and user-friendly.”

The improved CLCM provides customers with a much better user experience, with “improved functionality that delivers even more accurate predictions in products that contain vinegar.”

It also uses additional data from three more years of validation studies and adds greater robustness to the model.

According to Corbion, the new CLCM also has a “friendlier user interface” that allows easy access, even on mobile devices.

Modeling results display clearly named prediction lines, such as “typical prediction” and “conservative prediction,” which better describe the likely outcomes for each set of parameters.

“This valuable tool is the culmination of sound food safety data, industry experience and modeling expertise,” van Dijk continues.

 “The CLCM is a result of our commitment to giving our customers an edge in creating safe and successful products.”

Earlier this month in light of World Food Safety Day, Kerry revealed that over 60 percent of consumers have increased their focus on food safety following the outbreak of COVID-19.

Listeria outbreaks associated with food are particularly common globally affecting consumers even in developed countries where food companies put a lot of emphasis on food safety.

In January 2020, an unusual increase in listeriosis was reported in Switzerland and an investigation identified a cheese maker to be source of the outbreak.

Production at the facility was halted and there was a recall in May 2020 with the last known patient being reported in mid-May.

3 years ago, South Africa was hit by one of the world’s largest Listeria Outbreak that sickened over 1,000 people and resulted in over 200 deaths.

Ninety-three (85%) people reported eating ready-to-eat (RTE) processed meat products, of which polony was the most common followed by viennas/sausages and then other ‘cold meats’.

The outbreak once again brought to the fore the importance of having food systems capable of swiftly handling any food safety incidents.